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Egyptian Sacred Buildings

Egypt left many temples and tombs, but practically no complete specimen of its palaces or of the houses of its noble class. Its cities have all perished, for the reason that the houses were of the very lightest construction. No doubt the royal palaces, and even the mansions of the nobles, were of great size; but, as the climate dictated, they were of the most fragile materials, consisting mainly of wood and sun-dried brick. They were profusely, and in some instances very beautifully, adorned with designs in colour, and were richly furnished; but such methods of construetion were, of course, totally unable to withstand the assaults of time, and in consequence what is known of the structure and adornment of the Old Kingdom palaces and mansions comes only from pictured representations of them.

Of the sacred buildings in which the religious rites of the Egyptians were performed, there are fortunately ample relics, the architectural remains of the land consisting almost entirely of tombs and temples. There are, of course, many minor variations in the details of the various temple structures; but, roughly speaking, they conform to a single, and fairly simple, type. The temple was approached generally by a paved road, which was bordered on either side by a row of sphinxes, and which led up to the crude brick wall surrounding the Temenos, or sacred enclosure. This boundary-wall was pierced by a gateway which bore above its lintel the winged globe symbolical of the sun.

Passing through this gateway, there appeared the great pylon of the temple, a huge portal flanked by two towers. In front of each of these towers rose a couple of lofty flagstaves, tipped with gaily colored pennons, while the approach was frequently further adorned by a pair of obelisks and several colossal statues of the Pharaoh to whom the erection of the temple was due. Within the pylon lay a wide court, open to the sky, and surrounded by a colonnade—the peristyle court, which was opened to the public on days of ceremony.

Behind this court there lay a hall whose flat roof was supported by rows of columns, the two central rows being generally higher than the side-rows, and thus dividing the hall into a lofty nave and two lower side-aisles. Behind this hall, again, lay the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where the statue of the god had its abode. It was flanked on either side by chambers devoted to the use of the other members of the sacred triad—the wife and the son of the god. Around these halls, which constituted the actual temple, were grouped various chambers for the storage of the sacred vessels and for other purposes connected with the cult. Two points are to be noted with regard to the successive halls in each temple. They gradually diminish in height from the pylon to the Holy of Holies, whick is the lowest part of the temple proper; and the same progressive diminution takes place with regard to their lighting. The open court is in the full blaze of sunlight; the hypostyle hall has only the dim religious light which struggles through the gratings in the clerestory of the nave, or through small apertures in the roof; the Holy of Holies is in profound darkness.

The larger temples, such as the vast structures of Karnak and Luqsor, cannot be made to conform to this simple type, for the reason that they are not so much single temples as aggregates of temples. Each great monarch wished to leave behind him some memorial of his reign in the shape of an addition to these famous structures; and so pylon rises behind pylon, and court behind court, and the original simplicity of the design is entirely lost sight of.

The decoration of these temples was magnificent. Impressive as the massive ruins are at the present day, they can convey but little idea of the splendour of the original building. We read of doors made of cedar and bronze, the woodwork overlaid with gold; of steles incrusted with gold and precious stones and inlaid with lapis lazuli and malachite, and of floors overlaid with silver; while the reliefs which still adorn the walls were brilliantly coloured, and the inscriptions inlaid with coloured pastes. A great Theban temple in its primal magnificence, with all the richness of its colouring still undimmed, and its adornments of polished granite, lapis, and malachite reflecting the brilliant rays of the Egyptian sun, must have been one of the most gorgeous structures ever reared by the hand of man. The reliefs with which the walls were covered were of two classes. On the outer face of the wall were represented the great deeds of the Pharaoh who built the temple; within, the scenes related to worship, and pictured the various sacred ceremonies which were daily performed.

Differing widely from this type were the sun-temples of the Fifth Dynasty. They were simply huge open courts, at whose further end there rose a great obelisk, resting upon a base in the form of a truncated pyramid. A large altar stood in front of the obelisk, and the only other chambers of the temple were the auxiliary structures necessary for storage of the sacred vessels and other details of the worship.

The image of the god which occupied the sanctuary in the rear of a normal temple was scarcely worthy of all the magnificence which surrounded it. It was generally small, in most cases not exceeding 16 or 18 inches in height, and was often of wood, painted, and with inlaid eyes. The smallness of the image arose from the fact that it had frequently to be carried about. Normally the little statue reposed in its chapel, which was frequently hewn out of a single block of granite, sometimes, especially in the latest historical periods, of enormous size. This shrine was closed with bronze doors. On festival days, however, the image was taken out of its chapel and placed in a portable shrine of wood and bronze. The shrine was then surrounded by a veil, and was set on a sacred bark, which was borne on the shoulders of the priests by means of carrying-poles. At certain stations in the forecourt of the temple or in the town the shrine was deposited on a pedestal, and, when incense had been burnt and offerings and prayers made, the veil was drawn, and the sacred image was disclosed to the eyes of the faithful.