This breakthrough was made by a joint Egyptian-German team from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the University of Würzburg, as part of a restoration project that began in 2021, funded by the German Gerda Henkel Foundation.

The project focuses on cleaning and restoring the temple’s roof, walls, and inner chambers which are dedicated to the god Horus. It aims to preserve the ancient structure and digitally document its inscriptions with more accurate translations than those published in the past century.

During the restoration of the temple's Holy of Holies, the team uncovered painted scenes and Demotic inscriptions written by priests, along with traces of gold that once gilded reliefs depicting deities and royal symbols.

 “It is a very important discovery that will reveal more of the ancient Egyptians religious belief,” said Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities. He described the efforts of restorers, particularly Egyptians,  in preserving Egypt’s rich cultural heritage as exceptional.

He asserted that their dedication and remarkable work in uncovering inscriptions in ancient temples and restoring the original colours that once adorned them thousands of years ago is a painstaking process of removing the toll of time that had covered the temples for centuries, followed by meticulous treatments to revive the colours to their former glory.

Fathy also emphasized the need to expedite the restoration efforts in preparation for the upcoming winter tourism season, ensuring a warm welcome for both Egyptian visitors and international tourists.

For his part, Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary General of the SCA, pointed out that the restoration work will help return the temple to its original splendour, enhancing the experience for visitors and ensuring the preservation of its inscriptions.

He noted that the newly uncovered inscriptions suggest that parts of the temple were once adorned with gilded copper sheets, remnants of which were found in the upper walls of the sacred barque shrine.

The team also removed layers of dirt, bird droppings, soot, and salt deposits from the temple's surfaces, revealing vibrant colours that had been hidden for centuries.

The restoration team is now working to analyse and restore these colours to bring the temple’s intricate scenes back to life.

Martin A. Stadler, project director and Egyptology professor at the Julius-Maximilian University of Würzburg, emphasized the importance of the discovery, including a unique Demotic inscription describing priests' entry into the Holy of the Holies.

Such personal inscriptions are rarely found in the temple's innermost areas.

“In the painting, we are capturing an ancient quality management,” he asserted and explained that the multi-coloured paintings can now provide further details of the scenes and hieroglyphs that could not be identified in the relief alone, e.g. elements of the clothing or the offerings. The craftsmen also used colour to correct the hieroglyphs carved in stone.

“The gilding of the figures presumably not only served to symbolically immortalise and deify them but also contributed to the mystical aura of the room. It must have been very impressive, especially when the sunlight was shining in,” said Victoria Altmann-Wendling, project manager and research fellow in the Horus Beḥedety Project at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg.

She added that “the fact that the gods were completely gilded is particularly interesting. We find this in the textual sources that describe the flesh of the gods as consisting of gold.”

The Edfu Temple, one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt, and a marvel of ancient structural design, with a length of 137 metres, a width of 76 metres at the pylon, and heights ranging from 15 metres to 35 metres for the pronaos and pylon respectively.

With such grand proportions and its wall surfaces completely covered with inscriptions and pictorial reliefs, it also stands as a unique monument of ancient religion and architecture.

The temple is renowned for its detailed inscriptions that provide valuable insights into ancient Egyptian language, mythology, and religious practices. Built during the reign of King Ptolemy III and completed under King Ptolemy XII, the temple stands as a monument to ancient religious and architectural achievements.