Dendara Travel Guide

Outside the town of Qena Dendera has the large wonderfully preserved Temple of Het-Heru (Hathor) built on the site of an older temple, and is a replica of the original. The inscription on the present temple states that the original building was erected in the far pre-Dynastic times.

This was a major healing center for people from all over.

285 mi/460 km southeast of Cairo.

The Temple of Hathor at Dendara was built at the very end of the Pharaonic period, largely by the Ptolemies (323-20 BC), and was finished during the early Roman period.  This temple is wonderfully preserved, with its main building virtually intact, and is a sight to behold.  The walls and ceilings of the outer and inner hypostyle halls, the sanctuary rooms, the crypt and the rooftop suites were carved with highly detailed relief scenes, many of them remarkably untouched by the ravages of over 2,000 years.  On the outside of the rear wall is a large relief of Cleopatra with her son by Julius Caesar, Ptolemy XV, better known as Caesarian. (Contributed by Howard Banwell)