A temple of ancient Egypt is building a religious dedicated to the worship of one or more deities in ancient Egypt. Often associated with a major complex with housing for priests , various production workshops, warehouses and possibly a home life , the temple form a complex cultural , economic and agricultural importance of the ancient Egyptians.

Summary 1 History 2 Function 3 Architecture 4 List of Egyptian temples 5 See also 5.1 Articles Related 5.2 External link

History

Simple enclosure decorated with totems divine to the Archaic period , the temples will not cease to evolve throughout the ancient Egypt. This is especially the transition from brick in silt from the Nile to the "material of eternity," the stone , which will revolutionize the religious architecture and allows the construction of monumental buildings.

Function

The ancient Egyptians believed the gods were providing their benefits as they lived on earth. To keep with them and enlist their benevolence, they sought by every means to please them. To do this, they built their shrines where priests practiced daily worship at the place and the place of Pharaoh , only intermediary between gods and men. The temple was not a place for prayer, it was also the earthly dwelling of the god. The gods had chosen to dwell in the divine form of the statue and the priests saw to their welfare by offerings and rituals of worship. The pharaoh, a living god, was also entitled to his temple, the temple of millions of years , to continue his ba beyond death.

The temples were also a function of initiation and young priests learned the finer points of theology and the wisdom of the ancients. They were also centers of study astronomy , and the Per-Ankh, the study centers where scribes copied and commented on the sacred texts. The temple is much more than a place of worship: it is also the house of god and institution building as well as cultural worship. The larger temples, like that of Amun at Karnak , employed a number of administrative staff who managed the property of the clergy, the "sacred domain".

Architecture

An Egyptian temple was usually composed of an avenue of sphinxes or dromos which leads to the entrance of the enclosure called peribolus made bricks from mud of the Nile and can include a mammisi or a sacred lake. The walls in stone of the temple are crossed by one or several monumental gates called pylons. These generally define a courtyard surrounded by a portico. A second door leads to a pylon or pillared hall followed by the sanctuary. This consists of a shrine or not preceded by a narthex and surrounded by chapels or not accessible via an ambulatory procedure. The sanctuary is usually surrounded by a walkway outside the wall separating the stone and communicating with the temple courtyard. Since different access the temple, the stairs can reach the terrace above the sanctuary. Others allow access inside the towers.

Some temples are called speos when fully dug into the rock as it is the small temple at Abu Simbel or hmispos when only part of the temple is carved into the rock as it is of great temple Abu Simbel.

List of Egyptian temples

Egyptian temples were usually dedicated to a particular deity or a pharaoh, the following articles include temples by deity or function:

Main deities

• Temple of Amon
• Temple of Aten
• Temple of Anubis
• Temple of Apis
• Temple of Bastet
• Temple of Hathor
• Temple of Horus
• Temple of Isis
• Temple of Khnum
• Temple of Khonsu
• Hall of Maat
• Temple of Min
• Temple of Montu
• Temple of Mut
• Temple Neit
• Temple of Osiris
• Temple of Ptah
• Temple of Ra
• Temple of Seth
• Temple of Sobek
• Temple of Thoth

Other gods

• Temple Khentykhety to Athribis
• Temple Banebdjedet to Mendes
• Four Creators of speos to Abu Simbel (Ramses II): Ra, Amun, Ptah and Ramses
• Parthenon - temple of the gods - to Hibis (Oasis)
• Temple Nekhbet at El-Kab
• Temple of Hrishef to Herakleopolis Magna
• Temple of Ouadja to Buto
• Temple Wepwawet to Lycopolis
• Speos of Pachet at Beni Hassan
• Temple Renenutet (Fayoum)
• Temple of Satis and Anukis to Sehel (island vicinity of Aswan )
• Temple of Serapis and Isis-Pharia in Alexandria

Temples Jubilee

• Temple millions of years
• Solar Temple

See also

Related articles

• Pilgrimage in Ancient Egypt
• Priest in ancient Egypt

External link

• The Egyptian temple