Decrypting the Temple of Edfu and the Edfu Texts:

Edfu city is located between Luxor and Aswan in the southern area of Egypt. The city, which is situated on the west bank of the , is world famous for its temple, which was built during the Ptolemaic period. The , dedicated to the god , is the second largest temple in Egypt. After the Roman period, the temple was gradually buried by desert sand, and silt from the Nile. As a result, the temple was forgotten, and was only rediscovered during the 19 ^th century. Apart from its size and state of preservation, the Temple of Edfu is also notable for its large number of inscriptions, collectively known as the Edfu Texts, which seem to cover every available surface.

Temple of Edfu In the Old, Middle and New Kingdom Periods

The city of Edfu is known also by several other names. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, knew the city as Behdet, while the Greeks and Romans called it Apollonopolis. This latter name was a reference to the city’s chief god, Horus, whom the Greeks identified with their own god . Although Edfu is most famous for its , the city’s history stretches much further back in time.

For instance, archaeological excavations in the western and northern parts of the town have uncovered material from the earlier periods of the town’s occupation. These include  from the , and burials dating to the . It has also been discovered that during the  quarries were created on Mount Silsilah (to the south of Edfu city). Sandstone was procured from these quarries and transported all over Egypt for construction works.  

During the New Kingdom, a temple to Horus was built at Edfu. This temple was smaller than the current structure, and longer exists. The only element that remains of this New Kingdom temple is its pylon (a Greek term for the monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple), which is located to the east of the new temple, and faces the landing stage on the Nile. This is due to the fact that the Ptolemies built a new temple on the site of the older one.

Bloody wars

After Alexander’s sudden death, the region underwent a period of turbulence. His Macedonian empire stretched over 4,000 kilometres, from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. There being no capable successor, Alexander’s former generals were appointed as governors of different parts of the empire, but all too soon they were waging bloody wars to annex parts of one another’s territory. In 322 BC, ex-general Ptolemy (full name: Ptolemy I Soter) gained authority over Eqypt, and in 305 BC he proclaimed himself king.  After his death in 283 BC, he was succeeded by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

Renewal was everywhere

Van den Hoven indicates that renewal was happening throughout society.  This process was influenced by the many Greek people who left for Alexandria, the new capital of Egypt on the north coast, to engage in trade or who settled elsewhere. The economy was flourishing. In agriculture, new crops were grown, such as different grains, and the waterwheel was introduced to irrigate fields. And it was under Ptolemy that coins were first used as a means of payment, which went some way to ending the barter system. In this climate of renewal, it is likely that there were also innovations in the local temples.

Ritual texts modernised

‘The temples seem very traditional, as if nothing has changed since the time of the pharoahs,’ says Van den Hoven, ‘but if you take a closer look, you will see innovations in their architecture and decoration. More than 2,000 new hieroglyphs were added in the Ptolemaic period. The ritual temple texts also underwent a change, and new ones were added.  Older, more traditional texts were re-used to replace some of these new compositions. The claim that Ancient Egyptian culture  was in decline in this period, is therefore misplaced.

Coronation of a living falcon

Van den Hoven examined the temples of Edfu and Dendera. These temples date from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras and have been well preserved. Using the inscriptions and decorations. Van den Hoven reconstructed the new ritual of the Coronation of the Living Holy Falcon. An annual ceremony that took place on the site of the temple.

She discovered where exactly specific rituals were performed by examining the texts and the scenes depicted on the temple walls. ‘In 1954, French Egyptologist Maurice Alliot described a number of rituals from the temple at Edfu. He concluded that the scenes on the temple walls should be read from the outside inwards. And from the bottom upwards. However, my research indicates that the sequence of the scenes on the temple walls says nothing about the actual performance of the rituals, so I ignored the sequence and arrived at different findings, which led to a completely new construction of the ritual.’ 

No renewal without traditions

Van den Hoven: ‘The importance of traditions is often explained as  a reaction to the marginalisation of the native Eqyptian priests in the Ptolemaic period. The priests are thought to have tried to maintain the traditions in order to preserve their cultural identity and to compensate for their loss of status. That’s not my impression at all. What I found is that it was not so much a matter of maintaining their own cultural identity but rather a redefinition of Egyptian cultural identity based on tradition. This was very important for the acceptance of the changes and innovations that were taking place. It’s easier to accept changes if they are anchored in tradition.’ 

It is reported that that until the 1970s, only between 10% and 15% of the texts had been translated. In addition, the quality of these translations was not consistent. Therefore, in 1986, Dieter Kurth, a professor of Egyptology at the University of Hamburg initiated the Edfu Project. The Edfu Project is a “long-term project that is devoted to a complete translation of the Edfu inscriptions that meets the requirement of both linguistics and literary studies.”

Today, the Temple of Edfu is a popular tourist attraction. In addition, the government of Egypt, since 2003, has been seeking international recognition for the cultural and historical significance of the temple. Along with the , the Temple of Esna, and the , the Temple of Edfu has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The four temples are grouped together as the ‘Pharaonic Temples in Upper Egypt from the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods.’