Behbeit el-Hagar, a village just a few kilometres to the north of
Samannud (Sebennytos) in the central Delta, marks the site of an
important, though now destroyed temple, thought to have been known to
the Greeks as The Iseum. The temple was probably linked to the town
and temple of Sebennytos, home of the Dynasty XXX kings towards the
end of the Late Period, as well as to the nearby Nome capital of
Busiris.
The modern village derives its name from the ancient ‘Per-Hebit’,
meaning ‘The domain of the Festive Goddess’ and the temple, ‘Hebit’,
seems to refer to a festival pavillion dedicated to the goddess Isis
and the funerary rites with which she was associated. The site covers
an area of about 7.6 hectares and is surrounded by cultivation on all
sides. Ruins of a massive mudbrick enclosure wall constructed around
the perimeter of the temple can still be seen on the northern and
southern sides, but inside the enclosure only a tumbled mass of
granite blocks lying on the surface remain to define the position of
the temple, an area measuring around 80m by 55m. The great attraction
to visitors of the site today is in the very finely carved reliefs on
the broken granite blocks, much more delicate in style than the
Ptolemaic reliefs in temples of Upper Egypt.
Little is known of the early history of the site, though textural
evidence suggests that there may have been a structure here from the
late Saite Period. The names of the builders of the early Ptolemaic
temple recovered from extant blocks, begin with Nectanebo II
Senedjemibre of Dynasty XXX. Although his name does not appear on
inscriptions from the temple, Nectanebo I Kheperkare is named in an
inscription on a statue of Harsiesis (Vizier of Nectanebo II), which
mentions work carried out on a waterway close to the site by the
earlier ruler.
Nectanebo II seems to have built a ‘Chapel of Osiris-Hemag’ on the
northern edge of the later structure. This aspect of the god Osiris,
crowned with the Atef plumes, was also associated with Nectanebo I,
who was given the epithet ‘Beloved of Osiris-Hemag’ on the Harsiesis
statue. Nectanebo II was probably also responsible for the
construction of a dromos, lined with sphinxes, in the centre of the
later main entrance.
The main part of the temple was either constructed or at least
decorated by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, whose names appear in
inscriptions on blocks from the façade of a Sanctuary of Isis.
On the façade the King is depicted being introduced to various
gods by Isis who is named as ‘Isis the Great, the Divine Mother’ next
to the King’s own cartouches and a huge lintel decorated with a winged
disc described the dedication of the façade. There is evidence
of a columned hall behind the Isis façade, but the remains of
red granite columns were scattered over the site and many were later
re-used. The Isis sanctuary was the largest element of the temple and
the goddess is portrayed on blocks, together with her son Horus, in
many aspects of kingship. The Sanctuary was surrounded by chapels on
the northern, eastern and southern sides, while the roof appears to
have contained more chapels associated with the rejuvenation and
worship of aspects of Osiris.
Ptolemy III Euergetes I probably constructed the main entrance to the
temple and a dedicatory inscription containing cartouches of the ruler
and his wife and sister Queen Berenice II can be seen on blocks of the
northern wing which has toppled backwards. The entrance façade
seems to have been dedicated to Osiris-Andjety by the King and to Isis
by the Queen.
It is not clear when the temple collapsed. Its destruction may have
been due to an earthquake in ancient times or some other cause, and
much of the stone was subsequently quarried away. One of the blocks
was re-used in an important Temple of Isis and Serapis founded in Rome
during the 1st century AD which establishes a latest date for an
extant monument at Behbeit el-Hagar.
No methodical excavation has yet been undertaken at Behbeit. It was
visited and described by early travellers in the 18th century and some
of the inscriptions copied during the 19th century and by Montet,
Naville and others in the mid-20th century. In 1991, French
Egyptologist Christine Favard-Meeks, published a proposed
reconstruction and plan of the site based on inscriptions of the
surface blocks. |
