The Kiosk of Qertassi is "a tiny Roman kiosk with four slender papyrus columns inside, ndtwo

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sk ...

columns at the entrance." It is a small but elegant structure that "is unfinished and not inscribed with the name of the architect, but is probably contemporary with Trajan's Kiosk at

Philae ; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ , alternate_name = , image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg , alt = , caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...

According to Günther Roeder – the first scholar to publish research on this building – the kiosk of Qertassi dates to the Augustan or early Roman period. The structure "is only twenty-five feet square, and consists of a single Hathor court oriented north or south, and originally surrounded by fourteen columns connected by screen walls." Of the 14 pillars, only 6 have survived in place. The pillars or columns were made of brown sandstone; the structure itself was "perhaps connected to a small

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

on the East Bank f the Nilewhich was still in existence in 1813." This kiosk has now been moved to the site of New Kalabsha in Southern Egypt as part of the

International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia was the relocation of 22 monuments in Lower Nubia, in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan, between 1960 and 1980. The success of the project, in particular the creation of a coalition of 50 ...

, but "once stood to the entrance to the sandstone quarries" of Qertassi. Its capitals "are decorated with Hathor heads, in honour of the goddess who was hepatron of quarry-men and miners. Since Hathor was often associated with

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

, as she is at Philae, it has been suggested that "this kiosk and the small temples of Dabod and Dendur were way stations on the processional route taken by priests bearing the image of Isis around

Lower Nubia Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern p ...

, which was held to be her estate." Due to the paucity of timber in the arid region of Nubia, the kiosk's roof was constructed with sandstone slabs that were supported by architraves on its long sides.Dieter Arnold, Temples of the Last Pharaohs, Oxford University Press, 1999. p.240

References

External links

Kiosk of Qertassi
{{coord, 23, 57, 37, N, 32, 52, 03, E, region:EG_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Egyptian temples International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia