Cult temples

It is generally thought that the Egyptian cult temple of the Old Kingdom owed most to the cult of
the sun god Re at Heliopolis, which was probably open in plan and lacking a shrine.

 Sun temples were unique among cult temples; worship was centred on a cult object, the benben, a
squat obelisk placed in full sunlight.

Among the few temples surviving from the Old Kingdom are sun temples of the 5th-dynasty kings
at Abū Jirāb (Abu Gorab).

That of Neuserre reveals the essential layout: a reception pavilion at the desert edge connected by a
covered corridor on a causeway to the open court of the temple high on the desert, within which
stood the benben of limestone and a huge alabaster altar. Fine reliefs embellished the covered
corridor and also corridors on two sides of the court.

The cult temple achieved its most highly developed form in the great sanctuaries erected over many
centuries at Thebes.

LUXOR TEMPLE

Architecturally the most satisfying is the Luxor Temple, started by Amenhotep III of the
18th dynasty. The original design consists of an imposing open court with colonnades of graceful
lotus columns, a smaller offering hall, a shrine for the ceremonial boat of the god, an inner sanctuary
for the cult image, and a room in which the divine birth of the king was celebrated. The approach to
the temple was made by a colonnade of huge columns with open papyrus-flower capitals, planned
by Amenhotep III but decorated with fascinating processional reliefs under Tutankhamen and
Horemheb. Later Ramses II built a wide court before the colonnade and two great pylons to form a
new entrance.
The necessary elements of an Egyptian temple, most of which can be seen at Luxor, are the
following:
an approach avenue of sphinxes leading to the great double-towered pylon entrance fitted
with flagpoles and pennants; before the pylon a pair of obelisks and colossal statues of the
king; within the pylon a court leading to a pillared hall, the hypostyle, beyond which might
come a further, smaller hall where offerings could be prepared; and, at the heart of the
temple, the shrine for the cult image. In addition, there were storage chambers for temple
equipment and, in later periods, sometimes a crypt. Outside the main temple building was a
lake, or at least a well, for the water needed in the rituals; in later times there might also be a
birth house (mammisi) to celebrate the king’s divine birth. The whole, with service buildings,
was contained by a massive mud brick wall.
TEMPLE OF KARNAK
The great precinct of the Temple of Karnak (the longest side 1,837 feet [560 metres])
contains whole buildings, or parts of buildings, dating from the early 18th dynasty down to
the Roman period. Modern reconstruction work has even recovered a tiny way station of the
12th dynasty, a gem of temple building decorated with some of the finest surviving relief
scenes and texts.
Of the structures on the main Karnak axis, the most remarkable are the hypostyle hall and
the so-called Festival Hall of Thutmose III. The former contained 134 mighty papyrus
columns, 12 of which formed the higher central aisle (76 feet [23 metres] high).
Grill windows allowed some light to enter, but it must be supposed that even on the
brightest day most of the hall was in deep gloom.
The Festival Hall is better described as a memorial hall. Its principal room is distinguished
by a series of unusual columns with bell-shaped capitals, inspired by the wooden tent poles
used in primitive buildings. Their lightness contrasts strikingly with the massive supports of
the hypostyle hall.
Near Karnak Temple, King Akhenaton and his wife, Nefertiti, built a number of temples,
later dismantled, to the sun god Aton. The vast number of blocks found in modern times
indicates that these constructions were essentially open places for worship like the earlier
sun temples. So, too, was the great Aton temple at Tell el-Amarna, built later in Akhenaton’s
reign.

TEMPLE OF SETI I

The most interesting and unusual cult temple of the New Kingdom was built at Abydos
by Seti I of the 19th dynasty. Principally dedicated to Osiris, it contained seven chapels
dedicated to different deities, including the deified Seti himself. These chapels have well-
preserved barrel ceilings and are decorated with low-relief scenes that retain much original
colour.

TEMPLE OF ABU SIMBEL

The most remarkable monument of Ramses II, the great builder, is undoubtedly the temple
of Abu Simbel. Although excavated from the living rock, it follows generally the plan of the
usual Egyptian temple: colossal seated statues emerging from the facade, which is the cliff
face; a pillared hall followed by a second leading to a vestibule; and a shrine with four statues
of divinities, including one of Ramses himself.

Mention should also be made of the immense temple dedicated to the god Amon-Re at Tanis
in the delta by the kings of the 21st and 22nd dynasties. Much of the stone for the so-called
northern Karnak, along with colossal statues and a dozen obelisks, was appropriated from
other sanctuaries in Egypt, making this a remarkable assemblage of earlier work. It was not
only a cult temple but the funerary temple for the kings who were buried within the precinct.