Dendera

Entrance to the Dendera Temple Complex, photographed 23rd December 2003

Dendera (also spelled Denderah/Dandarah), is a little town in Egypt on the west bank of the Nile. Located about 5 km up Nile from Qina, on the opposite side of the Nile. Once the capital of the 6th Nome of Upper Egypt, though never that important.

Located rather isolated on the desert edge, about 2.5 km south-west of the Town, lay what Dendera is known for, the mostly Greco-Roman Temple Complex, Dendera, known in ancient Egyptian as Iunet or Tantere.

The modern town is built on the ancient site of Ta-ynt-netert which means 'She of the Divine Pillar', or Tentyra which is Greek for Dendera. It was the capital of the sixth nome or province of pharaonic Upper Egypt. The site was dedicated to the sky and fertility goddess Hathor. The present building dates back to the times of the Ptolemaic dynasty and was completed by the Roman emperor Tiberius, but it rests on the foundations of earlier buildings dating back at least as far as Khufu (second king of the 4th dynasty [c. 2613–c. 2494 BC]).

The Temple Complex

Main article: Dendera Temple complex

The Dendera Temple complex which contains the Temple of Hathor is one of the best, if not the best, preserved temple in all Egypt. The whole complex covers some 40,000 square meters and is surrounded by a hefty mud brick enclosed wall.

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