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<< Our Photo Pages >> Temple of Osiris at Abusir - Ancient Temple in Egypt in Lower Egypt (North)

Submitted by AlexHunger on Monday, 10 May 2010  Page Views: 14385

Roman, Greek and ClassicalSite Name: Temple of Osiris at Abusir Alternative Name: Abusir Temple of Osiris, Taposiris Magna Temple
Country: Egypt
NOTE: This site is 0.377 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Lower Egypt (North) Type: Ancient Temple
Nearest Town: Alexandria  Nearest Village: Burg Al-Arab
Latitude: 30.943680N  Longitude: 29.515900E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
no data

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Temple of Osiris at Abusir
Temple of Osiris at Abusir submitted by ilsignorstano : Taposiris magna - tower built by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (replica of the Pharos of Alexandria) (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Temple in Lower Egypt (North). Unfinished Ptolemaic Temple of Osiris about 20 KM west of Alexandria. There is a nearby funerary monument also dating to the Ptolemaic period that is thought to look like a miniature Alexandria Lighthouse.

This Abusir is not related to the one south of Cairo.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Site believed to be near this position.

Note: Headless Statue of Ancient Egyptian King‎ Unearthed, see comment
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Temple of Osiris at Abusir
Temple of Osiris at Abusir submitted by ilsignorstano : Taposiris magna - Necropolis (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple of Osiris at Abusir
Temple of Osiris at Abusir submitted by ilsignorstano : Taposiris magna - another underground entrance (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple of Osiris at Abusir
Temple of Osiris at Abusir submitted by ilsignorstano : Taposiris magna - Stairway to the underground (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple of Osiris at Abusir
Temple of Osiris at Abusir submitted by ilsignorstano : Taposiris magna - internal details (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 44.4km NE 54° Kom El-Shugafa Rock Cut Tombs* Rock Cut Tomb
 44.8km NE 54° Serapeum at Alexandria* Ancient Temple
 44.9km NE 54° Pompey's Column* Sculptured Stone
 68.6km NE 54° Canopus* Ancient Village or Settlement
 80.7km NE 49° Heracleion* Ancient Village or Settlement
 104.8km E 99° Imau Temple of Sekhmet Ancient Temple
 105.1km E 92° Naucratis* Ancient Village or Settlement
 119.3km E 88° Sais* Ancient Temple
 120.4km ENE 76° Buto Ancient Village or Settlement
 178.0km SE 143° Widan el-Faras Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
 180.5km SE 124° Djedefre's Pyramid Pyramid / Mastaba
 186.9km SE 143° Qasr el- Sagha* Ancient Temple
 188.2km SE 124° Giza Plateau* Pyramid / Mastaba
 188.3km SE 124° Giza Mastaba Cemetery* Pyramid / Mastaba
 188.3km SE 124° Seschemnofer III. Mastaba* Pyramid / Mastaba
 188.4km SE 124° Senegemid Mastabas* Chambered Cairn
 188.5km SE 124° Khafre's Pyramid* Pyramid / Mastaba
 188.5km SE 124° Khufu's Pyramid* Pyramid / Mastaba
 188.5km SE 125° Menkaure's Pyramid* Pyramid / Mastaba
 189.1km SE 124° Great Sphinx* Ancient Temple
 189.2km SE 124° Giza Valley Temple* Ancient Temple
 189.3km SE 124° Heit el-Ghurab* Ancient Village or Settlement
 189.8km SE 145° Possible Pyramids near Kafr Al Masallat* Pyramid / Mastaba
 191.0km ESE 112° Leontopolis Ancient Village or Settlement
 191.8km SE 144° Dimeh Al-Siba Ancient Village or Settlement
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"Temple of Osiris at Abusir" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Re: Headless Statue of Ancient Egyptian King‎ Unearthed by Runemage on Monday, 10 May 2010
(User Info | Send a Message)
Have you seen the photograph?

Whilst I'm not archaeologically qualified to contradict Dr. Hawass, my eyes tell me that's a woman. Not only would she be a Bravissimo customer, the belly is all wrong for a male.

Yes, I have heard of the male kings with female attributes, but their statues and depictions looked nothing like this.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Headless Statue of Ancient Egyptian King‎ Unearthed by bat400 on Monday, 10 May 2010
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Since its Ptolemaic, a bare-breasted female statue in that classic "regal" pose, would be out of place. But, I see exactly what "attributes" you're talking about!
    Maybe its "extreme" foreshortening and the angle of the light...
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Headless Statue of Ancient Egyptian King‎ Unearthed by Runemage on Monday, 10 May 2010
      (User Info | Send a Message)
      There's a dark basalt broken statue of one of the Ptolemys here http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_1981.224.1.jpg

      Very similar feminine waist and belly. Shame the top's broken off for comparison.

      "Torso of a Ptolemaic King, Ptolemaic Period, 80–30 b.c.
      Egyptian
      Dark basalt
      H. 36 5/8 in. (93 cm)
      Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift and Rogers Fund, 1981 (1981.224.1)
      Although carved according to age-old conventions of Egyptian sculpture, the style in which the artist has rendered the torso of this statue has its origins in the fourth century B.C. Beneath the full breast, the rib cage slopes back to a flat abdomen from which rises a round, fleshy stomach with a teardrop-shaped navel. The hips are delineated by a long curve that extends from waist to knee. Sculptural traces indicate that the work showed a king wearing a pharaonic nemes headdress. The emphatic energy conveyed by the statue, with its very high buttocks, long thighs, clear modeling, and taut low-slung belt, suggests freshness and youthfulness.
      This statue bears in the cartouches the names known for Ptolemy XII and XV. (Ptolemy XIII and XIV, whose formal names are poorly known, are other kings possibly represented by the statue.) Ptolemy XII, called Auletes, was the father of Cleopatra and of Ptolemy XIII and XIV, two very young brothers with whom she successively shared the throne before sharing it with her son Ptolemy XV (Caesarion) from his third year onward. Caesarion, the last of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was named for his father Julius Caesar; Caesarion was murdered at the age of seventeen by Augustus and the conquering Romans. Either Auletes, who built extensively in Egypt, or Caesarion, whose status was promoted by his mother, is most likely to be depicted here."
      Source: Torso of a Ptolemaic King [Egyptian] (1981.224.1) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art


      And here's the manly, fully properly shaped, top half of another one.
      http://www.digital-images.net/Images/London/Ptolemy_1_BritishMuseum.jpg
      [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Headless Statue of Ancient Egyptian King‎ Unearthed by Andy B on Sunday, 16 May 2010
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    That link seems to have died but here is the photo is at Reuters (page 5)
    http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTR2D82K#a=5
    [ Reply to This ]

Headless Statue of Ancient Egyptian King‎ Unearthed by Andy B on Monday, 10 May 2010
(User Info | Send a Message)
A headless granite statue of a Ptolemaic king has emerged from the ruins of an ancient Egyptian limestone temple believed to be the burial site of Queen Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the sculpture was unearthed at Taposiris Magna, a site some 30 miles from the port city of Alexandria, by an Egyptian-Dominican team searching for the tomb of the doomed lovers.

More than 2,000 years old, the statue represents the traditional shape of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh wearing collar and kilt.

“Even though the head is missing, this is one of the most beautiful statues from the Ptolemaic period. I think it portrays Ptolemy IV, the pharaoh who constructed temple,” Dr. Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.

The team, led by Dr. Hawass in collaboration with the Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, also discovered the temple’s original gate on its western side.

The entrance of the building, which was dedicated to Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, was made up of a series of limestone foundation stones. One of the stones showed traces that a sphinx statue once stood upon it.

“This means that there was a sphinx avenue similar to those of the pharaonic era outside and inside the temple,” Hawass said.

The Egyptian-Dominican team spent the past five years trying to locate the last resting place of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, the Roman general who became Cleopatra’s lover and had three children with her.
The couple supposedly committed suicide after their combined forces were defeated by Roman Emperor Octavian in the Battle of Actium more than two millennia ago.

While excavating the site --a radar survey of the temple has identified three spots where a burial chamber might lie deep underground -- the archaeologists have unearthed several significant artifacts. These include a number of headless royal statues, which may have been subjected to destruction during the Byzantine and Christian eras, a collection of heads featuring Queen Cleopatra, and 24 metal coins bearing Cleopatra’s profile.

Behind the crumbling temple, a necropolis was also discovered, containing many Graeco-Roman style mummies. Early investigations, said Hawass, show that the mummies were buried with their faces turned toward the temple, which means that a significant royal personality could be buried inside the temple.

“All these findings are leading us to the discovery of the tomb of Cleopatra. They show that something important is waiting for us inside the temple,” Hawass said.

Source, with picture at Discovery
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/headless-statue-of-ancient-egyptian-king-unearthed.html
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