Temple of Dendur

This temple was built by the Roman Emperor Augustus in the 1st century BC.

Augustus had recently conquered Egypt and commissioned it to honour two Nubian brother princes who had drowned in the Nile and were worshipped as local gods - an act of goodwill toward the peoples on the southern edge of his new territory.

Augustus is strikingly represented as a pharaoh - kneeling before Isis and Osiris, in full Egyptian dress, making offerings, and performing every ritual just as an Egyptian pharaoh would have.

This was a calculated act of cultural deference - and the practice remained for centuries after his death.

When the Aswan High Dam was built in Egypt in the 1960s - in order to control the Nile's seasonal flooding and generate power - an international UNESCO-led rescue effort was undertaken to save hundreds of ancient sites.

In gratitude, Egypt offered the Temple of Dendur to the United States.

President Johnson was inundated with requests for where to house the temple - including hundreds of letters from schoolchildren asking for the temple to be placed in Arizona.

It was finally awarded to the Met, with a special wing, the Sackler Wing, built for the occasion.

Fun fact : the pool in front of the temple symbolises the Nile - as worshippers would have arrived at the temple by boat.

You can also spot a graffiti from 1879.