The Gateway of the Temple of Isis at Philae

The island of Philae was famed as "the Pearl of Egypt", the most romantic attraction for tourists travelling to the Near East in the nineteenth century, whoses architectural climax was the great Temple dedicated to Isis, her mythological husband Osiris being honoured on the neighbouring island of Bigah. The Nile is here divided by several distinctive rocky islets as seen in the middle and far distance in the present picture.

The gateway of the Temple as shown in the present picture is the first pylon of the complex, named after its founder Ptolemy XIII Neos Dionysius.