Dendara (Dendera) is home to one of the best-preserved temples in all of Egypt. The Temple of Hathor, built largely by the Ptolemies and finished during the early Roman period, stands virtually intact — a rarity in a country where most ancient buildings survive only as ruins. It sits about 60 km north of Luxor, near the town of Qena, and makes an easy day trip.
The temple's interior is extraordinary. The walls and ceilings of the outer and inner hypostyle halls, the sanctuary rooms, the crypts, and the rooftop suites are carved with highly detailed reliefs, many remarkably untouched after more than two thousand years. The ceiling of the outer hall features a famous astronomical chart, and the rooftop chapels dedicated to Osiris contain the Dendera Zodiac (the original carved ceiling is now in the Louvre, but a cast remains in situ). On the outside of the rear wall, a large relief depicts Cleopatra with her son by Julius Caesar, Ptolemy XV — better known as Caesarion.
Dendara was a major healing centre in antiquity, and the complex includes a sacred lake, a Roman-era birth house, and the remains of a Coptic church. The curious carvings in the subterranean crypts known as the Dendera Light have attracted their own mythology. The site sees far fewer visitors than the temples at Luxor, which only adds to the atmosphere.