Life in the Old World: Templo de Debod y Jardines del campo del moro

Thursday we decided to take it a little easy on the walking around the city and seeing stuff. Being a tourist can be hard work! J Today we tried to see some gardens behind Palacio Liria (the palace is just used for events now) We walked around the entire block only to figure out that it is closed off to the public. There is a huge, thick wall enclosing the entire block, there aren’t even any gaps to see in. It looked like there was an important school in there so we think maybe the school owns the grounds.

After that we walked over to El Templo de Debod. The temple is 2,000 years old and was given to Spain by the Egyptian government in 1968 as a token of Egypt’s gratitude for Spain’s help in rescuing the temples of Abu Simbel in Nubia. The temple was devoted to the cult of the gods Amun and Isis. They Egyptians deconstructed the temple, sent it over to Spain and reconstructed it in Madrid.

After the temple we headed to Jardines del Campo del Moro. This is another big garden behind the Palacio Real. It was a good time to head there because there was a lot of shade and it was pretty hot out. We saw some exotic birds and even what looked like a marching band practice! I am sure it was for something official though because everyone was wearing official uniforms. They were pretty good though and it was fun to watch them practice.

That night we went to a Bible study out in Pozuelo, a suburb of Madrid. It was a lot of fun. One of the other teachers from the program invited us. The leader of the Bible study is the person in charge of Young Life in Madrid. We are going to look into helping out with Young Life here too. We had a lot of fun. Most of the people are Americans with one girl from England. I believe there are a few Spaniards that attend but they weren’t there. We had the Bible study and then everyone brought a tapa to share.

Templo de Debod

Adikhalamani worshiping the god Arensuphis and the goddess Tefnut

"In these rites and offerings were performed daily at the middle of the day and dusk" (Something along those lines anyways. :)

Amun’s Naos 80-51 BC. This was the inner sanctum built by Ptolemy XII, housing the cult statue of the god Amun. It is the most sacred place in the temple. Only priests were allowed to enter here.

"The sacred objects are guarded in the crypts"

Second Pylon Gateway Cornice. 172-170 BC The Greek inscription on the face of this cornice commemorate the dedication of the temple to the goddess Isis by King Ptolemy VI and his wife Cleopatra II

Bird's eye view of what the temple used to look like.

200-180 BC. This block of sandstone has the royal titles “King of Upper and Lower Egypt” and “Son of Ra” written on it. This block would’ve been located in Akikhalamani’s chapel over the doorway.

200-180 BC. This block has three of the five titles given to Egyptian kings. Horus: “Image of Re, chosen of the gods.” King of Upper and Lower Egypt: “Image of Re chosen of the gods.” Son of Re: “Adikhalamani beloved of Isis.”

The states also got a temple for helping out. Ours is the Temple of Dendur and has been in New York since 1968. Below is a model of the temple we got.