The facade of the temple of the divine falcon or the temple of Horus in Edfu. It is the best-preserved of all Egyptian temples and represents the largest complete temple in the ancient world. It was almost completely buried until the 19th century when it was rediscovered. It is 137 meters long, 79 meters wide, and 36 meters high. Its construction began in the Ptolemaic period and was completed in 57 BCE. It was built on the ruins of an older temple from the time of Thutmose III. The entire temple is conceived as a lying obelisk. The floor of the temple rises towards the sanctuary, the ceiling descends unnoticed, the walls come closer, and the halls narrow. Thanks to its preservation, one can experience the sense of space that Egyptian temples had.
Deep inside the temple, there was a sanctuary known as the Great Seat.
Oh, the throne of divinity. The sanctuary was surrounded by chapels and separated from them by a mysterious corridor from which one staircase led to the terrace of the temple, and the other to its underground with crypts.
In the sanctuary, in the niche of a large monolithic tabernacle, there was a statue of the main deity to whom the temple was dedicated. We do not know what these statues looked like or what material they were made of, but we know that they were not ordinary cult statues, but those that depicted the deity in all its power.
Only certain priests who lived an ascetic way of life and maintained strict physical and mental hygiene had access to the sanctuary. Every morning, they performed a ritual of maintaining the world by dressing, adorning, and offering sacrificial gifts to the deity statue. Although ordinary worshipers did not have access to the sanctuary of the temple (they could not go beyond the inner courtyard of the temple), they still encountered it. During annual ceremonies, it was carried in a ritual boat. The priests came to them in a solemn procession. The statue was ceremonially brought out and placed on the terrace of the temple, where the solarization ritual took place. During this ritual, the statue was exposed to the rays of the sun in order to unite the soul of the god with its earthly vessel.
A. Amon’s complex, 1. Main building of Amon’s temple, 2. Secondary axis of Amon’s temple, 3. Sacred lake, 4. Khonsu’s temple, 5. Ipet’s temple, 6. Ptah’s temple, 7. Enclosing wall, B. Montu’s complex, C. Enlarged plan of Amon’s temple
Isometric section of Khonsu’s temple in Karnak, 20th dynasty, 1. Avenue of sphinxes, 2. Pylon, 3. Open courtyard, 4. Hypostyle hall, 5. Boat hall, 6. Sanctuary, 7. Roof openings
“We cannot single out any specific temple to explain the symbolism of its parts, because additions and repairs, which the great buildings have endured over the millennia, have made them confusing and unsuitable for simple observation, which we will focus on. Therefore, we will take the example of a temple from Thebes, described in…” in a simplified form which, regardless, is based on the original design in its essential elements.
According to the depiction of the universe in this and other beliefs, the temple also has seven parts.
1) The entrance path, which is sometimes an alley lined with sphinxes, solar rams, or simple monoliths. They represent the physical, immovable but vigilant things that, through their positions, indicate the path leading to the temple.
Depictions of the goddess Nekhbet with outstretched wings, representing the symbol of spiritual protection. The temple of the goddess Hatshepsut.
The open courtyard of the Horus temple in Edfu.
The hypostyle hall of the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera.
Among the many Greek philosophers who stayed in Egypt and were allowed to participate in ceremonies that only the initiated were allowed to attend, we mention Democritus from Abdera, Plato (who lived among Egyptian priests for thirteen years), Eudoxus of Cnidus, and Hermes Trismegistus (who translated Egyptian Hermetic texts). We will mention at the end Plutarch, the great priest of Apollo, who E. Guimet writes was initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus and Osiris; Plotinus, who knew how to read hieroglyphs and understood their hidden meaning; Jamblichus, who “teaches us that an Egyptian priest covered himself in divinity during prayer and showed the symbols of the deity…” (E. Rougé, Funeral rites).
3) An open courtyard surrounded by numerous columns on which different scenes from life were carved and painted, depicting its emotions, victories, and defeats.
The sanctuary of the Horus temple in Edfu. In the foreground is a pedestal for the ritual boat, and behind it is a large stone tabernacle with a niche containing the statue of the deity.
5) The boat chamber, where the ritual boat was actually kept, sometimes on a brightly polished stone altar. It represented a means of transportation for the change in dimension, when there is no longer the heavy and cumbersome mass of manifested life. Adorned with depictions of gods, it enabled navigation Over the Blue Nile of the starry sky. It was often covered with semi-transparent curtains, and around it, incense and various resins burned in censers to create the impression of fast waters infused with magic and mystery. In the underground part of the temple, another boat was kept, but this is not the moment to talk about it.
6) What we can call a sanctuary was hidden at the bottom of the temple, like an initiatory crypt immersed in the sunlight. This is a sacred place where secret rituals were performed. Behind and on the sides were chapels intended for various ceremonies of consecration of sacred objects and vows of service to God. Therefore, the soul, despite being trapped in the body, or rather, chained to it, rose free and powerful in the fullness of its conscious immortality.
The chapel of the god Nefertum in the temple of Ptah, located in the temple complex in Karnak. A ray of sunlight enters through the opening in the ceiling.
This basic plan was supplemented with various chapels and altars. The pharaoh and His dignitaries did not enter the temple through the pylon gate, but from the left side directly into the hall or courtyard, to receive the loyalty and love of their people, immersed in a solemn silence full of respect.
There were also underground chambers and numerous other altars on the terraces in the back of the temple.
In general, when the temple adhered to this typical Theban plan, the roofs descended along the temple like the original cave. Except for the hierophants who lived underground, the priests lived in buildings attached to the temple, in rooms reminiscent of cells. Sacred lakes, magical gardens, and obelisks with tops covered in orichalcum (the Greeks called this alloy electrum, which today seems impossible to obtain, considering the ratio of gold and silver with the addition of a very heavy metal), and much lower under the pyramidion, hieroglyphs could be seen carved that completed the whole picture.
A modern replica of the ceremonial boat used in processions. Well, it served as a means of transporting the statue of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated. The Temple of Horus in Edfu.
There are plans to survey the position of the Egyptian temple complex, just like it has already been done with the Mayan temples.
Another important element to mention are the libraries that were housed within the temples and their associated buildings. On stone tablets and papyri, meticulous records were kept not only of historical events but also of all natural phenomena. Even the walls and roofs of the temples hold vast amounts of astronomical, historical, theological, and magical data.”