Dendera. The Sacred Lake.

- DENDERA -

The Sacred Lake

The "Sacred Lake" is located on the south-west of the Temple of Hat-Hor. It has a rectangular shape 32x27meters. There is no water in it. One can get down to its sandy bottom by means of four staircases, arranged clockwise along the walls of the Lake.

Lets walk aroun the perimeter of the Sacred Lake.

There is a block with the cut stairs, installed in the masonry of the external wall on the west side of the Lake. It is difficult to suppose, whether it was planned originally as a part of a certain construction, or wether we see the signs of ancient repair.

Let's go down the western stairs to the bottom of the "Sacred Lake".

Here will shall pay attention to the underground crypts, located inside the walls of the Lake perimeter.

The above photos are showing the interior of both crypts. The north and the south one. The width of the corridors is 85 cm, the slope angle is 21-23 degrees. Because of the groundwaters we were unable to get deeper inside, but nevertheles we made the pictures of the two underground corridors of each of the crypt, leading towards each other. To pass through these corridors was impossible, because of a dense thickets tree roots, which are growing on the bottom of the Lake.

The question of meaning of the "windows", located on a heigh of three feet from the bottom of the lake - remains unsolved. Why and what for are the windows, located in the wall masonry at the bottom of Lake?

Inside the crypts there are the traces of water erosion. The inside walls of the Lake has no water erosion at all.

The interior of the both crypt is shown on video below.

Assuming that the lateral branches of the both crypts have their prolongation under the bottom of the Lake, it is possible to suppose a certain underground corridor connecting these two crypts as follows:

This corridor is indicated by the dotted line on the cheme below.

The question of how long and how this "Sacred Lake" was functioning with all its complex of unexplored underground system - remains open for the future researches. And whether it was the "lake" in true meaning of the word?

Osiris at the Sacred Lake. An fragment from the "Book of the Dead." Papyrus of Ani.

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