32 photographs · Egypt
Dendara Temple
Temple of Hathor, Qena — the painted ceiling.
Ptolemaic and Roman work on a much older foundation, and the best-preserved painted ceiling in Egypt. Soot from centuries of habitation was cleaned off in the 2000s, revealing the astronomical ceiling in colour — vultures, zodiac figures, and the sky goddess Nut swallowing the sun each evening to give birth to it at dawn. The crypts beneath carry the relief usually mislabelled as a lightbulb. Hathor's columns were systematically defaced, the faces chiselled away, in the Christian period.
32 of 32 frames carry coordinates
