The temple of the goddess Hathor, with Cleopatra on its back wall and a famous zodiac.
Where
The west bank opposite the city of Qena, about 60 km north of Luxor
When
The present temple was begun in 54 BC under Ptolemy XII and decorated into Roman times
Goddess
Hathor, goddess of love, music and joy, with Horus of Edfu and their son Ihy
Famous for
Hathor columns, the roof chapels and their zodiac, Cleopatra VII's relief
Who built what
A temple of Hathor stood at Dendera from the Old Kingdom on, but the one standing today was built from about 54 BC, under Ptolemy XII, the father of Cleopatra, and decorated under the Roman emperors. It follows the standard temple plan: a great hypostyle hall whose columns have Hathor's face on all four sides, a second hall, offering halls and the sanctuary, with stairs up to the roof.
Each year Hathor's statue sailed south to Edfu to visit Horus for the Festival of the Beautiful Meeting. Around the temple are birth houses (mammisi), a sacred lake and, from Christian times, a church.
What survives
The temple is nearly complete, with its roof, and much of its painted ceiling has been cleaned. On the outer back (south) wall, Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar, Ptolemy XV Caesarion, make offerings to the gods: one of the few large images of her.
A chapel on the roof had a round ceiling relief of the sky with the signs of the zodiac, a Greek idea. It was cut out in 1821 and taken to Paris; it is in the Louvre, and a cast is in its place.
The standard temple plan that Dendera follows, from pylon to sanctuary.
Inscriptions
3 short, well-known texts from Dendera, each with its transliteration (the Egyptian sounds in Latin letters) and a translation. Tap Sign by sign to see what each sign is and how it is read. Royal names are drawn in their cartouches.
Cleopatra's name
Transliteration
qljwpꜣdrꜣt
Translation
“Cleopatra”
Where: In the cartouches beside her figure on the temple's outer south wall.
A Greek name, spelled out with sound signs: k, l, e, o, p, a, t (the hand), r, a, the feminine ending t and the egg used after the names of goddesses and queens.
Simplified: This is the spelling Champollion read on the Philae obelisk. Spellings of her name differ a little from monument to monument, and at Dendera the cartouches stand among longer titles.
Sign by sign
Reading: The standard reading; the Wikipedia articles "Cleopatra" and "Dendera Temple complex".
Ptolemy, the name of Caesarion
Transliteration
ptwlmys
Translation
“Ptolemy (Ptolemy XV, called Caesarion)”
Where: In the cartouches of the young king who stands in front of Cleopatra on the south wall.
Every male ruler of the dynasty was called Ptolemy, so this name alone does not tell which one is meant; the epithets that follow it in the cartouche do.
Simplified: The name is shown in its plain form, without the epithets that follow it at Dendera.
Sign by sign
Reading: The standard reading; the Wikipedia article "Caesarion".
Hathor, "the House of Horus"
The sign for her name (Gardiner O10) is not yet in the site's hieroglyph font, so it is given in transliteration only.
Transliteration
ḥwt-ḥr
Translation
“Hathor ("House of Horus")”
Where: On nearly every wall and column of the temple.
Her name is written with a picture: a falcon (Horus) inside a rectangular enclosure (ḥwt, a house or temple). She was imagined as a woman with cow's ears or horns and a sun disk, or as a cow.
Reading: The standard reading; the Wikipedia article "Hathor".
Dates follow Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000); before 664 BC they are approximate. Readings are the standard ones in the sources named under each inscription; translations are Teddy Rook Book's own. The hieroglyphs are drawn in the site's font, TRB Hieroglyphs, so their shapes are simplified; where an inscription's arrangement or signs can't be shown faithfully, the card says so.