Deir al-Haggar

The sandstone temple at Deir al-Haggar was built by the Roman Emperor Nero in the 1st century AD and was also decorated by the Emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The site is located on the paved road on the western edge of Dakhla Oasis about 10km from el-Qasr in the desert. The ancient name of the site was Set-whe, “The Place of Coming Home”, while the modern name refers to a monastery of stone, suggesting that the site was also used by Copts. The temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad (Amun, Mut and Khonsu) and also to Seth, “Lord of the Oasis”. The latter god is represented with a falcon head and a blue anthropomorphic body. The entrance to the temple is through a sandstone gateway in the enclosure wall in the east. The sanctuary of the temple is particularly interesting because is decorated with astronomical motifs and this is one of only two astronomical ceilings found in sanctuaries in Egyptian temples. The decorations represent four divisions of time: the changing of the years, the days of the month, the hours of the night and the months of the lunar calendar. In the surrounding area of the temple there are also remains of Roman farmhouses, one of which has 100 rooms, a columbaria (pigeon towers), and a Roman cemetery consisting of about 1500 rock-cut tombs and vaulted mudbrick graves (CISS Inventory 2010; Vivian 1990).

Site coordinates: N25 39 928 E 28 48 750

Price (years 2019-2020): 40 EGP (foreigner), 20 EGP (foreigner student), 10 EGP (Egyptian), 5 EGP (Egyptian student).