Philae Temple of Isis: Last Temple of Ancient Egyptian Religion

The Temple of Isis at Philae was a sanctuary of the goddess Isis on an island in the Nile near Aswan, in southern Egypt. Built mainly from about 380 BC under the last native pharaohs, the Ptolemies and the Romans, it was the final stronghold of ancient Egyptian religion, where the last known hieroglyphs were carved in AD 394. In the 1970s the entire complex was moved to a nearby island to save it from the waters of the Aswan dams.

An island at Egypt’s frontier

Philae lay just above the First Cataract, a stretch of rapids that marked the traditional southern border of Egypt. Beyond it lay Nubia, home to the Kingdom of Kush and later to other peoples. The island’s position made it a meeting place between Egyptians and Nubians.

Isis, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, was one of the most popular deities of ancient Egypt. Egyptians believed that the body of Osiris rested on the neighbouring island of Bigeh, in a sacred place called the Abaton. Philae, facing it, became the centre of the cult of Isis in the south.

Some blocks found on the island date to the 25th and 26th dynasties, in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. However, the oldest building still standing is a small kiosk, or vestibule, built by Nectanebo I (380-362 BC) of the 30th dynasty, the last native Egyptian dynasty.

Building the temple

Most of the main temple of Isis was built under the Ptolemies, the Macedonian Greek kings who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great. Work began under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC) and continued under later rulers. The first pylon, a great gateway, shows Ptolemy XII smiting enemies in the traditional style of a pharaoh.

Around the main temple stood a birth house (mammisi), celebrating the birth of Horus, a temple of Hathor and smaller shrines. Long colonnades lined the approach from the southern landing stage.

The Romans continued to build. The elegant open pavilion called Trajan’s Kiosk, with 14 columns, was built and partly decorated under Emperor Trajan (AD 98-117), and Hadrian added a gateway. Roman emperors were shown on the walls as pharaohs making offerings to Isis.

A place of pilgrimage

Philae drew pilgrims from all over Egypt and beyond. Visitors left hundreds of inscriptions and graffiti in hieroglyphs, demotic, Greek, Meroitic and later Coptic. The worship of Isis spread around the Mediterranean in the Roman period, but Philae remained one of her most famous sanctuaries.

The peoples of Nubia, especially the Blemmyes and Nobades, had a special right to worship at Philae. In AD 298 Emperor Diocletian withdrew the Roman frontier to the First Cataract and agreed that these peoples could visit the island and borrow the statue of Isis for festivals. This arrangement helped the cult survive after Christianity became dominant in Egypt.

The last hieroglyphs

Philae holds the last known inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Carved by a priest named Esmet-Akhom beside a figure of the god Mandulis, it is dated to 24 August AD 394, the birthday of Osiris. By then very few people could still read or write the script.

The last known inscription in demotic, the everyday Egyptian script, was also carved at Philae, dated to AD 452. After that, knowledge of the ancient writing systems died out, until scholars such as Champollion deciphered them in the 1820s with the help of the Rosetta Stone.

An obelisk from Philae, taken to England by William John Bankes and set up at Kingston Lacy in Dorset, also helped. Its Greek and hieroglyphic inscriptions both name Ptolemy and Cleopatra, which allowed Champollion to confirm the hieroglyphic spelling of these names.

Closure and conversion

Philae remained open long after Emperor Theodosius I’s laws of the 390s banned pagan sacrifice and other temples had closed. According to the Byzantine historian Procopius, it was finally closed on the orders of Justinian I, who sent the general Narses to destroy the sanctuaries, imprison the priests and send the statues to Constantinople. This is usually dated to about AD 535-537.

Recent scholars, such as Jitse Dijkstra, have suggested that active worship may already have declined by then and that the closure was partly a symbolic act. Afterwards, part of the temple was converted into a church dedicated to St Stephen, and Christians chiselled away or covered many of the carved figures of gods. Soon after, Nubia itself turned to Christianity, as told in Christianisation of Nubia.

Flooding and rescue

For centuries Philae was a favourite of travellers and artists. This changed after the British built the first Aswan Dam, completed in 1902 and raised in 1912 and 1933. The island was submerged for much of each year, and visitors rowed among the tops of the columns.

The Aswan High Dam, built from 1960 to 1970, threatened worse. The temples would have stood permanently in the fluctuating water between the two dams, which would have slowly destroyed them. As part of UNESCO’s international campaign to save the monuments of Nubia, Philae was rescued.

Between 1972 and 1980 engineers built a cofferdam around the island and pumped out the water. The temples were cut into about 40,000 blocks, recorded and rebuilt on Agilkia island, about 500 metres away, which had been reshaped to resemble Philae. In 1979, while work was still under way, Philae was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of the “Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae”. The rebuilt temples were opened in March 1980.

Key people

• Nectanebo I: Pharaoh of the 30th dynasty (380-362 BC), whose kiosk is the oldest standing building on the island.
• Ptolemy II Philadelphus: Macedonian king of Egypt (285-246 BC), under whom the main Temple of Isis was begun.
• Trajan: Roman emperor (AD 98-117), associated with the kiosk that bears his name.
• Esmet-Akhom: A priest of Philae who carved the last known hieroglyphic inscription in AD 394.
• Justinian I and Narses: The Byzantine emperor who ordered the closure of the temple, and the general who carried it out.

Myths and facts

A common belief is that Philae’s worship ended suddenly with Justinian’s soldiers. In fact the evidence suggests a gradual fading: the number of priests and inscriptions declined over the 5th century, and by the 530s only a small community may have remained. Another myth is that the temples were lost to the High Dam. They were saved, although the original island of Philae is now under water.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 380-362 BC: Nectanebo I builds a kiosk on Philae.
• 285-246 BC: Main construction of the Temple of Isis begins under Ptolemy II.
• AD 98-117: Trajan’s Kiosk is decorated under Emperor Trajan.
• AD 298: Diocletian sets the frontier at the First Cataract and allows Nubian worship at Philae.
• AD 394, 24 August: The last known hieroglyphic inscription is carved.
• AD 452: The last known demotic inscription is carved.
• c. AD 535-537: Justinian orders the closure of the temple.
• 1902: The first Aswan Dam begins flooding the island for part of the year.
• 1972-1980: The temples are moved to Agilkia island.

Why it matters

Philae marks the end of a religious tradition that had lasted more than 3,000 years. Its walls hold the last words written in hieroglyphs and record the slow passage from Egyptian religion to Christianity. Its rescue in the 1970s was also a landmark in international heritage protection, showing that whole monuments could be saved from destruction.