Ancient Speos Cave

As long as Egypt contains many areas that full of mountains, normally we found caves inside. The ancient Egyptians progressively enhanced these natural existed caves until they were buildings altogether, or until they appeared as buildings carved into the solid rock. The Egyptians used these caves in their worship. The god in the ordinary city-temples repeated the First Time when god emerged from the waters of chaos on the primeval mound. However, in the cave-shrine resembles the womb from which the god will be born. The cave-shrine is considered a link between our world and the mysterious dark side. The difficulty of this research is attributed to the fact that it was not easy to trace the cave-shrines, as they can be easily mistaken for the …show more content…
Instead they carved their shrines inside the rock, an art that is known as the rock-cut art. Examples of these rock cut shrines could be seen at Gebel El-Silsila, is located between Kom Ombo and Edfu. It contains many cave-shrine (around 32 ones on the western bank) dedicated to a variety of Nile gods and to the river itself. A new innovation appeared in the New Kingdom, which is the rock-cut temple. Although the Greeks called this temple a Speos (Literally means: cave); it doesn’t mean that this is a natural cave. The word Speos in archaeology refers to the rock-cut temple. There is the Speos of Horemheb that was cut in Gebel el-Silsila. The same king built another speos temple at Abahuda in Nubia (Gebel Adda) just south of Abu Simbel dedicated to Amun-Re, Thoth and local deities. King Seti I carved a rock-cut temple at Kanais dedicated to god Amun-Re. Kanais is a Wadi located in the eastern desert opposite the town of Edfu. However, Ramses II is considered the king who carved more than one rock-cut temple. He carved six temples in Lower Nubia some of them were wholly carved in the rock such as the temple of Beit el-Wali dedicated to Amun-Re, the two temples of Abu Simbel dedicated to Amun-Re, and the temple of El-Derr dedicated to Re-Horakhty. Others were partially carved in the rock such as Wadi Es-sebua temple dedicated to Amun-Re (only the inner vestibules and the sanctuary were …show more content…
Thus we can assume that this habit was a Nubian invention. In the Middle Kingdom, the artist began to carve the cave-shrines at Sinai and the red sea. The cave-shrines that were carved during this period related to the mining expeditions that were sent to Sinai and the Red Sea. The carving of cave-shrines exceeded in the beginning of the New Kingdom and was replaced later by rock-cut shrines and temples. It is notable also that the divinity to whom most of the cave-shrines were dedicated was either Amun or Hathor). God Amun was originally the god of invisibility; therefore it is not surprising to find a relation with the caves. During the Middle kingdom goddess Hathor was the one who was invoked inside the caves. The ancient Egyptian myth used to relate Hathor with the cave. In the book of the dead there is a plate showing Hathor emerging from the slope of a mountain (logically from a cave) (Pl. 6). The Graeco-Roman period, provided us with only one example of the cave-shrine which is the one found at Tehne. On the contrary this era provided us with numerous examples of rock-cut shrines.
The cave-shrines reappeared in the Byzantine era in what is called the cave-churches. It is worth mentioning here that some scholars confused between the cave and the crypt. The crypt will not be discussed in this research, as it was defined as a stone chamber