Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "APOLINOPOLIS Ancient city EGYPT" .
APOLINOPOLIS (Ancient city) EGYPT
Apollinopolis Magna (polis megale Apollonos, Strab. xvii. p. 817;
Agartharch. p. 22; Plin. v. 9. s. 11; Plut. Is. et Osir. 50; Aelian. Hist. An.
x. 2; Ptol. iv. 5. § 70; Apollonia, Steph. Byzant. s. v.; Apollonias, Hierocl.
p. 732; It. Ant. p. 160, 174; Not. Imp. Orient. c. 143. Apollonos Superioris),
the modern Edfoo, was a city of the Thebaid, on the western bank of the Nile,
in Lat. 25° N., and about thirteen miles below the lesser Cataract. Ptolemy assigns
Apollinopolis to the Hermonthite nome, but it was more commonly regarded as the
capital town of the nome Apollopolites. Under the Roman emperors it was the seat
of a Bishop's see, and the head-quarters of the Legio II. Trajana. Its inhabitants
were enemies of the crocodile and its worshippers.
Both the ancient city and the modern hamlet, however, derived their
principal reputation from two temples, which are considered second only to the
Temple of Denderah as specimens of the sacred structures of Egypt. The modem Edfoo
is contained within the courts, or built upon the platform of the principal of
the two temples at Apollinopolis. The larger temple is in good preservation, but
is partially buried by the sand, by heaps of rubbish, and by the modern town.
The smaller temple, sometimes, but improperly, called a Typhonium, is apparently
an appendage of the latter, and its sculptures represent the birth and education
of the youthful deity, Horus, whose parents Noum, or Kneph and Athor, were worshipped
in the larger edifice. The principal temple is dedicated to Noum, whose symbol
is the disc of the sun, supported by two asps and the extended wings of a vulture.
Its sculptures represent (Rosellini, Monum. del Culto, p. 240, tav. xxxviii.)
the progress of the Sun, Phre-Hor-Hat, Lord of Heaven, moving in his bark (Bari)
through the circle of the Hours. The local name of the district round Apollinopolis
was Hat, and Noum was styled Hor-hat-kah, or Horus, the tutelary genius of the
land of Hat. This deity forms also at Apollinopolis a triad with the goddess Athor
and Hor-Senet. The members of the triad are youthful gods, pointing their finger
towards their mouths, and before the discovery of the hieroglyphic character were
regarded as figures of Harpocrates.
The entrance into the larger temple of Apollinopolis is a gateway
(pulon) 50 feet high, flanked by two converging wings (ptera) in the form of truncated
pyramids, rising to 107 feet. The wings contain ten stories, are pierced by round
loop-holes for the admission of light, and probably served as chambers or dormitories
for the priests and servitors of the temple. From the jambs of the door project
two blocks of stone, which were intended, as Ddnon supposes, to support the heads
of two colossal figures. This propylaeon leads into a large square, surrounded
by a colonnade roofed with squared granite, and on the opposite side is a pronaos
or portico, 53 feet in height, and having a triple row of columns, six in each
row, with variously and gracefully foliaged capitals. The temple is 145 feet wide,
and 424 feet long from the entrance to the opposite end. Every part of the walls
is covered with hieroglyphics, and the main court ascends gradually to the pronaos
by broad steps. The whole area of the building was surrounded by a wall 20 feet
high, of great thickness. Like so many of the Egyptian temples, that of Apollinopolis
was capable of being employed as a fortress. It stood about a third of a mile
from the river. The sculptures, although carefully and indeed beautifully executed,
are of the Ptolemaic era, the earliest portion [p. 160] of the temple having been
erected by Ptolemy Philometor B.C. 181.
The temple of Apollinopolis, as a sample of Egyptian sacred architecture,
is minutely described in the Penny Cyclopedia, art. Edfu, and in the 1st volume
of British Museum, Egyptian Antiquities, where also will be found a ground plan
of it.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city on the W bank of the Nile, 105 km S of Thebes, noted by Strabo (17.1.47). It was the throne of Horus, whom the Greeks identified with Apollo, and it continued to be an important religious center all through the Classical period. The capital of the second nome of Upper Egypt, it owed its prosperity to its situation on the caravan road to Nubia. Its temple (137 x 79 m), begun by Ptolemy III in 237 B.C., was completed in 57 B.C. Its pylon is 36 m high.
S. Shenouda, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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