A temple
to both the goddess Isis and Hathor, it was the last place in Egypt to worship
the goddesses, before the inundation of Christianity swept it away. A sad
affair. In the third century after the common era, Christian Rome clamped down
and zealots turned on the old religion, smashing images and shrines of the
pagan past. They did a good job. Christians destroyed the Temple of Serapis in
one or two riotous fits during the reign of the Christian Roman Emperor
Theophilus. Christians defaced or destroyed countless ‘pagan’ buildings and
statues during the reign of Theophilus.
Philae
finally closed in AD 550, ending 4,000 years of worship of the pagan gods. Then
it still had to face the rising tide of Lake Aswan and Islam.
The sun
broke through the haze and stone pylons rose like sacred fortresses guarding
the secrets of the old religion.
