Heru-ur.org

ii-wy em hotep!

Welcome, friends of He of the Dappled Plumage!

About the Temple

I chose the actual temple of Heru at Edfu as the model of my virtual temple, as it is the site of one of the oldest places of the worship of Heru-ur, known as Wetjeset-her (The-Place-where-Heru-is-extolled). Wetjeset-her was a very prosperous town, due to its proximity to routes to nearby gold mines in the Estern Desert.

The temple had both a sacred name and a secular name. Its sacred name being Behdet meaning 'great seat' or 'throne'. Its secular name was Djeba, meaning 'Retribution Town', as Djeba was the place where the enemies of Heru were brought to justice. Djeba, which by coptic times was pronounced Etbo, became the modern day Edfu.

The earliest stone temple is attested to being designed by Imhotep, Vizier and chief architect (to name a few of his titles) to Djoser (c. 2600 bce.) and a woman named Kheredu-ankh. Little is known of that temple, except it was dedicated to the triad of Heru Behdety, his consort Het-hert of Dendera, and their son Heru-sema-tawy (Heru, uniter of the two lands).

Over the millennia, several Nisuts contributed building to the Temple, including Sety I (1294-1279 bce), Rameses II (1279-1213 bce), Rameses III (1184-1153 bce) and Nactanebo II (360-343 bce). Most of what stands today is attributed however to the massive temple building of Ptolemy III Euegetes II 246-222 bce).

Work on the Ptolemaic temple had begun in 237 bce. The formal dedication was performed by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and his wife Cleopatra II on September 10 142 bce, which at the time had only completed the inner core of the temple, minus the forecourt. Work continued, with more and greater additions added by the succeeding Nisuts, when in 57 bce the pylon doors were hung and the temple completed.

(source: Watterson, Barbara The House of Horus at Edfu: Ritual in an Ancient Egyptian Temple 1998 Tempus Publishing Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK)

Updates

11/15/07 - Heru-ur.org Virtual Temple creation

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Other Content

• Virtual Edfu Temple (From Projekt Edfu)   
• Edfu Screensaver (From Projekt Edfu)