Ancient Egyptians’ Temple Complex

Ancient Egypt appeared in this world around 3100 b.c. At first, Ancient Egypt was divided into two religions, Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt. The Lower Egypt is allocated at the north of Nile River and near to the Mediterranean, while the Egypt was allocated at the south of Nile River. Soon, the people of Ancient Egypt started to plant and there was agricultural revolution happened at the Nile River’s delta. Since then, these two small villages became stronger in term of population and wealth. Later, these two villages was union by the Menes King. The king built up his capital in Memphis. There the civilization of Ancient Egypt begun.

In the earliest civilization, human started to build for living spaces to protect themselves from weather, wild animals, and any other forms of harming stuff. Later, human started to build for temples for their beliefs because religion was a very important role in the ancient daily life. Soon after, human fall in love with the art of building and they find it hard to stop building. Then human get bored building a simple floor attached with four simple walls and cover by a boring flat roof, they started to apply art into and onto the buildings. The buildings are no more simple buildings for simple functions. It brings delight and symbolism to human. These buildings are called architecture.

According to (Egyptian Mythology n.d.) the famous Egyptian Osiris myths, Osiris spread out the laws and order to the Ancient Egypt and also Egyptian how to farm. Then, he became a powerful respecting king. Osiris’s brother Seth jealous of him and he cut Osiris into many pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. Osiris’s wife, Isis go around the Egypt to collect all the pieces of Osiris and made into wax duplicates, then placed in the temple to be worshipped. Isis preserved Osiris’s body with linen bandages and used her magic and breathed life back into Osiris. Osiris then rose as a God-King and he chose to rule the underworld. This is where the roots of mummification and rebirth into the afterworld began.

Ancient Egyptians believe that their life do not stop on the day when they are dead. They believe that even the body is dead, “Ka”, the guardian of oneself which does not affect anything during lifetime, would be going to a blessed place called, Afterworld. The “Ka” will be waiting for the union with the body in the future to achieve an eternity life. In the Ancient Egyptians belief, everyone would have a soul besides the body and Ka. The soul will be flying freely when the body is dead. The soul will protect the dead body from the evil spirit at night.

Besides, Ancient Egyptians have a very strong belief in many god and goddess. The god and goddess are Amun-Re( the sun god, also consider as the king of the gods), Osiris (the god of agriculture and ruler of dead), Isis (the protector of children who is gifted with magical powers), Anubis (ancient god of dead), Thoth (the god of writing and wisdom), Hathor (goddess of the sky, love, music and dancing), Ptah (god of artists and craftsmen), Sobek (god of water), Neith (ancient goddess of war and wisdom) and Set (protector of Egypt). As the Ancient Egyptians believed in god and goddess, they put a lot of effort in building temples. The interior of temples is the most mysterious place in Ancient Egypt as there are only a few people would be allowed to see the interior of temples because they believe that temples are the dwelling place of god and goddess.

Ancient Egypt Architecture can be easily seen in Temple. The reason behind this is Temple is not only the dwelling places of god and goddess but it is also the place where festival celebrations are held. Besides, temples have other function as well. For instances, according to Edgar (n.d.), temples are acting as fortresses, administrative centers and concrete expression of propaganda or royal retreats. If to compare the function of Ancient Egyptian’s temples to the present building, Ancient Egyptian’s temple is the combination of a civic center, a government office, conference center, and religion center. In short, Architecture of Ancient Egypt is mostly to be seen in “temples” because temple is an essential role in Ancient Egypt.

Since then, a completed temple is a very complex structure that comprise of religious structure and other supplementary buildings such as, administrative offices, storage areas, gardens, schools, and libraries, stated by Andrews (2001). In the religious part, there are divided into several zones. Each zone is increasingly sacred than the zone before, stated by Andrews (2001). The outer zone or outer court which usually comprises an approach and entrance is the zone that opened to the public. For the interior of temples or the inner hall, only priests that are purified are allowed to go inside. Then, in the inner sanctuary zone, only king and very high ranked priests are permitted to be into it. These temples’ laws that practiced by the Ancient Egyptians explain the reason for temple to become such a mysterious place.

When discussing on the essential elements of Ancient Egyptians’ Temples’ Entrance, the impressive and massive Pylon Gateways are always come to the mind. According to Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (1998), these pylon gateways were very impressive and it is built to honor the dead and gods. However, these pylon gateways are in fact the structure part of the essentials elements of the Ancient Egyptian’s temples entrance. According to Andrews (n.d.), “The actual elements of the temples entrance usually included the landing quays, and processional ways that preceded the temple's outer enclosure walls, which finally led to the pylon gateways themselves.”

The importance of landing quays in Ancient Egyptians’ Temples’ design is simply because of the geographic factor, the Nile River. As Nile River known as the scared river, is the most popular transport system to Ancient Egyptians, Temples are mostly build near to the river or at the river bank. Thus, the landing quay element is usually representing the entrance of the temple. Andrews (n.d.) stated that canals cut back from the Nile River are to stabilize the waterway as well as reducing the distance between the Temple and the landing quay. Thus, mostly the landing quay will be built on canals. Besides, landing quay is also design for the first initial greeting point during a ceremony is held.

Next, the causeways and the path which leading people from landing quay to the temple is also an essential elements in the Ancient Egyptians’ temples’ design. In the earliest time, the path to the temple was only paved. However, later the pathway is completed with statuary which served as protective elements. After the Second Intermediate Period, they often use Sphinxes that have a human face with lion body. The Sphinxes were believed as a guardian of the temple that would stop any evil or unfriendly out of the temple. For example, the pathway leading to the temple of Amun at Karnak is accomplished with ram headed Sphinxes along the pathway.

Then, another vital element in the Ancient Egyptians’ temples is the Way station. The function of it is to provide resting area for the ceremonial processions. It is also a point to refresh the image of deities that were transported from afar, stated by Andrews (n.d.). The Way Station is usually small and simple in term of structure and form. It is only big enough for housing a low altar. However, there is no rules stated that the design of the Way station have to be simple. There is a way station built by Seti I, which can house three ceremonial boats for the Theban triad.

After that, obviously there is Enclosure Walls around the temples. These enclosure walls have a lot of function. It is built to protect the temples from the enemies attack or any chaos situation happens at the countryside. Besides, these enclosure walls also serve as a boundary between the sacred temple and the countryside. In addition, these enclosure wall also have its symbolically function. These walls are a mean to the Ancient Egyptians that it block out all the chaos of the outside world, and create a clean and sacred space for god’s dwelling. More to the point, the enclosure walls are often built in concave forms and convex section. The reason behind this is to prevent the walls from cracking due to shrinkage of the bricks or swelling ground during the Nile floods stated by Andrews (n.d.). In addition, Andrews (n.d.) states that the Ancient Egyptians often use mud brick to built the enclosure walls. While in they use framework of wooden beams and reed mats as the material in the enclosure walls. Most of these enclosure walls are 10 meters thick. Some of these walls also built with bastions or fortified gateways for defensive purposes. In another words, these enclosure walls functions to protect the sacred temples from dangerous like natural disaster, war, and evil.

Finally, before the end of the Entrance Part of Ancient Egyptians’ temples, there is a very significant element, pylons. For your information, the first pylon shape of architecture is first seen in Ancient Egyptians’ Temple. Pylon is the monumental gateway to the temple. Pylon is the most unessential part in the Ancient Egyptians’ temple and it is usually built last, according to ‘Glossary of Egyptian Mythology’ (1997). It has a similar function with the enclosure walls, which have the main objective to protect the sacred temple from the dangerous of outside world. Pylon is a very interesting element in the Ancient Egyptians’ temples because when a pharaoh extends the temple, he usually will not destroy the old pylons but remove it into the new built pylon. Thus, it is very wonderful and brings delights when seeing the architectures within and architecture which is the pylons within the pylon.

After the passed by the artistic and well designed entrance, the first thing that comes to eyes after the great pylon gateway is the outer courtyard. The outer courtyards are mostly designed for celebration gathering. This is well explained by the heliograph that inscribed on the wall and column on the courtyard, as stated by Andrews (n.d.). This courtyard has different function for different temples. However, according to Andrews (n.d.), different temples would have different addition function of the courtyard. This outer courtyard is less sacred compare to the deeper part of the temples complexes. Thus, common resident are allowed to be stay inside to participate celebration.

This courtyard is surrounded by colonnade or portico at both sides that form an axis that connect the pylon gateway to the hypostyle hall. Colonnade or portico is a series of columns with an ambulatory on top of it. These columns are always inscribed with heliograph on it. These columns are mostly will have a column base at the bottom, followed by the column shaft and a column capital at the top part of the column. In Ancient Egypt, there are several type of column which is divided into two categories, the plant style column and None Plant Style Columns. The plant style column includes fluted Column, Palmiform Columns, Lotiform Columns, Papyriform Columns, Coniform Columns, Tent Pole Columns, Campaniform Columns, and Composite Columns. While none plant style columns consist of Hathoric Columns and Osiride Pillars. These columns actually help a lot in achieving great architecture for appreciation in this outer courtyard. It is also a significant element for Ancient Architecture where most of the ancient architecture is going very detail in term of ornamentation on the structure which is very unlikely the modern architecture that emphasize a lot in ‘less is more’.

(For your information, column is the architecture elements that people appreciate a lot in the Ancient Egypt. However, this essay is will not be touching deeply into the column element as this essay is focusing on the architecture of Ancient Egyptians’ temple complex. Thus, there is an attachment of that would explain more on the Ancient Egyptian Column. For further reading via soft copy could link to: Egypt_ The Columns of Ancient Egypt.pdf , via hard copy could see attachment 1: Egypt_ The Columns of Ancient Egypt)

Besides, in this outer courtyard there is always a great altar placed for worshiping or offerings. According to Andrews (n.d.), the great altar is usually allocated at the one side of the central axis. In addition, there is usually a specific area for lodging petitions, meeting with the priests on personal matter or conducting business with the temple officials within the outer courtyard. As stated by Andrews (n.d.), private statuaries besides king and gods could be found in the outer courtyard since the Middle Kingdom Period onwards. These private statuaries are always in the form of squatting on the ground or kneeling before a deity in humble reverence. This statuary is very much related to the belief of after world. Ancient Egyptian believes that their soul needs to be protected after their body died. Thus, sacred temple is the best place to keep their soul out of evil things.

Mysterious of the temple begin after the outer courtyard. Only purified priests are allowed to access beyond the outer courtyard. The first part of the temple after the outer courtyard is the hypostyle hall. This hypostyle hall is functioning as chamber. The interesting part of this hall is the large amount of massive columns. The columns are all well crafted. These columns actually form a forest in the hypostyle hall. For instance, the Karnak temple alone has 134 columns with some stand up to 24 meters tall. This column forest will be acting as a screen or partition that blocks the views of the inner sacred part of the temple complex from the outer courtyard. However, according to Andrews (n.d.), on the center of the hypostyle hall, the columns are separated and form an axis from the entrance leading to the sacred areas of the temple. Thus, he claimed that the real element that makes the sacred area of the temple hidden is actually the darkness inside the hypostyle hall as it has only a row of clerestory windows with gratings set high in the wall to capture little skylight into the hall.

Besides, the “column forest” in the hypostyle hall also has its symbolic function besides its physical function of supporting the massive sandstone architraves and roofing slabs of the hypostyle hall. In Ancient Egyptians’ Myth, they believe that the celestial ream of the sky was supported above the earth on columns, claimed Andrews (n.d.). Besides there is also another evidence to support the Myth which is a quote by Amenhotep III, the pharos who builds the Temple of Karnak, “The pillars in the temple of Karnak reach heaven kike the four pillars of heaven.” Once again, this explains that Ancient Egyptian architecture is very much related to their religious and belief. They build according to their Mythologies principles and they build for their religious function as these are almost everything in them.

When going deeper into the more sacred part of a small temple, it is usually the sanctuary. However, as for the big temple complex, there are sometimes built with some halls before the sanctuary. Andrews (n.d.) believes that these halls are built or designed for the purpose of sacrificing to offer Altar. His point is the Altar would be offered in the sanctuary itself if the halls are not designed for the sacrificing purpose. However, in my opinion, there halls also serve as a sacred place to offer other gods besides the main god for the temple. This theory is based belief in god and goddess of Ancient Egyptians.

Andrews (n.d.) states that “just prior to the sanctuary there will mostly have a Barque Chapel. This room is serving as a store room for the portable Barque, which is the “transportation” of the god. This Barque is always in a boat’s mean, but it is not the real form of a boat. The reason behind this is because the vital transportation in Ancient Egypt is undeniably the Nile River. Thus, boat or ship has deep meaning to the Ancient Egyptian. There are some evidences showing the importance of the ships in Ancient Egypt, which is the quote from the Pharaoh Ramses III:

I built you ships, freight ships, arched ships with rigging, plying the Big Green (the sea). I manned them with archers, captains and innumerable sailors, to bring the goods of the Land of Tyre and the foreign countries at the end of the world to your storage rooms at Thebes the Victorious. (extract from Barques, Barges, and Byblos Boats
by Anita Stratos n.d.)
(This quote means that the Pharaoh Ramses III uses ships to extend his power.) In short, I think that in Ancient Egypt’s Architecture is always influenced by the 3 main things, the Belief of afterworld, Belief in Gods and Goddess, and the Nile River.

After the Barque Chapel, we finally come to the deepest, most sacred and the most mysterious part of the temple, the inner Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is the holy room of the temple for the placement of god shrines and the main Altar. Thus, in term of hierarchy, the Sanctuary is the most important element in the temple complex. Thus for the Architecture Design, the location of the sanctuary is always at the central axis of the temple. Besides, Ancient Egyptian also believes that the Sacred Sanctuary room is the gate way to heaven. Therefore, the Sanctuary room acts as the gateway in the Axis principle which symbolizes the gateway to the heaven. In addition, the sanctuary room is always allocated at the most rear of the temple. The reason behind this is because it signifies that there are no other rooms in this world is beyond the sanctuary rooms except the heaven which the only way to enter is from the sanctuary room. According to Andrews (n.d.), Ancient Egyptians believe that the sanctuary room is the physical extension of heaven. The form of the sanctuary room itself is in a deep and narrow form that would achieve an axis to the heaven. On the other hand, the sanctuary room is purest part of the temple that it is restricted to the king and high ranked purified priests only. This room is so holy and so pure that when an unpurified object or person stepped into the sanctuary room, the room is considered as contaminated. Therefore a complete cleaning process or rededication is required in order to purify the holy sanctuary room.

The last room in Ancient Egyptians’ temple is always the sanctuary room. However, as the temple evolved, new element or new room is added to the back of the sanctuary room. This room is named the “Hearing Ears”, which is specially designed for the common people to offer the god. This room is attached directly to the sanctuary room. However there are no any connections that allow people to access into the sacred part of the temple through the “Hearing Ears”. This room is simply functioning as mean to the common Aancient Egyptian to access the inner sanctuary indirectly. This room is usually placed with a statue of god or sometime only a crafting of a pair of the god ears. In short, this “Hearing Ears” is an additional room that attached to the outer enclosure wall of the temple in the late development of Ancient Egyptians’ temple.

According to Andrews (n.d.), the temple complex cannot be isolated, it needs to build at an estate with other elements or facilities to support the temple or get support from the temple. These facilities are some related to the religious while some are serving as a administrative center. These facilities are mammisis which is a birth house for pharaohs, sacred lake that providing a pool for priest to clean themselves, sanatoria which is equivalent to present medical center, the house of life that is like our university and administrative center, and living quarter that providing living space for the priests.

Mammisis, is a structure that acting as birth house. It is very much related to the religious significant. It signifies the mysterious birth of the Ancient god and also celebration for the god. For the Ancient Egyptian, there believe that their king or pharaoh is god. Thus, the Mammisis is also the place to divine birth of Kings or Pharaoh. This house is usually allocated at the right angle of the main temple axis. The mammisis house is usually surrounding with the peristyle structure with walls erected between the columns. The wall is always decorated with text or heliographs that explain the birth of a god and his/her parents. Thus, in different temples that offering different main god will have different decorative on the Mammisis’s walls. For instance, according to Andrews (n.d.), in th mammisi of the Temple of Hathor celebrating the birth of Ihy even portrays his formation on the potter's wheel. In brief, mammisis are functioning as a place to divine the birth of the pharaohs with the god.

In conclusion, the sanctuary room is the main objective of building a temple. The other elements are added to accomplish the importance and the hierarchy of the sanctuary room. On the other hand, the Ancient Egyptians’ temple complex is as complex as a large shopping mall in the present day. However, the scale of the temple complex to the ancient people is like a city scale to our present life. The architecture of the temple complex is very much related to the religious and the belief of afterworld. Besides, there are also some elements that explain the Ancient Egyptians lifestyle for instance the importance of the boat to Ancient Egyptians is reflected by the Barque element in the temple.

In my opinion, the construction of the Ancient Egyptians’ temple is no more interesting to our present construction because the temple are all built by solid construction which has really a lot of limitation to our building forms and the space, for instance, a series of large opening is very hard to achieve in solid construction. Besides, it is also seems to be impossible to have a large roofed area without huge and massive columns in solid construction. However, I think that the architecture elements that could inspire us are the way of dividing space. The spaces in the temple are defined clearly by uniqueness of each space. Besides, the uniqueness is not only limited to define spaces, but it also has its function and its symbolic meanings. For example, the pylon gateway is very much signified by its massive pylon. To relate to the present, in a shopping mall or other complexes, most of the time there are not clear in defining the zone or area because it is lacking of its own uniqueness of that particular space like the Ancient Egyptians’ temple complexes do.

Furthermore, the temple complex can be related to the urban design as well. A city could be design accordingly to the structure of the temple complex that has hierarchy of each zone or area. In city as well, the sanctuary room could be an administrative zone which is restricted to authorize people only. While the hypostyle hall could be all the office building zone and the outer courtyard as the opened public areas like gardens for outdoor activities. Then, as for the colonnade or portico that at two side of the outer courtyard can be transformed into commercial zone and residential zone at the both sides of the opened public areas. Next, the pylon gateway can be changed to the Education zone for schools, libraries, museums, and so on. For the entrance area, it could be transformed into the entrance to the city like seaport, airport, bus stop, and other transportation hub. As for the facilities from the outside of temple, it can be added with facilities like Fire department, Hospital, Industrial zones, Agriculture zones, and other element that is supporting the city. The sacred lake can be transformed into a tourism spot, while the living quarter can be changed to the residential area for authorized people like administrator. In short, the architecture of Ancient Egyptians’ temple complex is so great in defining spaces that even be transformed into a layout of a city.




























Reference list

Andrews, M. n.d. ‘Ancient Egyptian Temple Elements: Part I: Approach and Entrance’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/templeentrance.htm

Andrews, M. n.d. ‘Ancient Egyptian Temple Elements: Part II: The Outer Courtyards’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/templeoutercourt.htm

Andrews, M. n.d. ‘Ancient Egyptian Temple Elements: Part III: On ThePpath to Sanctuary’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/templeoutercourt.htm


Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation 1998. ‘Mysterious of Egypt’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.civilization.ca/civil/egypt/egca03e.html

‘Egyptian Mythology’ n.d. Retrieved: September 7, 2005, from http://www.mnsu.edu/

Edgar, M. n.d. ‘Temples of Egypt’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/temples.htm

Edgar, M. n.d. ’The Columns of Ancient Egypt’ n.d. Retrieved: October 11, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/columns.htm

‘Glossary of Egyptian Mythology’ 1997. Retrieved: October 10, 2005, from http://members.aol.com/egyptart/glossary.html

Stratos, A. n.d. ‘Barques, Barges, and Byblos Boats’. Retrieved: October 12, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/aboat.htm