The pylon, or gateway, seen in this view is in advance of the ancient portion of 
the Temple, and was erected by Ptolemy Lathyrus. The sculptures added by 
Remeses III. on the outside of the walls represent his conquests over the people of 
the northern and southern frontiers of Egypt; but the sculptured decorations within 
the walls illustrate the domestic life of the Pharaoh in his liareem, playing at 
draughts with females, who are decorated with wreaths of flowers of the upper and 
lower country; this has led other Egyptian antiquaries to conjecture that these figures 
are emblematical. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. 
TEMPLE OE DANDOUR, NUBIA. 
This Temple, which stands just within the tropic, consists of a portico with two columns in 
front, two inner chambers, and the adytum, in which is a tablet with a figure apparently 
of Isis. In front of the portico a pylon opens upon an area facing the river, and 
surrounded by a low wall. Behind the Temple a grotto is excavated in the sandstone 
rock; the entrance to it is built of stone; and there is an Egyptian cornice above the 
door. The sculptures of the Temple are of the time of Augustus, by whom it is 
supposed to have been founded: its chief deities were Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and the 
ancient town seems to have had the same name, or one like it, expressive of “ the 
sacred abode.” 
It is one of the smallest temples in Nubia, and situated on the western bank of 
the Nile: a vast mole defends it from the encroachments of the river—a construction 
also Roman, and which forms a platform in front of the pylon; and in advance of the 
Temple, on the architrave of the portico the winged globe is represented, and the 
walls of the pronaos are covered with figures of Isis and Osiris offering sacrifices. 
The cave beyond the adytum is separated from the Temple by a double wall, and 
was, Mr. Roberts conjectures, the residence of the priest or superintendant of the 
Temple. The appearance of the walls indicates injury from fire, so often employed 
to destroy these temples, that few are without this evidence of desecration. 
Roberts’s Journal 
