The city of “Edfu” owes its fame to its temple, which is considered one of the most magnificent Egyptian temples, being highly integrated, and replete with a huge number of scenes and texts engraved in a distinctive artistic style.
The importance of the Temple of Edfu, in southern Egypt, is not only due to its being the most beautiful Ptolemaic temple at all, but it is also characterized by being the “most complete”, among the ancient Egyptian temples, as it is almost complete and retains all its components and qualities despite the passage of all these years, thanks to the archaeologist Auguste Mariette discovered this wonderful temple in 1860.
And “Edfu” is the home of the goddess Horus in the south, and it was the capital of the second region of Upper Egypt, and “Edfu” was called in the Pharaonic eras as “Edbo” or “Debbo”, which means the town of intrusion, while the current name of the city is taken from the Coptic name “Etbo”. .
And “Horus” is the goddess of the moon among the ancient Egyptians, and he was mentioned in one of the legends in ancient Egypt, and he was considered a symbol of good and justice after he defeated his uncle “Set” the symbol of evil. He was killed by his evil brother, Set, but the wife of Osiris succeeded in collecting his pieces after cutting them up to obtain the title of the goddess of the moon among the ancient Egyptians.
“Edfu” was an important city in Upper Egypt, and it was of great prosperity during the ancient state, and the Greeks linked the god Horus with the god “Apollo.” Much more than before.
The Temple of Edfu is characterized by the presence of some classical elements that are foreign to the temples of Egypt in the Greek and Roman periods, such as the phenomenon of building the temple on a high floor and the phenomenon of the gradual rise of the temple floor, where the floor rises as we head inward with the gradual decline of the surface of the temple, in addition to other elements such as the Nilometer, As well as shifting the location of the sacred lake located west of the temple.
The construction of the temple, which is described as the most luxurious among the Egyptian temples, began in the era of “Ptolemy III” in the year 237 BC. The construction of this temple took about 200 years, as it was completed during the reign of “Ptolemy XIII” in the first century BC.
As for the myths of the Temple of Edfu, they are many, including the “red hippopotamus”, the myth of knowing the day on which Horus was born, the myth of the “sun disk”, the myth of the drink of “Haru-A”, and the myth of “Horus’ victory” over his enemies.
The temple is characterized by special architectural elements. The temple contains the edifice in front of which stands two huge granite falcons symbolizing Horus, the god “Edfu”. The two towers of the edifice contained vertical rectangular balls dedicated to installing flagpoles that are placed in front of all Egyptian temples.
The temple also contains a major gate. The door of this gate was made of cedar wood inlaid with bronze and gold, and topped with the winged sun disk representing “Horus.” The gate is followed by the large courtyard and has two rows of columns on both sides.
