I didn’t expect to see an Egyptian temple in the middle of Madrid but sure enough, it’s there, sitting up on the hill in Parque de la Montaña.

Egyptian Temple in Mardid

The Temple of Debod was built in the 2nd century BC near Aswan in southern Egypt. The temple survived without too many problems until the 1960s when the creation of the Aswan High Dam threatened to flood the temple and other monuments in the region. UNESCO stepped in and found a new home for the temple in the centre of busy Madrid.

The temple was originally dedicated to the goddess Isis, the goddess of motherhood and magic. Isis married her brother Osiris and they had a child together. Osiris was later murdered but Isis was able to use her magic to resurrect him. What I like about this story is that it was later believed that the annual flooding of the Nile was caused by the tears of Isis as she cried over her lost brother/lover. How ironic that those tears lead to the end of the temple designed to worship her, at least the end of the temple in Egypt.