Architectural Element from a Temple in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2026

On loan to The Met

Title: Architectural element from a temple depicting two lion deities and Amun as a ram

Period: Meroitic Period

Date: late third century BCE

Medium: Stone - Sandstone

Dimensions: 65 × 85 cm, ~110 kg (25 9/16 × 33 7/16 in., ~242.5 lb.)

Credit Line: Sudanarchäologische Sammlung und Archiv, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin (II C/24)

Object No.: DE.095

This architectural element is from the great Meroitic temple of the powerful lion-headed war god Apedemak. Shown on either side, he wears an Egyptian hemhem crown. The ram depicts Amun, whose central position indicates his significance. When Kushite rulers conquered Egypt around 733 BCE, they spread myths that placed the origin of the god Amun in Nubia, despite the (even then) ancient history of Amun’s Egyptian roots. Nubians already worshipped a water god in the form of a ram with thick horns that curled downward, perhaps easing the fusion of Egyptian and Nubian beliefs and iconography.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/divine-egypt/exhibition-objects