Egypt part 2 - Temples of Egypt

In part one I talked about activities in Egypt. Usually I enjoy sitting down and not doing an awful lot, but I'm not a fan of lying on the beach and soaking up the beautiful Mediterranean sunshine. Rather that I prefer visiting interesting places and learning something about their history.

Egypt offers you a rich history with many interesting places to explore. Places like temples for example. In this part I will focus just on them.

First of all, the term "temple" means a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice.

Temples sometimes had many other functions, acting sometimes as fortresses, administrative centers and even concrete expression of propaganda or royal retreats. However, it is difficult to define some other religious structures that are called temples as houses of worship or God's mansions. They may have other political or different purposes.

The Temple of Karnak today remains the world’s largest religious structure, but what is perhaps even more interesting is that it might not have been, or indeed was probably not Egypt's largest temple.


The Temple of Karnak at Luxor
Certainly the Temple of Ptah in Memphis, though for the most part completely gone today, may have been larger. It was older, and located in what were often the capital of Egypt, and more often the administrative center of the ancient country. Other temples in the Nile Delta might have been just as large as Karnak, if not larger.


However Sites such as Karnak, Dendera and Kom Ombo were more than religious "temples". While the God have been worshiped in these temples, it was also his symbolic home, if not considered his physical residence, and the functions of the temple were as much to serve his or her symbolic physical needs as they were for the god's worship. There was probably no preaching as such, or carrying the message of the god to the people by priests associated with these temples. Rather the efforts were directed inward, towards the care of the Gods.

Also, though we often make a very specific distention between mortuary temples of kings, for example, and temples such as Karnak, they were actually very similar. Kings were considered as Gods, and after their death, they required a mansion and the same attention as other gods. Both regular and mortuary temples served to keep the name of the king or god alive.


Temple of Dendera
Nefertari's temple at Abu Simbel was certainly dedicated to the goddess Hathor. But this also seems to be a situation where a God's mansion was built as much for political as for religious purposes. These great monuments at Abu Simbel, consisting of her temple, and the larger temple of her husband, Ramesses II, were not just temples. They were also reminders of Egypt's greatness to her southern neighbors. Other structures hardly fit within the God's mansion category at all.

Temple of Hathor
The Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel
Dynastic era temples were built for many different forms of worship, as well as other purposes. Some were major temples dedicated to major deities, while others were dedicated to a number of different deities. Some were mortuary temples, where the temple was dedicated to the deified dead king, and where he was worshiped and cared for by his cult. There was also valley temples, which were often no more than monumental gateways connected to the king's mortuary chapel by a causeway. There were all manner of specialized temples, such as Sed-festival temples, ka temples, sun temples, coronation temples and others.

The Temples at Deir el-Bahri
Many of Egypt's temples became complex systems of buildings, added to by generations of pharaohs over sometimes thousands of years. Such temples include those of Luxor and Karnak, but others long destroyed, such as the Temple of Ptah. In fact, there are any numbers of northern temples, though long gone, that would have rivaled the southern temples that we most often visit today.

Most Temples had some sort of organized structure that evolved into a traditional, if somewhat varied floor plan. For example, the mortuary temple of 5th Dynasty kings invariably had an outer section and an inner sanctuary. The outer section would consist of an entrance corridor, followed by an open columned courtyard. Often, the pillars were inscribed with the king's name and title, and the northern columns would have scenes oriented to northern Egypt's symbolic gods, with a similar arrangement on the southern columns. Various additional minor chambers might also exist within the outer section, including, for example, an entrance vestibule or a guard station. Between the outer temple and the inner section there was usually a transverse corridor, and in the center of the long, west wall a doorway lead to the inner sanctuary of which the front section consists of a chapel with five niches for statues. Behind the chapel would be an offering hall, notable for a false door on the west wall that faces the pyramid, and before the door, an offering altar. Within the inner sanctuary there might also be additional rooms, such as vestibules and antechambers. Associated with both the outer and inner sections of the temple would be storage and other annexes to one side or both of the main temple components.

The avenue of sphinx at Karnak
Non-mortuary temples often also had courtyards, chapels, offering halls, vestibules, antechambers, just like the mortuary temples. They tend to vary considerably in their style and elements, though temples built for specific gods tended to be more uniform. One of the major differences between mortuary temples and others was that the non-mortuary temples were very often added to, built upon and even usurped by various kings. Though in rare cases a mortuary temples, such as that of Josser at Saqqara, became places of high holiness, and were built upon by later kings, most mortuary temples were never added to or usurped. They therefore most often were much simpler than major non-mortuary temples. Latter temples took the form of fortresses, with massive entrance pylons and enclosure walls, huge courtyards, columned or pillared halls and inner sanctuaries.





Q:

Active holidays or take it easy holidays, what do you prefer?

Would you rather visit museums or lie on the beach?

How do you want to feel when the trip is over?

Where did you go for your last vacation? Was it active or passive vacation?