Ancient site · Aswan
Dakka Temple
A Greco-Roman temple in Lower Nubia dedicated to Thoth, notable for its tall pylon, which survives in near perfect condition.
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The story
Dakka was a place in Lower Nubia, and its temple is dedicated to Thoth, god of wisdom. Building began in the 3rd century BC under the Meroitic king Arqamani in cooperation with Ptolemy IV, who added the gateway, and Ptolemy IX later enlarged it with a columned hall. In Roman times the emperors Augustus and Tiberius extended the structure and surrounded it with a stone wall, turning it into a fortress facing the Nile. In the Christian period the facade of the hall was converted into a church. In the 1960s the temple was dismantled and re-erected at its present site at New Wadi es-Sebua as part of UNESCO's campaign to save the monuments of Nubia from the waters of Lake Nasser.
Good to know
- The temple is dedicated to Thoth, the god of wisdom in ancient Egypt.
- The temple's pylon is about 12 metres high and in near perfect condition.
- The temple was moved in the 1960s to New Wadi es-Sebua on the shore of Lake Nasser.