The Dendera Light Bulbs: electricity in ancient Egypt

Dendera light bulbs are part of a bas-relief engraving in a temple dedicated to Goddess Hator. 2 oval spheres with snakes reminiscent of a bulb connected to a cable that may depict the possibility of electricity in ancient Egypt.

Electricity in ancient Egypt

Did the Egyptians use artificial light to move inside the pyramids? No remains or torch marks or lamps were found on ceilings and walls inside the tombs and pyramids.

Hathor was a very important goddess in the pantheon of ancient Egypt, embodied joy, love and motherhood, and her place of worship was in Dendera.

The city of Dendera is found about 60 kilometers north of Luxor. There is evidence of religious structures built during the reign of the pharaoh of the Ancient Empire Pepi I.

There are also the ruins of a temple built at the time of the New Empire, specifically of the 18th Dynasty. And in this temple are the famous “Dendera bulbs”.

In the early 1980s, researchers Peter Krassa and Reinhard Habeck, brought to light a very revolutionary hypothesis based on the use of electric power in ancient Egypt.

The reliefs of the crypt are of cosmogony and show a snake born in a lotus flower, which is the symbol of creation.

The official explanation says that Harsomtus is the denomination that the Greeks gave to the Egyptian god Hor-sema-tauy, who takes various forms in the representations and one of them is that of a snake emerging from a lotus.

The closed lotuses from which Harsumtus is born are the supposed light bulbs. The unofficial explanation hypothesizes that the reliefs represent the use of electrical technology in Ancient Egypt.

But at the time when several supposed lamps were recorded, the Alexandria Library already existed, where the best thinkers of the Hellenic world were going and none of them recorded the existence of electricity in Egypt.

Hathor was also considered a goddess of healing. Pilgrims came to this temple to be healed by the goddess.

To do this, baths were held in sacred water, the priests gave them ointments and rooms were offered in which to sleep to those who hoped that the goddess would appear in their dreams, to help them.

The Hathor Temple was built largely during the Late Ptolemaic period, more specifically during the reigns of Ptolemy XII and Cleopatra VII.

Although it was built by a dynasty of pharaohs that was not native to Egypt, it can be seen that the design of the temple is very similar to that of other temples. Do you think there was electricity in ancient times?