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Filename :

GC094.JPG

Description :

Kiosk of Trajan Island of Philea, Egypt This swan song of Egyptian architecture was never fully completed. The temple, devoted to the cult Isis, the goddess of salvation, was Egypt’s last functioning temple and housed the last priests able to read and write hieroglyphics in the demotic style. The entire temple of Isis of Philea, including the Kiosk of Trajan was disassembled and transported to higher ground from 1972 to 1980 when rising waters from the Aswan dam threatened to engulf the island, thus saving this beautiful architecture from total destruction. This illustration is from the book Description de l’Egypte commissioned by Napoleon. Napoleon ordered the book in 1802, and after 20 years of work by 400 copper-engravers, it was finally published in 1822 .