ABSTRACT
The oldest part of the present temple of Dakka was built by that King Ergamenes who had the courage to defy the whole priesthood of Meroë when commanded by them to submit to be sacrificed. But the history of the site reaches back to the Middle Kingdom as shown by the size of the cemeteries of that period which exist in the desert to the west. Wherever the Egyptians went they built temples; and though one generation might pull down and destroy the work of its predecessors, it was only to build again in the fashion of the newer period. It was not for nothing that the Egyptians had achieved so great a reputation for piety in the time of Herodotus, who says that “they were the first to assign altars, images and temples to the gods.” It is therefore extremely probable that a temple of the Middle Kingdom once existed on this site. The Greek name of the place was Pselkis, closely following the original Egyptian form Per-Selk, “The House of the Scorpion”. The temple is not, however, dedicated to the Scorpion-goddess, as might have been expected, but to Thoth of Pnubs, the word Pnubs refering to that tree which here was accounted holy.
