The Philae Operation. Rescuing the Nile’s temple
GERMANY, 2023, 54’42’
Director: Olivier Lemaître – Producer: ARTE – NDR – HISTOIRETV
An important place of pilgrimage in ancient times, the island of Philae has fascinated travelers for centuries. On this rock rising from the Nile, nicknamed the “pearl of Egypt”, powerful sovereigns built monumental sanctuaries from the time of the last pharaohs to the Romans. Subsequently, the temples were looted, vandalized or transformed, before the successive constructions of two dams in the 20th century sealed the fate of the island. To save the precious vestiges of the rising waters, an international campaign coordinated by UNESCO was undertaken in the 1970s. The objective: to dismantle the monuments stone by stone to rebuild them on a neighboring island. This race against time represents an immense technical challenge, but its success will allow Egyptologists to explore these ancient monuments like never before. Since then, researchers have been trying to reconstruct the history of the site and its great buildings, but also to understand the mysterious cult that was celebrated there.
Scientific exploration
From the wonder of Napoleon Bonaparte discovering the remains in 1799, the day after his conquest of Egypt, to recent archaeological research, including the visit of the writer Pierre Loti, at the beginning of the 20th century, to an island already partially flooded, authors Claudine Le Tourneur d’Ison and Olivier Lemaître retrace the different stages of the scientific exploration of this bewitching place. Using unique archives and insights from researchers, his documentary lifts the veil on the enigmas of the temple-sanctuary saved from the waters, from its creation to the present day.
