National Day of Qena Governorate; The Sun Boats
Egypt, History, 3/5/2001

Qena derives its name from its old title under the Roman era; Canio- Dolli, later converted to its present name during the Islamic era. The national day marks the victory by Al- Borand village over the French Expedition led by Captain Frian.

The governarate accommodates the greatest and more than one half of Egypt's monument and treasures, giving living evidence of the glories of ancient Egyptians.

Geographical Information Administrative Structure ( Ministry of Interior's structure ) 11 centers 11 cities 135 villages 1639 subvillages (kafr)

Area governorate area 10265.50 km2 percentage to national 1.05% Population density (Avg.) 1,517 population/km2

Population total population 2441420 male 50.28% female 49.72% percentage to national 4.12% population rate of growth 2.59%

Agricultural activities cultivated area 333480 feddan (1 feddan = 1.038 acres) percentage to national 4.25% area ready for reclaimation 115727 feddan percentage to national 1.96%

Industrial activities aluminium industry sugar industry plastic industry

Tourism hotels 2 rooms 116 tourist nights none

Public Services high education 13 institutes 19785 students

pre-university education

General Azhar Total

classrooms 13950 2032 15982

students 573202 68884 642086

40 students/class

health care 39 hospitals 2874 beds 849 inhabitants/bed

914 physicians 2671 inhabitants/physician

worship places 3029 mosques 80 churches

culture 11 culture centers 221000 inhabitants/culture center

Infrastructure potable water produced potable water 216000 m3/day potable water per capita 88 litre/day

electricity consumed electricity 572.235 million K.W.H consumed electricity per capita 234 K.W.H yearly sewer drainage sewer capacity 14 million m3/day sewer capacity per capita 6 litre/day

transportation and communication transportation 1075 km of paved roads 2270 inhabitants/km of paved roads communication telephone lines 54900 telephone lines 2.25 line/ 100 inhabitants post office 204 post offices 11968 inhabitants/post office

Labor force & Unemployment labor force 505131 inhabitants Unemployed graduates 61,846 inhabitants

Qena presently covers parts of the ancient Egyptian countries of "Ten Onkhen, "west" (Scepter), "Netroy" (The Two Gods), "Zam" and "Knimet".

Brief Historical Background

Traces of pre-historic civilizations were found at various parts of the governorate, which were generally named "first, second and third Nakada civilizations".

Pharonic Monuments Comprise a huge collection of temples and statues mainly located at Luxor, divided on both the east and west banks of the Nile.

Luxor Temple

The temple was discovered in the course of a general drainage of the area and its archaeological clearance began in 1883/1884. It was constructed from blocks taken from earlier buildings some of which were found dating to the Thirteenth Dynasty. It covers four acres and is 583 feet long and 181 feet wide at its greatest breadth. Several kings contributed to its construction, however the temple was built essentially by two kings: AmenhotepIII ( who ordered its construction) and Ramses II.

The temple has been used as a holy ground by the ancient Egyptians, by the Moslems. In the Christian period one of the chambers in the temple was converted into a church. Also the mosque of Abu el-Haggag, was later added on top of the court of Ramsis II.

The temple was dedicated to the god Amon-Re and therefore was connected to his great temple at Karnak by an avenue of human-headed sphinxes covering a distance of about 3 Km. The avenue led to forecourt before the Pylon of the temple of Luxor.

The temple itself is fronted by a pylon that dates to Ramsis II's reign, and is decorated with reliefs and texts telling the story of a battle between the Egyptians and the Hittites that occurred in Qadesh in Syria. Two obelisks originally stood in front of the pylon measuring about 25m high, now only one remains while the other was moved to be placed in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Several larger than life statues of king Ramsis II flank the entrance

The history of the site goes back to the Third Dynasty according to ancient records. However, the oldest archeological evidence shows that the site was in use from the Middle Kingdom until the end of the Roman Period. The name Karnak comes from that of a modern village nearby, however, in ancient times it was called 'Ipet Isut' or " the most select of places". The site consists of an extremely complex set of buildings of various dates, as virtually every ruler contributed to it.

The largest and principal building in the complex is the Great Temple of Amon. The temple runs along two axes (east-west & north-south) and consists of a number of temples, chapels and a sacred lake. The plan of the temple consists of series of pylons of different dates with courts between them, the earliest are pylons IV and V.

The Great temple of Amon is accessed from the west where a quay (or a paved boat landing), and an avenue of ram headed sphinxes lead to the first pylon. The first pylon was built probably during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and it remains to the present day unfinished. Behind the first pylon is an open courtyard containing three chapels dedicated to the Theban Triad, the central one is dedicated to the god Amon while the one on the left is dedicated to his consort Mut and that on the right to Khonsu their son. In the center of the court there were ten columns, only one of which is now standing, those formed part of a kiosk built by king Taharqa. On the southern part side of the court a temple of Ramsis III was erected.

The second Pylon is thought to have been the work of king Horemheb and was found containing a large number of reused blocks of earlier buildings. It is preceeded by colossal statues of Ramsis II one of which shows him with his daughter Bent anta.

Behind this second pylon is a hypostyle hall that was originally roofed. This hall has 134 papyrus columns and it is assumed that those were made to represent a papyrus marsh. Some of the columns have a lot of colour left on their upper parts and on the roof slabs. The hall is decorated in raised and sunk relief by Seti I and Ramsis II, and its exterior walls are decorated with scenes of a battle fought in Palestine and Syria during the reign of Ramsis II known as the battle of Qadesh.

The third pylon built by Amenhotep III was found to contain in its foundation a number of reused blocks that came from earlier buildings. Some of these buildings were reconstructed and include a chapel of Senusert I of limestone, another chapel of Amenhotep I, Amenhotep II, a red quartizite chapel of Hatshepsut and a chapel and pillared portico of king Tuthmosis IV.

One obelisk now remains out of four which originally stood behind the pylon and were placed by Tuthmosis I & III to mark the entrance of the original temple.

The fourth pylon built by Tuthmosis I stands infornt of a narrow hall, forming the earliest part of the temple and known as The Transverse Hall. It containes 14 papyrus columns, and two obelisks were placed by Hatshepsut on each side of the passageway.

The fifth pylon leads to another smaller Transverse Hall, beyond which is the sixth pylon of Tuthmosis III. The area beyond is rather confused. There is a vestibule which includes two granite pillars with the emblems of Upper and Lower Egypt. A bark shrine dating to Philip Arrhidaeus stands on an earlier shrine built by Tuthmosis III. There is also a Festival Temple or Hall of Tuthmosis III which contains a rather unusual room known as the 'Botanical Garden'. The walls of this chamber have very accurate carvings representing plants, birds and animals which Tuthmosis III brought form Syria during one of his campaigns.

Flowers, fruits, birds, cattle and various animals are represented here with great care and delicacy.

Other four pylons were added along a different axis, extending the temple of Amon in a southerly direction. Pylons seven and eight were built by Tuthmosis III while Pylons nine and ten are attributed to Horemheb. To the north of the seventh pylon is a court known as the Court of the Cachette, where thousands of statues were buried originally coming from the temple.

On the southern side of the temple is the sacred lake which was fed by underground channels from the Nile. On the eastern side a series of priests' houses were recently discovered.

Several other temples and chapels are found inside the Temple of Amon enclosure. In the northern side there is a temple of Ptah, the god of Memphis, in the north eastern is a chapel of Osiris Heqadjet. In the southwest corner is a Temple of the moon god Khonsu, the son of Amon and Mut. Close to it stands a small Temple of the hippopotamus goddess Apet.

Two other enclosures are connected to the Great Temple of Amon. On the southern side of the Temple of Amon is the southern enclosure which consisted of a temple of Mut surrounded by a large crescent-shaped lake and subsidiary buildings including a temple of Ramsis III.

North of the Temple of Amon is another enclosure known as the Northern enclosure. This one is smaller and contains mainly the temple of Montu the war god and several other structures.

Greek and Roman Monuments

These comprise Esna Temple, Alexander the Great's Shrine in the Luxor Temple, Klaib's shrine at Karnak, Ptah's Temple at Karnak, Modamard Temple, Deir al- Madina Temple and Dandara Temple.

Coptic Monuments

Martyrs' Monastery, Aubo Mathews Monastery and al Fakhouri's Monastery.

Islamic Monuments

Al Qena's Mosque Abu -Hagga Al-Oxoi Mosque, Al-Ateeq Mosque, Esna , Omari Mosque, Asofun, Qous, Hammam's Mosque, Farshout.

The Sun Boats

The sun boat of the Pharoah Cheops (2590 - 2568 BC) is made of cedar wood brought from Lebanon and assembled without the use of a single nail. The planks of wood are held together by fibre ropes that are still intact. The boat is about 42 metres (1 3 8ft) long and more than 5 metres (1 6ft) wide.

The sun boat is not the only one. There are three other large pits on the eastern side of the pyramid. One of them was opened and contained a boat similar to the first.

Previous Stories:
  Ancient pilgrims road discovered in North Sinai   (2/26/2001)
  Mustafa Kamel Museum, a national edifice   (2/22/2001)
  Statue dating to Akhenaton era   (2/22/2001)

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