Egypt4u

A few old B&W photographs of Philae, Temple of Isis near Aswan, prior to it being relocated to the nearby Aglika Island to save it from being fully submerged after the construction of the second Aswan Dam.

The high water level in this picture is the result of the first British built dam which was completed around 1902 and causing the temple to be flooded for several months each year.


Probably taken prior to 1900, note what looks like a Dahabiyah near to Trajan’s kiosk. Note the difference in the height of the water from the above picture.


Circa 1900, note all the debris lying around


Photo circa 1856


This is the oldest one circa 1827, a side view on Trajan's kiosk

Nice find Horus and very interesting.

I see the locals were attempting to build on top of the Temple in Picture number 3.. It could take a few more Milena of practicing until they are as good as their forefathers.

Why did the British build that Dam. ?
I can see no use for it what so ever back then.
Ironically it now powers the Fertiliser factory after generators were retro fitted to the dam, because the high dam prevents the nutrients reaching the rest of the Nile.

I was told that the dam was built to flood something the authorities did not want to be exposed to the public. Without proof it's impossible to say what that could be ?

BillH wrote: I see the locals were attempting to build on top of the Temple in Picture number 3.. It could take a few more Milena of practicing until they are as good as their forefathers.

It is a bit hard to be sure by the picture but looking at the size and shape of the mud bricks used I would say these are old mud bricks. It is possible they are ancient, don't forget towards the end Philae was isolated and cut off and the priests and priestesses, along with their families were basically marooned on the island. It is quite feasible that they built on top to save land for food production. It would have been interesting to look into this before it was all lost in the move to the new island.

Bill, the Low Dam was built on the site of the first cataract of the Nile and was an attempt to regulate seasonal flooding and to support an increasing population, it was constructed between 1899 and 1902. It had to be raised twice, once between 1907–1912 and again in 1929–1933. None of these improvements worked and it was nearly over-topped in 1946 which would have been a disaster, this led to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 60's

Thanks again Horus..

So, we were not all bad during our reign of Egypt.
(apart from 1918)

As I am in a better position to do so, I can blow up the resolution of that picture to 10,000 % but as they are very old, the resolution is only good at about a 500% increase, but from what I can tell, the mud bricks do look in keeping with the ones around other temples, so I think that Kevin has a good point

I have a lovely book all about Philea written before the dam was built, it has some lovely photos.

Horus wrote:As I am in a better position to do so, I can blow up the resolution of that picture to 10,000 % but as they are very old, the resolution is only good at about a 500% increase, but from what I can tell, the mud bricks do look in keeping with the ones around other temples, so I think that Kevin has a good point

It would be great if you could blow up the top left hand quarter Horus
If possible can you get the column tops in as well.. ?
I know where one of those "faces" resides in the temple, not sure why it was never put back though ?

denisegr wrote:I have a lovely book all about Philea written before the dam was built, it has some lovely photos.

D, get scanning and posting then

Bill, this is the best I can get from the picture at about 500% try viewing at full size.

The original crop of the top upper left, showing the mudbrick buildings.


This is the same crop, but I have sharpened it a little and added some fill light.

Thanks anyway Horus... A valiant attempt.
I guess the original would have been relatively low res', given the equipment they had back then..

Thank you for the close ups H. They really do look ancient mud brick and it is a shame they are lost as they would most likely have been stamped with a name. Ostrica and old pot shards were also used in the making of the bricks in ancient times, as a type of hardcore to strengthen them, who knows what little gems of everyday life have been lost in the discarding of what was once considered tat.

Kevininabydos wrote:Thank you for the close ups H. They really do look ancient mud brick and it is a shame they are lost as they would most likely have been stamped with a name. Ostrica and old pot shards were also used in the making of the bricks in ancient times, as a type of hardcore to strengthen them, who knows what little gems of everyday life have been lost in the discarding of what was once considered tat.

I found a small bone and straw in one of those ancient mud bricks on the west bank. Not gold but still very interesting, if they threw bones in there, then it seems that very little went to waste.

The early photographers had excellent lenses, and the glass plate negatives had no real problem with resolution -probably equivalent to many more megapixels than a modern digital camera. The clarity of some of the early photos often amazes me.

Here's 3 more of Philae, taken by Bonfils 1894

BillH wrote:Thanks anyway Horus... A valiant attempt.
I guess the original would have been relatively low res', given the equipment they had back then..

Your welcome Bill of course the real problem is not the quality of the original photograph, if we had access to them then there would be no problems enlarging the print, the real problem arises because we all have digital copies and the integrity degrades with each use and copy made, I am afraid that none of us can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, choose how good we may think we are.

Yes I agree Kevin, if they are indeed ancient mudbricks then a lot of history may have been lost. I suppose that a good deal of them may have just dissolved into mud when the waters rose above that level during the flooding after the first dam was built.

BillH wrote: I know where one of those "faces" resides in the temple, not sure why it was never put back though ?

Who's/ what face BillH?

JOJO wrote:

BillH wrote: I know where one of those "faces" resides in the temple, not sure why it was never put back though ?

Who's/ what face BillH?

I guess it can only be a Cat God JOJO ? It has a laterally elongated head shaped Like E.T.
But the Eyes are not that of a cat, and the ears were in the wrong place. Looks like someone had just discarded it there.

I found it at Philae, in a "quiet" spot..
It does look quite similar to those stones between the columns and the roof. Although, they look like they have 4 faces on them.. Interesting that.. the original name of God.. Tetragrammatron, as told in the old testament, meaning the "Four faces of God"..


I often wonder about the blatant vandalism in Egypt on certain faces of statues and on the temple walls.
The official "SCA Approved line" is that this was done by christians etc who said the face of Gods should not be made into an image to worship..
That being the case, should we not see systematic removal of these face's on the Temples and Statues, rather than selective defacement..




Stan, Your right about those old camera's, I had one for years, but I just could not get any of them to duplicate well digitally.
As Horus said, it comes down to the degradation upon digital duplication. Although I would say that the "grain" may have been an issue in the older days. The celluloid film got faster in later years, due to the smaller grain being manufactured and able to absorb light faster, thus giving us faster shutter speeds.
I Like those picture you posted. Looks like a lot of debris got washed up into the temple..

Excellent photos H! And, I agree with BillH about selective defacement.

I think BillH is referring to the Hathor column tops JOJO. There are more than a few of these column tops scattered all over Egypt BillH. These were not exclusive to this Temple and if you have seen one else where it is from another Temple as I think you will find every stone block from the original island was carefully mapped and placed exactly where it was on the new island.

Kevininabydos wrote:I think BillH is referring to the Hathor column tops JOJO. There are more than a few of these column tops scattered all over Egypt BillH. These were not exclusive to this Temple and if you have seen one else where it is from another Temple as I think you will find every stone block from the original island was carefully mapped and placed exactly where it was on the new island.

Thanks for the info' Kevin I could have quite easily lifted this stone but someone had certainly moved it recently.. They also had a very bad attempt at casting spells nearby whoever it was.. Amateurs..