I think the Nubians were just too damn black for the colonial British archeologists who discovered many of their majestic temples to be able to stomach revealing their fabulous culture and architectural prowess to the rest of the world and many of their ruins, like this impressive temple of Gyrshe, seem to have been purposefully destroyed or methodically deconstructed and looted so the remaining edifices and stellas could be smuggled onto the black market where they would ultimately end up in the garden of some rich persons estate outside of Egypt and Sudan. Lost forever. Luckily we do have a collection of prints that depict much of the original majesty and impressive scale of this lost Nubian temple. Only but a tiny fraction of the original complex still exists in the sands of Sudan.
Source: AscendingPassage.com | See the: Egyptian Secrets Library.
The Lost Temple of
Gerf Hussein (Husein)
Carved into a mountainside on the orders of Pharaoh Rameses (Ramesses) II, Gerf Hussein has similarities to the well known temple at Abu Simbel, on a smaller scale.
The interior of the temple of Gerf Husein was not rescued from the waters of the Aswan High Dam and now is underwater. One great statue of Rameses is now the centerpiece of the Nubian Museum in Aswan, and a few other pieces of the temple are there. The exterior columns form a sad and lonely group in their new location among the rocks at New Kalabsha. With the justified celebration that many important monuments of Nubia were saved by the international, UNESCO sponsored effort, should go the acknowledgment that much was lost, that restored temples are out of their natural settings of which they were a function, and that nobody knows how much was never found.
Wadi Gyrshe – Gerf Hussein (Husein)
Edited excerpt from: Travels in Nubia
by John Lewis Burckhardt
Published in 1819.
At the end of five hours traveling from our setting out in the morning, we reached Wady Gyrshe (Gerf Hussein). At the northern extremity of this village is a temple, cut out of the rock, which presents a fine contrast to its neighbor at Dakke. It would seem to have been executed in the infancy of architectural art, when the artist produced an imposing effect not by the gracefulness, but the magnitude of his figures.
Exterior of the underground Temple of Wadi Gyrshe (Gerf Hussein or Husein),
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
This temple stands upon the top of a hill, the broad declivity of which is covered with rubbish and some fragments of colossal statues. In front is a portico consisting of five square columns on each side, with a row of circular columns in front, which originally supported a roof. Of these columns only two remain. Before each of the square side columns stands a colossal statue of sandstone about eighteen feet high, holding a flail in one hand, the other hanging down. All represent male figures, with the narrow beard under the chin, and the high sphinx cap upon the head. Their shoulders are covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions.
On both sides of the portico is an open alley, hewn in the rock, from whence, perhaps, the materials of the front colonnade were taken. The pronaos is entered from the portico by a large gate. It is eighteen paces square, and contains two rows, three in each, of immense columns, or rather props, (for they are without capitals,) measuring five feet by seven at the floor.
The Great Statues in Gerf Husein Temple,
by David Roberts, 1838
In front of each of these columns is a colossal figure, more than twenty feet in height, the hands crossed upon the breast, and holding the flail and crosier. These statues are rudely executed, the outlines of their bodies are less correct even than those of the statues at Seboua, and their legs mere round blocks. Yet they have a striking effect in this comparatively small space. I am accustomed to the grandeur of Egyptian temples, of which I have examined many incomparable specimens. I was nevertheless struck with admiration on entering this gloomy pronaos and beholding these immense figures standing in silence before me.
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
On the side walls of the pronaos are four niches, in each of which are three statues of natural size, representing the different symbolic figures which are seen on the walls of the temples of Egypt. All these figures, as well as the colossi, are covered with a thick coat of stucco, and had once been painted. They must then have had a splendid appearance.
The Temple of Gerf Hussein, a cut-away view,
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
A door leads from the pronaos into the cella, in the center of the cella are two massy pillars, and on either side a small room. On the floor of each are high stone benches, which may have served for supporting offerings in the temple. The floors have been broken up in search of treasure, and are now covered with rubbish.
Floor plan of the partly underground Temple of Wadi Gyrshe,
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
Behind the cella, and communicating with it by a door, is the adytum, on each side of which is a small chamber, also opening into the cella, exactly like those in the temple at Derr.
Sanctuary of the underground Temple of Wadi Gyrshe (Gerf Husein),
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
In the back wall of the adytum are seated four statues, above human size. In the center of the floor is a large cubical stone, the use of which I cannot determine. Its sides are quite smooth and without any kind of sculpture. It may have served as the pedestal of a statue, or is it an inverted sarcophagus? Of the sculptures and hieroglyphics with which the walls of this temple were covered, very little is now discernible, the sandstone being soft and soon falling to decay. Added to this, the walls are quite black with smoke from the fires kindled by the neighboring shepherds, who often pass the night in the temple with their cattle. Enough of this temple still remains to show that the sculptures are rudely executed. The colossal figures of the pronaos are in good preservation, those in the portico have been mutilated.
While inspecting the interior apartments of this temple with a lighted candle, I was joined in the adytum by the Shikh of Gyrshe, who had hurried after me, on seeing us take the road to the building. He begged me to give him half the treasure I had found, or at least a handful, but he was obliged to be contented with a piece of wax candle. He showed me the place where the Englishmen (Messrs. Legh and Smelt), who had been here before me, found, as he asserted, an immense treasure. One of the villagers had seen the gold! Similar tales are often spread abroad, every peasant swears to their truth.
I am uncertain whether Gyrshe (Gerf Hussein), or the more northern Dandour, represents the ancient Tutzis. The spot upon which the temple just described stands is called by the natives Djorn Hosseyn.
From Gerf Hussein northward the shore is very narrow. We rode over the rocky mountain, which is close to the river, and, at the end of six hours from Dakke alighted at Merye, where we slept.
NEXT CHAPTER
The Temple at Gerf Hussein
Edited excerpt from: Travels in Nubia
by John Lewis Burckhardt
Published in 1819.
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