Holy Land Digital Image Collections

Good, Frank Mason

Philæ : Near View of the Hypæthral Temple, commonly called Pharaoh's Bed [Graphic]

Unidentified.

1 photocopy : b&w ; 20.8 x 15.5 cm ( 8.125 x 6 in).

Photocopy with a title, description, and series number (1092); "21" is handwritten in the upper corner; printed description : "These most beautiful scenes of desolation and ruin show the Temple of Isis in all the irregularity of its various parts. It was begun by Ptolemy Philadelphus about B.C. 280; the same king who ordered the Jewish Scriptures to be translated into Greek, and thus laid the foundation of the Septuagint version. Additions were made under the succeeding Ptolemies, and even under the emperors, so late as Trajan's reign; so that the architecture extends over near 400 years. The sculptures and the colouring are of special interest. [new paragraph] The plan of the temple consists of (A) a first propylon or gateway, with figures of Isis and the elder Horus ; this leads to the outer court (Vide Nos. 1085, 1086). (b) A second propylon, leading to the great court seen in No. 1090, the colonnade of which stands in admirable light and shade in No. 1089. (C) Beyond this followed the Adytum, or Sanctuary. The peripteral temple seen in the rear through the columns to the right hand in No. 1085, is the chapel of Horis the younger, the son of Osiris and Isis, who completed the Triad of Gods worshshipped at Philæ. It is seen more distinctly behind the palm tree in No. 1093 overhanging the river, or from the opposite side of No. 1092. Modern travelers call it Pharaoh's Bed. No. 1091 presents us with a general view of the two propyla, as seen from the south. Close in front of the first, or southernmost, stands the low Chapel of Æsculapius, and to the right of the picture that of Athor, the Venus of Egyptian worship. In No. 1088 the same Chapel of Athor is seen through the gateway of the Chapel of Æsculapius."

View of Pharaoh's Bed and the western visitors to the site

1

Hypæthral Temple

Pharaoh's Bed

R352GOO/RD84

CAJS Image Collection RD GOO R352 RD84

The Lenkin Family Collection of Photography, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Egypt

Philæ (Egypt)