The pharaohs erected palaces for their glory - for earthly life, and eternal refuges - pyramids, mastabas and (from the New Kingdom) tombs - for the other world. The architects, stonemasons and sculptors who worked for their great ruler were helped by Ptah and his son Imhotep, the patron of crafts, arts, wisdom, knowledge and sciences.
Historically, Imhotep was the vizier of Pharaoh Djoser (III dynasty), architect, builder of the step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, Imhotep was credited with the authorship of the “Book of Temple Plans” - a set of architectural canons and instructions for sculptors and architects (the “Book” has not survived; it is unknown whether it actually existed). In the Late Period, Imhotep was deified and began to be considered the son of Ptah. The Greeks identified him with Asclepius.
All sculptors, architects and scribes poured libations in honor of Imhotep before starting work, and during work they identified with him. Only thanks to Imhotep and the great Ptah-Tatenen they were able to erect temples that amaze with their splendor.
The ancient Egyptian temple began with an avenue of sphinxes; the majestic stone sculptures, standing in a row on both sides of the alley, had a psychological effect on the person going to the temple, helping him to renounce vain worldly thoughts and tune in to communication with the deity. The Alley of Sphinxes usually began from the bank of the Nile - from the place where the water reached during the flood (a symbol of the border between life and death).
At the end of the alley rose pylons (Greek; Egyptian behen) - flat towers with inclined walls. The passage between the pylons was narrow: during the influx of people on religious festivals, the crowd, squeezing through the passage, thinned out and thus order was established on its own. The pylons were covered with paintings; in front of each pylon there was an obelisk, masts with flags and statues of pharaohs and gods.
Behind the pylons there was a columned courtyard. Here you could say prayers at the statues of gods for free. At the end of the columned courtyard, opposite the pylons, there was an entrance to the hypostyle columned hall; to enter there, it was necessary to pay a fine to the priests. The hall was illuminated through skylights; The windows were cut obliquely so that only oblique, cool rays entered the room. The capitals of the columns looked like bundles of papyrus or lotus buds. “The halls seemed to reproduce the Nile thickets, where blossoming papyrus trunks rise above the rows of stems that had not yet had time to bloom. This interpretation of the hall went well with the general ancient symbolism of the temple as the house of the deity <...>, which <...> is born from a lotus flower. <...> The winged solar disk, usually depicted in relief above the door, seemed to fly out of the Nile thickets"
At the end of the temple there was a room where the main statue of the god to whom the temple was dedicated was kept - the “holy of holies.” Only the priests and the pharaoh had the right to enter there and only on certain days. (Thus, the entire ancient Egyptian temple was built on the idea of the desire for a deity and the impossibility of knowing him.) During the festivals, the statue of the god was dressed in ceremonial clothes and carried out on a sacred boat (also kept in the temple) to the solemn procession, sometimes open for public viewing, sometimes covered with a veil so that it would not be desecrated by the eyes of the mob.
Mortuary (memorial) temples were originally attached to the pyramids on the eastern side. In the era of the New Kingdom, when the construction of pyramids and mastaba-mausoleums was abandoned, mortuary temples were built on the banks of the Nile, usually in the place where the water reached during the flood, and the tomb was cut in front of the temple in the rock. The purpose of mortuary temples is a place of commemoration and sacrifice to the soul of the deceased.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru