The Temple of Dendur

As I was leaving the Egyptian Middle Kingdom exhibit, I passed through the Sackler Wing on the way out of the museum.  And this is the centerpiece of that wing - the Temple of Dendur.  The Egyptians built the Aswan High Dam between 1960 and 1970.  As the dam filled, it affected 22 archaeological sites.  Many of them were moved up to higher ground, like the huge Abu Simbel Temples.  Some smaller monuments were moved as well, but some others were donated to countries that helped with the work.  The Temple of Dendur was given to the United States.  There were several suggestions for which cities this could be installed in, but it is made of sandstone and needs to be out of the weather, so it ended up indoors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I got this shot at the perfect time of day, with the blue, late afternoon light of dusk in contrast to the indoor light on the temple.