Archaeologists say they have unearthed an entrance to a large stone temple in the ancient Egyptian town of Athribis, near to the modern city of Sohag.
The south tower of the pylon at Athribis and the hill behind it, where a sanctuary is believed to be located. Image credit; Marcus Müller, Athribis Project.
“The entrance to a temple in the rock is suspected to be under the still untouched piles of rubble behind it,” said University of Tübingen archaeologists Professor Christian Leitz and Dr. Marcus Müller.
“Since 2022, we have been working with Mohamed Abdelbadia from the Egyptian Antiquities Authority and an Egyptian team in Athribis to uncover a large stone temple.”
“Excavations have been taking place since 2012 to uncover a temple district from antiquity that was built between 144 BCE and 138 CE.”
“The complex was 51 m wide in total and the towers of the monumental temple entrance were each 18 m high.”
“Today, only around 5 m remain. The rest fell victim to quarrying,” they added.
“Thanks to a coin dropped, this removal of stone can be dated to the year 752 or shortly thereafter.”
The archaeologists also found reliefs of a king offering sacrifices to the lion-headed goddess Repit and her son Kolanthes.
The newly-discovered hieroglyphic inscriptions show for the first time which king was responsible for the decoration and presumably also for the construction of the pylon: Ptolemy VIII from the 2nd century BCE.
“In the north tower of the pylon, we unexpectedly came across a previously unknown chamber,” the researchers said.
“We cleared away a ceiling block weighing around 20 tons using an air cushion, wooden scaffolding and rollers.”
“We uncovered the chamber, which is around 6 m long and almost 3 m wide.”
“It was a storage room for temple utensils and was later used to store amphorae.”
“A corridor leads through the pylon to the chamber, so that it was also accessible from the outside.”
“This entrance is also decorated with reliefs and hieroglyphs,” they added.
“Once again, the goddess Repit can be seen, while the door frame opposite shows the fertility god Min, who is accompanied by two very rarely depicted beings — decans (stars that enable time to be measured at night) with the heads of a falcon and an ibis respectively.”
“Unique in Egyptian temple architecture is a second door on the façade of the pylon, which leads to a previously unknown staircase that led in at least four flights to the upper floor, which has now been destroyed, and where further storage rooms can be reconstructed.”
“Finely smoothed limestone blocks on a vertically cut rock façade could belong to a rock sanctuary,” Professor Leitz said.
“The more than 3-m-high find and decorations typical of the upper end of a temple — such as a cobra frieze — indicate that there could be a door behind it.”
