© Dahabiya Nile Sailing Egypt 2025
Dendera is approximately 80.5 km (50 miles) north of Luxor, on the Nile West bank. The Temple of Hathor has recently undergone restoration to reveal clearly the beauty and colour of the art. Nine stone terraces were built to the left of the entrance gate to display statues and artifacts. The site covers approximately 40,000 square meters (430,556 square feet). The ceiling decoration is one of the best preserved of the surviving ancient Egyptian monuments, showing how vibrant colors were used.
There is evidence that the Old Kingdom pharaoh Pepi I built religious structures here. There are remnants of a temple constructed during the eighteenth dynasty (New Kingdom). The later additions to the site date to the Late Period. The Temple of Hathor dates to the first century BC and was continually developed through the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. It refers to both Egyptian rulers and Roman emperors. The site also includes birth houses, a chapel dedicated to Isis, the gateways of Domitian and Trajan, and a Coptic Christian basilica, circa 5th century AD.
The famous Dendera zodiac bas-relief was removed from the temple in 1820 by the French and replaced with a reproduction. The original is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. On the temple exterior is a carving of Cleopatra VII Philopator (the most widely known of the rulers called Cleopatra) and her son, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar (known as Caesarion), whose father was Julius Caesar.
© Dahabiya Nile Sailing Egypt 2025