Place · island

Philae

Philae is an island in the Nile near Aswan, at the southern frontier of ancient Egypt, famed for its temple of Isis, begun under Nectanebo I and built mainly under the Ptolemies and Romans. The sanctuary drew worshippers from Nubia, including the Blemmyes, until its closure under Justinian around 537. When the Aswan dams flooded the island, its temples were moved in the 1970s to the nearby island of Agilkia.

Philae
Image: Holger Uwe Schmitt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 3 profiles

Roman EgyptMilitary, DeclineAncient EgyptianSpeakers, SummaryAncient Egyptian religionTexts, Spread, Legacy, Summary

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Thirtieth Dynasty of EgyptBlemmyes

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Philae. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/philae
MLA
“Philae.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/philae. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Philae.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/philae.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Philae’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/philae (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻