Trajan's Kiosk on the Island of Philae
by Mark Tisdale
Title
Trajan's Kiosk on the Island of Philae
Artist
Mark Tisdale
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
The Island of Philae that we know today near Aswan in Egypt is not the island of Philae from ancient history. That island was submerged by the first and second dams built at Aswan. The first caused seasonal flooding and damages to the temples on the island. The second dam submerged the island forever but not before engineers disassembled and moved the temples to an island that would remain above the new water level.
There's a side of me that stood before the ancient temples like this one, Trajan's Kisok, and felt sorrow that they had been removed from their literal place in history. It was a weird feeling, like seeing a noble animal in a zoo. But at the same time, I'm glad that they were preserved and did not become just an image in a dusty book.
Of all the ruins on the new island of Philae, for some reason it was this one that most interested me. I loved the palm leaf carvings on the capitals of the columns. It felt so unlike the other temples. Perhaps that owes to its Roman heritage. These ruins are from a time period when Rome counted Egypt among its lands. And having been to Rome only a few years before, there was a symmetry in seeing Rome and then seeing essentially a Roman ruin in Egypt.
Note: The Egyptian ruins preserved at Philae are a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site.
Uploaded
January 12th, 2013
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