The Upper Egyptian Temple of Edfu - Its Architecture as an Image of the World

Описание: This lecture is written by Dr. Dieter Kurth, read by Dr. Manu Seyfzadeh, with answers to questions given by Dr. Kurth at the end of the video.

About the Lecture:

Since the early days of Egyptology it has been a commonplace that the Egyptian temple was conceived and decorated by the ancient Egyptians as an image of the world. Every visitor of any Egyptian temple would agree at once after a look at the ceiling covered with yellow stars on blue field and after a look at the columns with the floral design of their capitals. This is also true for the temple of Edfu.

The impression, however, that the temple was imagined to be an image of the world is not only gained by the outer appearance of the building and its decoration, which strike the eye and cannot be unnoticed.

There are several other elements of the temple’s architecture and decoration which don’t catch the visitor’s eye immediately because they need some previous knowledge and some elucidation. This concerns the texts in particular.

About the Lecturer:

Dr. Dieter Kurth, Prof-Dr Emeritus of Hamburg Univ, is the director of the Edfu Project, which he founded in 1985 with the aim of translating all the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the Temple of Edfu. From 1981 to 1982 he was a professor of Egyptology in Heidelberg, acting for Prof Jan Assmann, and from 1982 until his retirement in 2007 he was professor of Egyptology at the University of Hamburg.

He studied pedagogics in Bonn from 1962 until 1965. Afterwards, until 1967, he worked as a teacher at a primary school and a secondary school in Cologne, finally teaching technical English at a vocational school. From 1968 until 1975 he studied Egyptology (main subject), Classical Archaeology, Ancient Oriental Languages and Prehistory at the University of Cologne. After the promotion (PhD) he habilitated in the 1980s (venia legendi in Egyptology). In the years 2000 and 2004/5 he taught Egyptology as a visiting professor at the Egyptian Universities of Cairo (Ain Shams) and Qena (New Valley).