Dendera Temple Complex

The Dendera Temple Complex, located 2.5 km southeast of Dendera in Upper Egypt, is one of the best-preserved temple complexes in ancient Egypt, spanning approximately 40,000 square metres. Evidence of construction dates to Pharaoh Pepi I (c. 2250 BC), with Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1500 BC) temple remains also present. The dominant structure, the Temple of Hathor, was begun in 54 BC under Ptolemy XII Auletes and completed during the Roman period. The complex includes a famed Dendera zodiac relief (now in the Louvre), a sanatorium where the sick sought divine healing, birth houses (mammisi), a sacred lake, and a 5th-century Coptic basilica.