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The entrance of the Taffeh temple faces south, which is unusual for an Egyptian temple. The
entrance of the accompanying southern temple however faces east, towards the Nile. The Taffeh
temple functioning as a chapel rather than the main temple however explains its orientation, as it
was not required for chapels to face towards the Nile (Schneider 1979, 93).
The entrance of the temple of Dendur is faced east, facing the Nile. The sun would come up
between the pylon gate. The orientation of this temple is completely traditional (Aldred 1978, 40).
The entrance of the temple of Shenhur faces south. As mentioned before however the Nile makes
a curve in this area, which is why, even though the entrance faces south, it is oriented towards the
Nile. We can assume in this case a choice had to be made between the entrance facing east or the
entrance facing the Nile, in which the latter was considered more important (de Meyer and Minas-
Nerpel 2012, 4).
Crypts
Something unique to the temple of Shenhur is the presence of crypts. One is located in the
sanctuary, another in the wabet. The exact purpose of these crypts is debated, but they were
probably symbolically important to certain rituals, possibly to hold statues of the gods that were
taken out for the new year’s rites, or for the giving of oracles, as secret storerooms or for the
safekeeping of valuable items (de Meyer and Minas-Nerpel 2012, 2; Altenmüller et al. 2007, 297;
Wilkinson 2007, 68).
The reason this was located in this temple only could be that the crypts were more important as
symbols in this region compared to the region in which Taffeh and Dendur were located. It could
also be related to the difference in function of the temples and popularity of the regions in which
they were built.