Temple of Isis at Shenhur

Luxor - East Bank of the River

The Temple of Isis at Shenhur - An important village on the eastern bank of the Nile, 20 km north of Luxor, is Shenhur. It is a rarely visited place south of the town of Qus. The Arabic name of the village comes from hieroglyphs found in the Roman temple of Isis at Shenhur, P3-s-n-HR, which translates as "Lake of Horus" - mysterious names, since there is no evidence of any lake or water that was ever here. Very few early travellers to these regions visited Shenhur. The first mention of the temple is found in John Gardner Wilkinson "Topography of Thebes", published in 1835.

The French artist Nestor L'Hote visited Shenhur in 1839 and made priceless drawings of some reliefs and inscriptions that have since disappeared, especially the eastern outer walls of the temple decorated by Augustus. The German expedition leader Karl Lepsius visited and documented part of the temple in 1845, but the temple was never seriously studied until a Belgian-French archaeological mission began a decade of excavations in 1992 under the direction of the late Jan Quaegebeur, Claude Traunecker and, in later years, Harco Willems.
The temple suffered enormous damage over the centuries through plundering and destruction. The walls were built of limestone of varying quality, and the best was used first, leaving the poorer-quality stone with a few badly preserved reliefs in the northern part. The earliest (northern) part, built by the emperor Augustus, comprises the main Sanctuary, vestibule and door jambs.