# The Hypaethral Temple at Philae, Called the Bed of Pharaoh, from Egypt and Nubia, Volume II, 1848, by David Roberts, Louis Haghe, and F. G. Moon, color lithograph after drawing David Roberts, published by Moon, lithographed by Haghe, a temple on the Nile at Philae, Egypt. Temple, a temple, the temple. Temple at Philae; Kiosk of Trajan, Egypt. English, 19th century. Color lithograph. Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of John Bonebrake, Cleveland, USA. Source title: Egypt and Nubia, Volume II: The Hypaethral Temple at Philae, called the Bed of Pharaoh, 1848. Hypaethral Temple at Philae; the Bed of Pharaoh; Pharaoh's Bed; Trajan's Kiosk, Philae, Aswan, Egypt. The Hypaethral Temple at Phile, called the Bed of Pharaoh. Also known as Kiosk of Trajan at Philae, Egypt, on the Nile River, Aswan. Lithograph, color lithograph, hand-colored lithograph, tinted lithograph. Print. Prints Department. Nile River, palm trees, boats, figures, mountains, landscape, architecture, ancient Egypt, Roman Egypt, ruins, Orientalism, travel print, 19th-century print, British print, Scottish artist, David Roberts (1796-1864), Louis Haghe (1806-1885), F G Moon (1797-1871), Francis Graham Moon, publisher, lithographer, artist. 19th century, 1848, Victorian era. Egypt and Nubia (1846-1849) series, Volume II. Philae island temple complex, UNESCO World Heritage, moved to Agilkia Island.

Louis Haghe (British, 1806–1885); F. G. Moon (British, 1797–1871); David Roberts (Scottish, 1796–1864) · 1848 · England, 19th century

Original title: Egypt and Nubia, Volume II: The Hypaethral Temple at Philae, called the Bed of Pharaoh (the heading above is the museum's own, written by an AI model)

License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) · Credit: Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of John Bonebrake · Source: https://clevelandart.org/art/2012.262

## What you would see

In the center of a wide horizontal print stands an ancient open-air temple, raised on a high stone platform above the Nile. It has no roof: rows of tall square columns with carved floral capitals support a heavy entablature, and the pale sky is visible through the openings. Its walls and columns are drawn in warm beige and gray tones, with shadows that model the stone. Small figures in light and dark clothing sit and stand at the base, giving the building its imposing scale. To the left, the riverbank falls toward calm water; two people wade near rocks and reeds, while hazy mountains and a rocky promontory recede into the distance. On the right, dense shrubs and several date palms, one very tall, frame the scene. In the lower right foreground, wooden river boats with cabins, masts, cloth coverings, and groups of small travelers crowd the bank, next to a small rowboat. The water reflects boats, shore, and vegetation in soft horizontal strokes. The sky occupies almost half the image, nearly empty and luminous. The print sits on a wide cream margin, with the title printed below in orange capital letters and small publication inscriptions along the lower edge.

## How to look at it

Look first at the temple raised above the water and at the tiny figures at its base, which set its scale. Then move toward the boats and palms on the right, where everyday life continues beside the ruin. The absence of a roof lets the sky pass through the columns and changes the monument from an enclosed building into a stone frame for the landscape.

## Context

This color lithograph, published in London in 1848, belongs to *Egypt and Nubia, Volume II*. It was made after drawings by the Scottish artist David Roberts, transferred to lithographic stone by Louis Haghe and published by F. G. Moon. Roberts had traveled through Egypt and Nubia in 1838–1839, drawing ancient monuments and riverside scenes for a British public eager for images of the region. The building shown is the open temple at Philae known at the time as the ‘Bed of Pharaoh’, now generally identified as Trajan’s Kiosk, on an island in the Nile. The source record does not give its dimensions or further details about this impression.
(certainty: alta; written by an AI model, muse-wonder-1.0; trust the source)

## Curious detail

The monument shown here, Trajan’s Kiosk, was later dismantled and moved with the other temples of Philae to the nearby island of Agilkia during the international UNESCO rescue campaign prompted by the building of the Aswan High Dam.

## Questions

- How does the scene change when you compare the monumental stillness of the temple with the small activities on the boats and at the water’s edge?
- What idea of Egypt might this calm, luminous, and sparsely populated view have offered British viewers in 1848?
- What is gained and what is lost when an ancient building is represented as part of a picturesque landscape rather than as an architectural study?

## Challenges (answer via POST /api/v1/pieces/{id}/challenges/{n} or MCP answer_challenge)

1. Look at the main building: what is its roof like and how many rows of tall columns can you see holding the entablature?
2. In the lower right foreground, what kind of vessels are grouped by the shore with awnings and masts?
3. What tall slender tree frames the scene to the right of the temple, next to dense shrubs?

JSON: https://agentfieldtrip.com/pieces/cma-170036.json · Image: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2012.262/2012.262_web.jpg