The whole complex covers some 40,000 square meters and is surrounded by a hefty mudbrick enclosed wall. Dendera was inhabited in prehistory, a useful oasis on the banks of the Nile. It seems that pharaohPepi I built on this site and evidence exists of a temple in the Eighteenth Dynasty. The earliest extant building in the compound today is the Mammisi raised by Nectanebo II – last of the native pharaohs. The features in the complex include:
The dominant building in the complex is the Temple of Hathor. The temple has been modified on the same site starting as far back as the Middle Kingdom, and continuing right up until the time of the Roman emperor Trajan. The existing structure began construction in the late Ptolemaic period at the time of Ptolemy Auletes in July 54 BCE. and the hypostyle hall was built in the Roman period under Tiberius. In Egypt, Trajan was quite active in constructing buildings and decorating them. He appears, together with Domitian, in offering scenes on the propylon of the Temple of Hathor. His cartouche also appears in the column shafts of the Temple of Khnum at Esna. Layout elements of the temple are:
The sculptured Dendera zodiac is a widely known relief found in a late Greco-Roman temple, containing images of Taurus and the Libra. A sketch was made of it during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt. In 1820 it was removed from the temple ceiling by French colonizers and replaced with a fake. There is controversy as to whether they were granted permission by Egypt's ruler, Muhammad Ali Pasha, to do so, or whether they stole it. The real one is now in the Louvre. Champollion's guess that it was Ptolemaic proved to be correct, and Egyptologists now date it to the first century BC.
Crypts
The subterranean Hathor temple tombs total 12 chambers. Some reliefs are dated to as late as the reign of Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos. The crypts reportedly were used for storing vessels and divine iconography. An opening in the "Flame Room" floor leads to a narrow chamber with representations on the walls of the objects which were kept in them. In the second chamber, a relief depicts Pepi I offering a statuette of the god Ihy to four images of Hathor. In the crypt, reached from the "throne room", Ptolemy XII has jewelry and offerings for the gods.
Hathor Temple has a relief sometimes known as the Dendera light because of a controversial fringe thesis about its nature. The Dendera light images comprise five stone reliefs in the Hathor temple at the Dendera Temple complex located in Egypt. The view of Egyptologists is that the relief is a mythological depiction of a djed pillar and a lotus flower, spawning a snake within, representing aspects of Egyptian mythology. In contrast to this interpretation, there is a fringe science suggestion that it is actually a representation of an Ancient Egyptian lightbulb.
Ceiling cleaning
The ceiling of the Hathor Temple was cleaned in a careful way that removed hundreds of years of black soot without harming the ancient paint underneath. Spectacular ceiling painting was exposed in the main hall, and some of the most vibrant and colourful paintings dating from antiquity are now visible.
Roman Mammisi
The Roman Mammisi id a subsidiary building dating to the reigns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. Numerous reliefs of Trajan making offerings to Egyptian deities can be seen.
Tourism
The Dendera complex has long been one of the most tourist-accessible ancient Egyptian places of worship. It used to be possible to visit virtually every part of the complex, from the crypts to the roof. However, the highest part of the roof of Hathor temple has been closed since 2003. The second stage of the roof was closed inNovember 2004, after a tourist got too close to the edge and fell to her death on the bedrock below.
