The Kiosk of Qertassi is "a tiny Roman kiosk
with four slender papyrus columns inside, and two Hathor columns at the
entrance. It is a small but elegant structure that "is unfinished and not
inscribed with the name of the architect, but is probably contemporary with Trajan's
Kiosk at Philae. According to Günther Roeder--the first scholar to publish
research on this building--the kiosk of Qertassi dates to the Augustan or early
Roman period. The structure "is only twenty-five feet square, and consists
of a single Hathor court oriented north or south, and originally surrounded by
fourteen columns connected by screen walls. Of the 14 pillars, only 6 have
survived in place. The pillars or columns were made of brown sandstone; the
structure itself was "perhaps connected to a small temple on the East Bank
[of the Nile] which was still in existence in 1813.
This charming kiosk has now been moved to the site of New
Kalabsha in Southern Egypt but "once stood to the entrance to the
sandstone quarries" of Qertassi. Its capitals "are decorated with
Hathor heads, in honour of the goddess who was [the] patron of quarry-men and
miners. Since Hathor was often associated with Isis, as she is at Philae, it
has been suggested that "this kiosk and the small temples of Dabod and Dendur
were way stations on the processional route taken by priests bearing the image
of Isis around Lower Nubia, which was held to be her estate. Due to the paucity
of timber in the arid region of Nubia, the kiosk's roof was constructed with
sandstone slabs that were supported by architraves on its long sides.