View source for Bigeh

{{short description|Island and archaeological site}}

{{hiero|snmwt<ref name = Gauthier40>{{cite book |last1=Gauthier |first1=Henri |title=Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques Vol. 5 |date=1928 |page=40 |url=https://archive.org/details/Gauthier1928/page/n23/}}</ref><ref name = Budge1031>{{cite book |last1=Wallis Budge |first1=E. A. |title=An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary: with an index of English words, king list and geological list with indexes, list of hieroglyphic characters, coptic and semitic alphabets, etc. Vol II |date=1920 |publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/egyptianhierogly02budguoft/page/1031 1031] |url=https://archive.org/details/egyptianhierogly02budguoft}}</ref>|<hiero>z:n-mwt-t:xAst</hiero>|align=right|era=mk}}
{{Hiero|1=snm(w)t or snm(w)tt<ref name = Gauthier40/><ref name = Budge1031/> |2=<hiero>z:nw-Aa15:t*niwt</hiero> '''or''' <hiero>s-nw:Aa15-t*t:xAst</hiero>|align=right|era=default}}
'''Bigeh''' ({{langx|ar|بجح}}; Ancient Egyptian ''znmwt'')<ref>Allen, James P. ''Middle Egyptian Literature'' 2014, p.12</ref> is an island and archaeological site situated along the [[Nile|Nile River]] in historic [[Nubia]] and within the [[Aswan Governorate]] of southern [[Egypt]]. The island has been situated in the reservoir of the [[Old Aswan Dam]] since the dam's initial completion in 1902.<ref>[[Sidney Peel]],[https://archive.org/details/bindingofnilene00peel The Binding of the Nile and the New Soudan], p.76 (1904)</ref><ref>Canay Ozden, [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00033790.2013.808378#.UgMgFW3pwTk The Pontifex Minimus: William Willcocks and Engineering British Colonialism], p. 196, [[Annals of Science]], 2013. DOI: 
10.1080/00033790.2013.808378</ref>

==Ancient Egypt==
It was formerly an island in the [[Cataracts of the Nile|First Cataract]] of the [[Nile River]] and its fortification controlled the access to ancient [[Upper Egypt]] and Nubia. It is a [[World Heritage Site]], located close to [[Philae]] and [[Agilkia Island]]s and their ancient [[archaeological site]]s in the reservoir.<ref>''Yale University Publications in Anthropology'', Yale University 1936, p.96</ref>

Bigeh Island was sacred to the [[ancient Egypt]]ians.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419073619/http://www.philae.nu/akhet/Philaebigeh.html The Island of Bigeh], www.philae.nu, date unknown, (accessed 17 February 2014 from archive.org)</ref> They believed that [[Osiris]] was buried on the island<ref>Burton, Anne (1972). ''Diodorus Siculus''. Brill. p. 95</ref> and a temple that stood on it was known as ''Abaton'', Greek for "untrodden place", because only priests were allowed to set foot there.<ref>Dijkstra, Jitse H. F. (2008). ''Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion''. Peeters. p. 202.</ref> The temple was mentioned by both [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]]<ref>Seneca, ''Q. N.'' iv. 2</ref> and [[Marcus Annaeus Lucanus|Lucan]].<ref>Lucan, x.323</ref>

The god [[Thoth]] bore the epithets of "Great and Splendid God in Bigeh" and "He that Pacifies the ''Nsr.t'' in Bigeh".<ref>Boylan, Patrick (1922). ''Thoth, Or the Hermes of Egypt''. p. 169</ref> It is thought that there may have been a temple of Thoth on the island.

In the mid or late 3rd century AD, an embassy from King [[Talakhidamani]] of [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]] visited the Abaton with gifts.<ref name=JK>Josefine Kuckertz (2021), [http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002kp3mv "Meroe and Egypt"], in Wolfram Grajetzki, [[Solange Ashby]] and Willeke Wendrich (eds.), ''UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology'', Los Angeles.</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:David Roberts Temple Island Philae.jpg|Bigeh (foreground) and [[Philae]] with temple,<br>in the [[Cataracts of the Nile|First Cataract]] of the [[Nile River]].<br>(1838 painting by [[David Roberts (painter)|David Roberts]]).
File:BigaTemplePylonGate.jpg|Bigeh island ruins in 2006 in the [[Old Aswan Dam]] reservoir.
</gallery>

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
{{commons category|Island of Bigeh}}
{{Islands of Egypt}}

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[[Category:Archaeological sites in Egypt]]
[[Category:Aswan Governorate]]
[[Category:History of Nubia]]
[[Category:Islands of the Nile]]
[[Category:River islands of Egypt]]
[[Category:World Heritage Sites in Egypt]]

{{Egypt-geo-stub}}