PART OF THE RUINS OF A TEMPLE ON THE ISLAND OF 
BIGGE, NUBIA. 
This Temple is situated on an island close to that of Pliilae; owing to its greater 
elevation, it overlooks that island and the Nile, and one of the finest points of view 
of the Temples of Philse, from Bigge, is a scene which has already been given in 
this Work. Wilkinson considers that the Temple of Bigge is of great antiquity, 
from some granite remains and the inscriptions which they bear. The columns, however, 
which are seen in this sketch as part of the grand entrance, are evidently Ptolemaic, 
and have formed a portion of a previous portico. In advance of these, ascending 
from the river, once stood the flanking towers of the propylon, which commanded 
the outer court or dromos, of which that which now surrounds the arch was a 
portion; this may be traced by the sculpture which still exists. The arch is an 
addition of a later period; Wilkinson says, of the Christian era: it presents a singularly 
incongruous appearance in the midst of Egyptian architecture. The ruins are surrounded 
by a miserable mud-built Arab village. The Temple of Bigge, from its elevated 
situation, to which the approach was by a flight of steps, must have exhibited a 
noble appearance and produced a very striking effect. The present Temple appears 
to have been commenced by Euergetes I., and was dedicated by him to Athor; 
it was completed by the Caesars: but Wilkinson conjectures, from a red granite statue 
found there, that an edifice existed on Bigge as old as Thothmes III. or Amunoph II., 
and that Bigge is the Abaton of Seneca, in spite of the doubts expressed by other 
Egyptian antiquaries. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt. 
