Amada Temple is the oldest temple found in Nubia. It’s moved and changed hands many times over the years, but it’s still a great place to visit, especially if you’re going to take a Lake Nasser cruise.
How and who built the Amada Temple?
Pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty, was the first to build the Temple of Amada. When he died, his son, Amenhotep II, took power.
He added to the original temple during his reign and made the decorations better. Later, when Amenhotep died, his son Thutmose IV assumed power and began making further changes. One was adding a roof to the open forecourt of the original temple.
During the Amada period, many years later, the name “Amun” and all images of the god Amun, to whom the temple was dedicated, were deleted. But later, rulers replaced everything again, improving and adding to the structure.
Description of the temple:
The temple has some parts that are well cared for, such as several brightly coloured bas-reliefs. In the temple chambers, you will find the best-coloured reliefs. Many of these panels show Thutmose III and Amenhotep II making offerings to the gods or doing other rituals.
Inscriptions on the walls of the temple:
In Amada Temple, two important inscriptions from the past were found. Amenhotep II wrote the first inscription in the third year of his reign. He talks about how tough he was in the battles in Asia.
For example, he talks about how he killed the seven chiefs of Teksi with his sword and then hung them upside down from the bow of his boat. The second cameo is also about violence, but it is about an attempted invasion from Libya.
Moving Amada Temple:
When the Egyptian government decided to build the High Dam in Aswan, it meant that many tourist sites in ancient Egypt would be lost due to the rising water levels of Lake Nasser. Egypt and other countries worldwide immediately went to work to save as many ancient ruins as possible.
Many temples were broken into blocks, then carefully reassembled on higher ground, away from rising water. However, this method could not move the Temple of Amada because most paintings and reliefs would have been destroyed. Historians believe that Amada will be buried in water.
However, France and a group of architects devised a clever way to move the entire temple in one piece. They put the temple on rails and used a hydraulic system to move it a few kilometres to higher ground.
