An Egyptian Temple in Madrid

Figure 1 - the Temple of Debod in Madrid

     Its now time to leave the Egyptian collection in Barcelona behind and take a look at the Debod temple in Madrid.

     This temple, originally built in the second century B. C., would have been permanently flooded by the Aswan dam if it had been left in its original location (about 15 kilometers south of Aswan), and so, like the Temple of Dendur in New York, it was donated to a foreign country in return for that country's help with the salvage archaeology that preceded the building of the dam.

     Debod temple seems to have had two pylons in front of it, the stone doorways of which can be seen in figure two. These pylons seem to have been re-erected in Madrid in the wrong order. Photos of the original site seem to show the pylon that is now further away from the main temple building as originally closer to the temple.

Figure 2 - the stone pylon gates in front of the temple

     The temple's construction was started by a Nubian Pharaoh as a simple shrine to Amun. Later, during the Ptolemaic period, it was expanded into a full temple. The final decoration of the temple was completed by the Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberius.

     The Debod temple has been re-erected in a small park near the royal palace (Palacio Real).



Photos Copyright (c) 2014 by John Freed

Figure 3 - the capital of one of the columns in the temple of Debod