Templo de Debod (Madrid)

The Temple of Debod is an ancient Egyptian building currently located in the Spanish city of Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain.

It is located west of Plaza de España, next to Paseo del Pintor Rosales (Parque del Oeste), on a Príncipe Pío hill where the Montaña barracks were located. When it was moved to Spain, it was placed so that it retained approximately the same orientation as in its original place, from east to west.

The building was a gift from Egypt to Spain in 1968 in compensation for Spanish aid following the international appeal made by UNESCO to save the temples of Nubia, mainly that of Abu Simbel, in danger of disappearing due to the construction of the Aswan Dam. In gratitude, Egypt donated four monuments to countries that responded to this claim in a significant way: Dendur to the United States (it is currently in the Metropolitan Museum in New York), Ellesiya to Italy (Egyptian Museum in Turin), Taffa to the Netherlands (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden)2 and Debod to Spain.

It is about 2,200 years old. Its oldest core was perhaps erected under Ptolemy IV Philopator, and later decorated by the Nubian king Adikhalamani around 200-180 BC, being dedicated to Amun of Debod (Amani, in the Kushite language) and Isis, although in truth most researchers think that its erection was the work of Adikhalamani, with Ptolemy IV later intervening in it. It has important additions from the Ptolemaic and Roman-Imperial periods (from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD).

In September 2017, after more than a year of closure due to the malfunctioning of the air conditioning systems, the Debod temple reopened its doors to the public.