On Location - Philae Temple, Aswan, Egypt

The Philae Temple Complex is around 2,500 years old and located on an island a short distance from Aswan in Upper Egypt. In the words of author Amelia B. Edwards:

“The approach by water is quite the most beautiful. Seen from the level of a small boat, the island, with its palms, its colonnades, its pylons, seems to rise out of the river like a mirage. Piled rocks frame it on either side, and the purple mountains close up the distance. As the boat glides nearer between glistening boulders, those sculptured towers rise higher and even higher against the sky. They show no sign of ruin or age. All looks solid, stately, perfect. One forgets for the moment that anything is changed. If a sound of antique chanting were to be borne along the quiet air–if a procession of white-robed priests bearing aloft the veiled ark of the God, were to come sweeping round between the palms and pylons–we should not think it strange”. — Amelia B. Edwards, A thousand miles up the Nile / by Amelia B. Edwards, 1831-1892, p. 207.

The Temple of Isis was originally located upon the island of Philae, which meant "the end" in Ancient Egypt language and marked the southernmost boundary of the historic nation. It was one of the last temples dedicated to the cult of Isis, who was worshipped for bringing her husband Osiris back to life after he was murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth. Iris and Osiris went on to have a son, Horus, who was one of the most important Ancient Egyptian deities, and the goddess therefore earned the title "Mother of God".

When the Aswan Dam was constructed in the 1960s, Philae Island and the temple perched upon it were almost completely lost underwater. Thanks to the efforts of UNESCO and the Egyptian government, the Temple of Isis was painstakingly taken apart and rebuilt on higher ground, in its current location on Agilkia Island.

Despite flooding and vandalism by early Christians, the Temple of Isis is one of Egypt's most spectacular sanctuaries. The columns of its hypostyle hall are amazingly well-preserved, and reliefs like the carvings of musical scenes in the Temple of Hathor have retained much of their ancient beauty. A favourite of Victorian artists was the unfinished Kiosk of Trajan, a pavilion also known as the "bed of Pharaoh".