Temple of Amun at Siwa
26th Dynasty
Casey Hunter Carter
INTRODUCTION
The temple of Amun in the Siwa Oasis is a place that is steeped in the history of Egypt and used to be a place of large cultural significance to the ancient cultures. Evidence from flint pieces show that the Siwa oasis has been occupied since Paleolithic and Neolithic times. The temple of Amun at Siwa is also known as the temple of the oracle. This is because the temple housed a divine oracle that became very famous in the ancient world. Unconfirmed oral history states that the oracle that resided here was so revered that every pharaoh in Egypt’s 28th dynasty traveled all of the way to Siwa to be officially acknowledged as a son of the Egyptian sun god and supreme god: Amon-Ra.
When Alexander the great completed his conquest of Egypt he traveled to the temple. It is said that he traveled here because he desired the same divine declaration of power to legitimize the conquest and put himself on the same level as pharaohs past in the eyes of the Egyptian people. When the Roman era swept over the region, oracles went out of style along with almost all of the gods that the Egyptian people worshipped. The temple became unimportant and the decline of the Siwan people was under way.
GEOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGIC INFORMATION
The Siwa Oasis sits about 31 miles (or 50 kilometers) east of Egypt’s modern-day border with Libya in the western desert. It is about 350 miles (or 560 kilometers) west-southwest of Egypt’s capital, Cairo. The oasis itself is about 4 ½ miles wide by about 6 miles long and has almost 200 springs within its borders. The temple of Amun itself sits on a natural plateau on the eastern side of the currently established city close to one of the many lakes in the area. The entire area is in a depression and actually sits about 62 feet (or 19 meters) below sea level.
There are three main subsurface rock formations that make up the ground underneath the oasis. The Marmarica formation consists mainly of marine limestone with a few marly intercalations throughout and sits under most of the northern area of the oasis. (Rabeh, 3) The Moghra formation consists of shale and white bandy carbonates and lies below parts of the southern area of the oasis. (Rabeh, 3) The Moqattam formation is made up of mostly limestone and can be found underneath the southeastern part of the oasis. (Rabeh, 3) Sand dunes cover the rest of the southern and western parts of the oasis. Thanks to the many springs in the area the Siwa Oasis is very fertile and supports many olive trees and date palms.
Site Description
The temple of Amun resides on a small natural plateau and consists of an open court that leads into two separate halls. In the second hall is the sanctuary within the temple where the oracle likely resided. There is a small side corridor on the right of the sanctuary that is very narrow. Archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry thought this may have been a place where temple priests would speak for the Oracle where no one could see them. The only part of the temple with inscribed walls is the sanctuary. To the left of the sanctuary is another large chamber. There is evidence of a chamber on the roof of the temple, but whatever stairs led up to it had fallen long ago. It was constructed by Greek architects and dedicated to the Egyptian god Amon-Ra.
The temple is not the only structure on the small plateau however. It is surrounded by the remains of the king’s palace (really just a governor’s palace, although Siwa was semi-independent for most of its history) and barracks to house soldiers in. Not far away from the main temple was a much smaller temple. Around the base of the plateau is the modern day village. The temple is in danger of collapse because the rock plateau that it is sitting on is cracking and being continuously eroded. Many fissures are visible in the rock and parts of the plateau have already collapsed, taking pieces of the temple and surrounding buildings with it. Structural preservation work was done in the 1990’s on the site. The north, west, and southern walls were all reinforced with stainless steel anchors and anchor plates. (Kuhlmann) The cracks in the plateau rock were filled with concrete to try to stop the damage. Thankfully, the site should be stable for decades to come.
Site Excavations
There have been some archaeological excavations of the village of Siwa but the temple of Amun itself has never been properly excavated in an archaeological sense. Many archaeologists, Egyptologists, and explorers to the region took note of the temple and heard the oral history and legends of the temple passed down through the generations but none have ever done an official and proper excavation of the temple and its immediate surroundings. “Despite the ground having been prepared by eminent figures in Egyptology like Georg Steindorff and Ahmad Fahkry, Siwa has remained almost exclusively a domain of classical scholarship.” (Kuhlmann, 1) Most of the information we have about the temple is from the observations of archaeologists and explorers along with the history and importance of the site that has been documented in both written and oral form by the Greeks and the Egyptians.
The structural preservation work done on the site in the 90’s involved some excavation of the site by digging into the bedrock and resulted in some interesting discoveries. These excavations done during preservation work are the only excavations done on this site. There is evidence of remains from stone walls and possible some stone chambers in the immediate vicinity of the temple but there is no way of knowing if they are part of the temple itself or just outlying structures without proper study and excavation. The temple has been picked clean by looters in the hundreds of years since the decline of oracles. Sometimes people would take up residence in the abandoned temple, as Silva White has noted in his book From Sphinx to Oracle: Through the Libyan Desert to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. Silva White also notes that the people living in the area incorporated ancient architecture into their own homes by building onto walls and the leftovers of other ancient buildings. “At places, however, one can discover vestiges of the former shape and proportions of the Temple and other buildings connected with the cult of Jupiter Ammon. (Amun) Stately halls have been turned into modern hovels, one on top of another: but portions of the old walls—some of which have hieroglyphs—may still be examined by entering these dwellings.” (White, 222)
These looters and temporary residents were the cause of many of the damages to the interior of the temple. Specifically the inscriptions on two of the walls of the sanctuary in the temple of Amun, many of which are damaged. “Until the 20th century most of the original temple structures were built over by mud mortar/stone constructions in the local fashion and used for housing and for livestock. These constructions were abandoned in 1927 after torrential rain made many of the mud/stone buildings structurally unstable. In the 1970s the Egyptian Antiquity Service freed the Temple of the Oracle from the rubble of the partly collapsed mud/stone structures. The first preservation measures consisting of reconstructed walls date back to this time.” (Mueller, Pliett, Wenzell, Kuhlmann, 217-218)
Results of Site Studies and Excavation
Given that there have been no proper archaeological excavations of the temple of Amun at Siwa, the archaeological community knows a surprising amount of information about the site. This is thanks to both written history by the Greeks and oral history passed down by the Egyptian people and visitors to the area, as well as the discoveries made during preservation work. The site was built by Greek architects during the 26th Dynasty of Egypt and was dedicated to Amon-Ra, the Egyptian supreme deity that the Greeks thought of as a version of their god Zeus. We know that the oracle that resided in the temple became famous in the ancient Mediterranean world which spurred visits from powerful and important historical figures from this time. “…. Around 549 BC, Siwa had acquired such international fame that it was amongst the few oracular establishments regarded as trustworthy by the famously rich Lydian ruler Croesus who sent a delegation there.” (Kuhlmann, 1)
Alexander the Great visited the temple after the Greeks completed their conquest of Egypt and was most likely the singular most important person to ever visit the site during its prime. From unconfirmed oral history archaeologists get stories of pharaohs visiting the temple and the oracle as well as an unconfirmed tale about an army of 50,000 men disappearing on their way to Siwa, sent from Persia by King Cambyses II to destroy the temple and kill the oracle. During Roman times, the oracle fell out of esteem and the temple was eventually abandoned apart from being occupied inconsistently by the local Egyptians and sometimes their cattle. All of this information about the site is known without doing any excavations at all.
The excavations made during preservation work to save the temple are the only official digs done on the temple. During this work, the people restoring the site initially found a single tomb underneath the temple. There is no information on what, if anything was found within the tomb. After placing the emergency support in this area, excavations continued. These further excavations resulted in many more shafts and tombs being discovered. “During these activities several more shafts and tombs were discovered. They were partly located directly underneath the walls of the temple with only a little bedrock left for distributing their load. In one example, under the inner walls of the sanctuary and one room, the bedrock between the floor of the temple and the ceiling of the tomb is less than 50cm (About 20 inches). The tombs are not vaulted but show a flat ceiling, which has been deformed and cracked in some of the tomb chambers due to the load of the overlying walls, causing also deformation in the temple wall itself.” (Mueller, Pliett, Wenzell, Kuhlmann, 220-221)
Conclusion
The Temple of Amun at Siwa is a fascinating historical site. It is somewhat unique in the idea that as far as overall Egyptian history and archaeology is concerned it is currently on the less important end of the spectrum, but it is more important as far as Greek history and archaeology is concerned. While the site was in Egypt, was inhabited by Egyptians, and was dedicated to the Egyptian supreme god, it was built by the Greeks and had an oracle that was mainly revered by all of the cultures surrounding the Mediterranean apart from the Egyptians. This is not to say that the Egyptians did not hold the oracle in esteem, just that they cared far less than other Mediterranean civilizations. Egyptians held the much older and much larger temple at Karnak, which was dedicated to the Theban triad of Amun, Khonsu, and Mut, in higher esteem.
The small amount of work done on the site has helped archaeologists and Egyptologists learn a little bit more about the Temple. Actual extensive archaeological digs are needed to gain more information and complete our knowledge about the Temple. Without more excavation of the site there is no way of knowing the full story of the Temple of Amun or what could possibly lie in the unexcavated areas underneath it.
Sources
Kuhlmann, K P. 1988. “The Oracle of Amun at Siwa and the Visit of Alexander the Great.” Ancient Society (Australia). 18 (2): 65 – 85
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. 2016. “Siwa Oasis.” Encyclopedia Britannica Website. February 24. Accessed October 18, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/place/Siwa-Oasis
Ahmed M El Shishtawy. 2016. “Impact of natural environment on the development of remote areas: Siwa Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt.” Journal of Geology & Geophysics Website. Accessed October 22, 2018. https://www.omicsonline.org/proceedings/impact-of-natural-environment-on-the-development-of-remote-areas-siwa-oasis-western-desert-egypt-54833.html
Rabeh, Taha. 2004. “Evaluation of subsurface structures of Siwa oasis, western Desert, Egypt using 3-D magnetic modeling.” National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, Helwan Cairo, Egypt.
Mueller, Hartmut Pliett, K P Kulhmann, and Fritz Wenzel. 2002. “Structural preservation of the Temple of the Oracle in Siwa Oasis, Egypt.” Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites. 5 (4): 215 – 230.
White, A Silva. 1899. From Sphinx to oracle; through the Libyan desert to the oasis of Jupiter Ammon. London, Hurst, and Blackett, Limited.
Cited Images
Temple of Amun at Siwa, Photo by Egypt Tours+. 2018. egypttoursplus.com, accessed 16 October 2018.
Temple of Amun at Siwa aerial view, Photo by Ir Egipto Travel. 2018. Pinterest. pinterest.co.uk, accessed 16 October 2018.
Floor plan for Temple of Amun, Photo by Jimmy Dunn. 2013. Tour Egypt. touregypt.net, accessed 12 November 2018.
Temple of Amun with background Oasis, Photo by Joel Stratte-McClure. 2017. A Medium Corporation, medium.com, accessed 12 November 2018.