378 NOETH-EAST AFRICA. 



every crypt, and every step just as they left it 1,600 years ago. Without replac- 

 ing a single stone, the votaries of the divinity might march in solemn procession 

 and in the prescribed route throughout the sacred precincts which have so long 

 been desecrated ; and should they have forgotten, during their long sleep, the 

 purpose and use of each chamber, the inscriptions, marvellously well-preserved, 

 would inform all who could read the hieroglyphics of the object to which each 

 hall and cabinet was devoted. As regards preservation, Edfu is superior even to 

 Denderah, for there the outer portions of the temple have disappeared, all but one 

 propylon, and here no part has suffered any considerable injury. 



'* The sanctuary of Edfu was dedicated to the great god Horus, who overthrew 

 the evil principle Seth, or Typhon, for his father's sake ; and the town to which it 

 belonged was therefore called by the ancient Egyptians Hut, after the winged sun- 

 disc, or the city of the throne of Horus, or the city of the raising of Horus (to the 

 throne of his father Osiris), or sometimes the city of the piercing [tehu*^ of 

 Typhon, in the form of a river-horse. The Greeks compared Horus to their 

 Apollo, the god of light or the sun, and called the city of Horus ApoUinopolis. 



" The sanctuary seems to have been founded at a very early date. Indeed Ptah, 

 the oldest of the gods, is said to have built it for Ra. Kings of the twelfth 

 dynasty, as well as Thothmes III,, took part in the services carried on in it. The 

 venerable structure was still intact at the time of the Persian dominion ; but under 

 the first Ptolemies it had become necessary to erect a new temple on the old site. 



" Euergetes I., the third of the Lagide kings, began the building in accordance 

 with the plans of the best Egyptian architects. It is a mighty structure, which 

 was not finished till one hundred and eighty years later under Ptolemy Dionysius, 

 <jr Auletes, the father of Cleopatra, in the year 57 b.c. Huge pylons stood at the 

 entrance facing those worshippers who approached the sanctuary, decorated with 

 the likeness of the Pharaoh as victor over his enemies. The visitor entering the 

 bronze portals found himself in a vast peristyle surrounded on three sides by 

 colonnades, and at the upper end of it rose a tall hypostyle, into which no glimpse 

 was possible, since the walls connected the pillars which closed in the peristyle in 

 front. 



"The actual temple-building is closely allied to that of Denderah as to the 

 arrangement and decoration of the chambers. After passing through the hypostyle 

 or great forecourt, of which the roof is supported by eighteen columns, we come 

 to a 'prosekos' with twelve columns, which is called the great banqueting-hall. 

 Thence we proceed through the hall of sacrifice and the central hall of the ' repose 

 of the gods,' and reach the sanctuary and grand throne, which consists of a huge 

 block of porphyry brought to Edfu during the Persian dominion by the native 

 Egyptian king, Nectanebos I., who ruled in opposition to the Persian invaders. 



" The inscriptions in the laboratory and the little library are of the greatest 



scientific interest. The library was full of papyrus and leather rolls, and it 



adjoined the front wall of the hypostyle lying to the right of it. As at Denderah 



the roof was reached by a straight stair, and by a spiral flight of steps, and here 



* "Tebu," meaning "piercintj," is the Coptic " Atbo," whence the Arabic "Edfu." 



