Agilkia Island (also called Agilika; , from Old Nubian: ⲁ̅ⲅⲗ̅, romanised: agil, "mouth") is an island in the reservoir of the Old Aswan Dam along the Nile River in southern Egypt; it is the present site of the relocated ancient Egyptian temple complex of Philae. Partially to completely flooded by the old dam's construction in 1902,Frederic Courtland Penfield, Harnessing the Nile, Century Magazine, (February, 1899)Sidney Peel, The Binding of the Nile and the New Soudan, Oxford 1904, p.76 the Philae complex was dismantled and relocated to Agilkia island, as part of a wider UNESCO projectMonuments of Nubia-International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia World Heritage Committee, UNESCO related to the 1960s construction of the Aswan High Dam and the eventual flooding of many sites posed by its large reservoir upstream.The Rescue of Nubian Monuments and Sites, UNESCO To allow Agilkia island to accommodate the relocated temple, the island was leveled to match the old contours of Philae island as best as possible, which required the removal of the top of the island.
Agilkia, like the island, was the name chosen for the planned landing site on a comet by the Rosetta spacecraft mission's Philae lander. Upon initial touchdown, however, the lander took a large bounce followed by a smaller one before finally coming to rest perhaps a kilometre away from Agilkia, at a site named Abydos, after the ancient Egyptian city.
References
External links
Sacred Temple Island of Philae Philae @ The Domain of Het-Hert another alternative name for Hathor - aerial view of the temples Philae @ Akhet Egyptology