Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled al-Anani inaugurated Jan. 15 Egypt’s newly restored Temple of Isis in Aswan.

The more than 2,200-year-old Ptolemaic temple, located in a residential area in the center of Aswan, was discovered in 1871 during the extension of a railway line. (It is not to be confused with the much larger and older Temple of Isis that was moved piece by piece to nearby Agilkia Island from Philae Island in the 1970s after flooding from the Aswan High Dam south of Aswan threatened to destroy the archaeological treasure.)

The work for the 19-meter-long (62-foot) temple in the city of Aswan included restoring its floors and columns, cleaning bird and bat poop from its walls and installing window screens to prevent birds and bats from getting back inside. Also, the inscriptions on the entrance to the sanctum have been restored and soot was removed from the temple ceiling. The drawings and colors at the entrance to the temple and the side door were cleaned, as were the offering tables in the Hypostyle Hall, officials said.

Mustafa Waziri, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the temple's importance lies in the fact that it was established during the 246-222 B.C. reign of King Ptolemy III for the worship of the goddess Isis and the triad of Aswan (Khnum, Satis and Anuket). The temple was built with sandstone and has two doors. The main door is crowned with ornamentation topped by a winged sun disk, and it is through this door that visitors enter a hall with three open rooms, he said.