Lesson 3

Before you start

1. Before you listen, check the meanings of these words in a dictionary.

dam: a special wall built across a river or stream to stop the water from flowing, especially in order to make a lake or produce electricity.
dedicated: to say that it has been made for someone you love or respect.
elaborate: carefully planned and organized in great detail.
gateway: the opening in a fence, wall, etc that can be closed by a gate.
healing: the treatment of illness using natural powers or prayer rather than medicine.
preserved: to make something continue without changing.

Listening

2. Listen to the tour guide taking some tourists around the Philae Temple Complex. Study the map and complete the key with the correct numbers, as you listen.

Entrance to the Main temple, 1
Temple’s East Court Yard, 7
Birth house, 6
Temple of Isis, 4
Hadrian’s Gate, 5
Temple of Hathor, 3
Kiosk of Trajan, 2

3. Listen again and answer the questions.

1. Why did visitors come to the site in ancient times? To see the mysterious Isis, the goddess of healing.
2. Why was the Philae Temple moved? Because it disappeared under water when they were building the High Dam.
3. Where can you see the God of the Nile with a snake around his body? On the wall in the Temple of Isis.
4. Which temple did many artists come to paint in the nineteenth century? The Temple of Trajan.

Language

4. Study these sentences and answer the question. Do they refer to a) the present b) the past or c) the future?

Visitors would come in large numbers to show their respect to the mysterious Isis. b, The past
Here are the remains of the rooms where the temple priests and guards would live. b, The past