Excavation in Egypt at Tell el-Balamun
Subsidiary temples of Psamtik I and Nectanebo I
The temple of Psamtik I was a small monument built on a sand-bed
foundation measuring 53 x 34.55m. It was situated immediately
adjacent to the citadel building at the south corner of the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty temple enclosure.
The sand of the foundation was mostly intact. covered by only a
thin layer of surface mud, and the extent of the temple was
recovered by following the edges of the sand. The monument was of
traditional form with a rectangular naos and a front pylon.
From the corners of the foundation under the pylon, and from one
corner at the rear of the building, foundation deposits were
retrieved at a high level 
in the sand. They contained
model stone and copper vessels, plaques of various materials
inscribed with the names of Psamtik I and models of objects
connected with foundation-rituals.
In the axis of the pylon a fragment of limestone wall-relief was
found with part of a Sed-festival scene, showing the figure of a
meret-goddess.
The subsidiary temple of Nectanebo I is situated to the right of
the axis of the main temple of Amun, with its own axis oriented at
right-angles to the major one.
This is the classic position of a subsidiary temple or
bark-station and no doubt his temple was intended to serve this
function. 
All the stone structure of the building had been destroyed and
the stone removed for re-use, leaving only a few blocks of masonry,
lying out of their original positions. This quarrying seems to have
occurred in the late fifth century AD, to judge from the pottery
found in the disturbed fill of the foundation.
The building had been constructed on a large sand-filled
foundation pit covering the entire area of the monument, some 53 x
25m exc
luding the entrance
portico.
From the sand in the rear corners of the foundation came parts
of two foundation deposits, containing plaques inscribed with the
names of Nectanebo I and objects of ritual significance, such as
model quernstones.
The temple had consisted of a rectangular rear portion with a
wider pronaos at the front. In front of the latter was a portico,
probably consisting columns linked by 
screen-walls, which
extended for nearly 22m from the face of the pronaos. This portico
had been built on individual sand-filled foundation trenches which
were traced by excavation to determine the arrangement of the
walls.
In 2001 some traces of additional sand-foundation trenches were
found extending to the west in front of the portico, in an area
damaged by an unrecorded excavation of the nineteenth century.
These may have belonged to a Ptolemaic addition to the temple, but
so little was preserved that the existence of two walls flanking
the temple axis was all that could be confirmed.
Images (from top):
- South-east corner of the foundation of
temple of Psamtik I
- View across the foundation of the pylon
from the south east
- Foundation deposit plaques, and other
objects, of Psamtik I
- Thin gold plaques inscribed for Psamtik
I
- Foundation deposit at the rear east end
of the pylon