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'{{Short description|Ancient building on Philae, Egypt}} [[File:Agilkia Trajankiosk 01.JPG|thumb|260px|Trajan's Kiosk on Agilika island]] '''Trajan's Kiosk''', also known as '''Pharaoh's Bed''' ({{lang-ar|سرير فرعون}}) by the locals, is a [[hypaethral temple]] currently located on [[Agilkia Island]] in southern [[Egypt]]. The unfinished monument is attributed to [[Trajan]], [[Roman emperor]] from 98 to 117 AD, due to his depiction as pharaoh seen on some of the interior reliefs.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Frankfurter|editor-first=David|section=Island of the Extremity: Space, Language, and Power in the Pilgrimage Traditions of Philae|last=Rutherford|first=Ian|title=Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt|publisher=Brill|location=Boston|year=1998|page=233}}</ref> However, the majority of the structure dates to an earlier time, possibly to the reign of [[Augustus]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Redford|editor-first=Donald|title=Philae|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt|volume=3|page=43|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2001|isbn=0-19-513823-6}}</ref><ref name=arnold>{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Dieter|title=Temples of the Last Pharaohs|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195126334/page/235 235-236]|isbn=0-19-512633-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195126334/page/235}}</ref> The temple was originally built on the island of [[Philae]], near the lower [[Aswan Dam]], and served as main entrance to the Philae Island Temple Complex from the [[Nile]] river.<ref name="madaintrajan">{{cite web |title=Trajan's Kiosk |url=https://madainproject.com/trajan_kiosk |website=MadainProject |accessdate=17 May 2019}}</ref> It was relocated to Agilika Island in the 1960s by [[UNESCO]] to save it from the rising waters of the [[Nile]] that followed the construction of the [[Aswan High Dam]]. This 15-x-20&nbsp;metre kiosk is 15.85&nbsp;metres high; its function was likely "to shelter the bark of [[Isis]] at the eastern banks" of Philae island.<ref name=arnold /> Its four by five columns each carry "different, lavishly structured composite capitals that are topped by 2.10-metre-high piers" and were originally "intended to be sculpted into [[Bes]] piers, similar to the birthhouses of Philae, Armant, and [[Dendera Temple complex|Dendera]] though this decoration was never completed.<ref name=arnold /> The structure is today roofless,<ref>{{cite book|last=Elsner|author-link=Jas Elsner|first=Jaś|title=Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=1998|p=134}}</ref> but sockets within the structure's [[architrave]]s suggest that its [[roof]], which was made of timber, was indeed constructed in ancient times.<ref name=arnold /> Three 12.50-metre-long, presumably triangulated [[truss]]es, "which were inserted into a ledge at the back of stone architecture, carried the slightly [[Vault (architecture)|vaulted]] roof."<ref name=arnold /> All the fourteen columns are connected by a screening wall, with entrances in the eastern and western facades.<ref name="madaintrajan" /> This building represents an example of the unusual combination of wood and stone in the same architectural structure for an Egyptian temple.<ref name=arnold /> The attribution to Emperor Trajan is based on a carving inside the kiosk structure, depicting the emperor burning incense before Osiris and Isis.<ref name="madaintrajan" /> ==Gallery== <gallery class="center" widths="150px" heights="140px"> File:David Roberts Hypaethral Temple Philae.jpg|''The Hypaethral Temple of Philae'' by [[David Roberts (painter)|David Roberts]], 1838, in ''[[The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia]]'' File:Kiosk of Trajan 1839.jpg|Kiosk in December, 1839, [[Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière]] File:John Beasly Greene (American, born France - The Kiosk of Trajan, Philae - Google Art Project.jpg|Kiosk in 1854 by [[John Beasley Greene]] File:Hypaethral Temple Philae.jpg|''The Hypaethral Temple, Philae'', by [[Francis Frith]], 1857; from the collection of the [[National Galleries of Scotland]] </gallery> ==References== {{Reflist}} == External links == {{Commons category inline|Kiosk of Trajan in Philae}} {{Coord|24.0251|N|32.8846|E|source:wikidata|display=title}} [[Category:Philae]] [[Category:Trajan|Kiosk]]'