What is the Dendera light?
The Dendera light is a relief carved on the wall of a crypt beneath the temple of the goddess Hathor at Dendera, a town in southern Egypt. The temple was built from the late Ptolemaic period, the last dynasty of ancient Egypt, into Roman times, and the relief dates from then.
The relief shows a wavy snake inside a long, balloon-like shape as tall as a person. One end connects to something like a box, and the other is supported by something like a pillar.
The “ancient light bulb” theory
Because the shape seems to show the filament inside a glass bulb, the wiring and an insulator, a theory arose that the ancient Egyptians knew about electricity and used light bulbs. It has been linked with the claim that the lack of torch soot inside dark pyramids and tombs shows they used electric lights.
How Egyptologists read it
Egyptologists see the relief as a religious, mythological scene. The long shape is the lotus flower that bloomed from the primordial waters at the creation of the world, and the snake emerging from it represents a god associated with the sun and creation (Harsomtus). The supporting pillar is a djed pillar, a symbol of stability and permanence. The hieroglyphs carved beside the relief also explain this mythology.
The scarcity of soot inside ancient tombs and temples is thought to be due to lamps burning oil that made little smoke. Another famous OOPArt linked to electricity is the Baghdad Battery. Famous OOPArts are listed on the OOPArts page.
