Kiosk of Qertassi

The Kiosk of Qertassi is a "a tiny Roman kiosk with four slender papyrus columns inside, two Hathor columns at the entrance." [ [http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epi/chb7-2.html Chicago House Bulletin] "The Sitts go to sea: Egypt doesn't end at Aswan" by the University of Chicago, Vol.7 No.2 (April 15, 1996)] It is a small but elegant structure that "is unfinished and not inscribed with the name of the architect, but is probably contemporary with Trajan's Kiosk at Philae." [Christine Hobson, Exploring the World of the Pharaohs: A complete guide to Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson 1993 paperback, p.185] Due to this uncertainty, some sources speculate that it may have been built under the late Ptolemaic period of Egypt. The structure "is only twenty-five feet square, and consists of a single hathor court oriented north or south, and originally surrounded by fourteen columns connected by screen walls." [Margaret A. Murray, Egyptian Temples, Dover Publications, 2002. p.192] Of the 14 pillars, only 6 have survived in place. [Murray, op. cit., pp.192-193] The pillars or columns were made of brown sandstone; the structure itself was "perhaps connected to a small temple on the East Bank [of the Nile] which was still in existence in 1813." [Dieter Arnold, Nigel Strudwick, Sabine Gardiner, The Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture, I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2003. p.192]

This charming kiosk has now been moved to the site of New Kalabsha but "once stood to the entrance to the sandstone quarries" of Qertassi. [Lorna Oakes, Pyramids and Tombs of Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Atlas of the Land of the Pharaohs, Hermes House:Anness Publishing Ltd, 2003. p.209] Its capitals "are decorated with Hathor heads, in honour of the goddess who was [the] patron of quarry-men and miners. [Oakes, op. cit., p.209] Since Hathor was often associated with Isis, as she is at Philae, it has been suggested that "this kiosk and the small temples of Dabod and Dendur were way stations on the processional route taken by priests bearing the image of Isis around Lower Nubia, which was held to be her estate." [Oakes, op. cit., p.209]

References

External links

* [http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/egypt/photos/aswan/qertassi-01.html Kiosk of Qertassi]