Temple at Nadura & Fortress

 Temple at Nadura & Fortress 

In Nadura, whose name means "The Lookout" name remains of a temple once locked in a Roman fortification are strategically perched on a hill, about 1.5 km north-east from the center of El-Kharga. The top of the hill, there are spectacular views of the Oasis with the monuments of Hibis Temple and el-Bagawat cemetery clearly seen in the distance.

View of the fortress Nadura

Regulation of Nadura is now buried and the two temples are badly ruined village, but the wall of the south entrance of the main temple can still be seen on top of the hill.

The Roman fortress Nadura

The main temple was built during the reign of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius in the second century AD. A door in the south sandstone ruin enclosure wall fronts a courtyard which contained three rooms of the temple. Another smaller entrance was through the north wall. Remains of the narthex on the west side of the structure can still be seen, but the vestibule and the sanctuary have now virtually disappeared, buried by sand. The facade of the narthex, typical of the era, had screens connected by walls and columns is decorated inside with figures and hieroglyphic texts.

Nadura Temple Northeast

Originally thought perhaps to be outposts of large and well-preserved Temple of Amun at Hibis, 2km north-west, it was difficult to know who these two deities temples were devoted largely due to the deterioration of the balance reliefs. Since the early explorers first documented the temple, speculation on specific deities honored here were widespread. There are some suggestions that the goddess Mut was chief deity of the temple as it appears in several reliefs, as does Amun, Khonsu, Ihy, Thoth and Bes, while others are associated with Amon Hibis, a local form of Amon worshiped Hibis Temple.

Nadura South Temple

In 2009, Yale University began its project Nadura Temple in order to provide a complete epigraphic documentation reliefs and inscriptions. They also started an archaeological and architectural site survey and clearance of the sanctuary area partly destroyed. The findings of the Yale project team so far are interesting in that it is now proposed from evidence of texture that the temple is more likely to have been dedicated to Khonsu, son of Amun and Mut as it dominates the reliefs, especially in a single terrain where the deity Amon stands before a place of honor.

King before Mut & Khonsu

A Coptic church was in the space outside the temple and the entire structure was then reused as a fortress during the Turkish and Ottoman Mamaluk. Remains of the second temple anepigraphic can be seen at the base of the hill to the main road.