676 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT. 



temple of Mycerinus storerooms lie to the right and left of the holy 

 of holies. The importance g-iven to storage places in these build- 

 ing plans shows the old significance of the tomb as a repository for 

 the dead, the place of worship being only a secondar}'^ consideration. 



In the later mortuary temples of the period following from about 

 2000 B. c. this relation is reversed. It is true the}^ still have storerooms 

 for the treasures of the sanctuaries, l)ut they are of less importance 

 in the general plan. The temple has here become essential. Such a 

 change was made necessar}^ by the development of the Egyptian 

 religion, for no longer was it the real gift or action that was impor- 

 tant, but the magical formula. If one wished to convey sometliing to 

 the deceased, he was more certain of success ])y pronouncing the pre- 

 scribed magical words than by the offering of real objects. 



This transition from the old temple with storerooms to the later cult 

 temple, which heretofore had only been surmised, is now made clear by 

 the excavations at Abusir. Here is found a complete temple with the 

 usual arrangement of later times. In the rear rises the holy of holies 

 not far from the pyramid. In front of it is a broad, covered room cor- 

 responding to the later covered court and leading to the open court, 

 around which a covered passage runs. Its back Avail is formed by the 

 terminating masonr}' of the temple, while its front rests on tastefully 

 shaped columns carved with papy rus designs. In the middle of the court 

 a rain basin is sunk, from which an outflow leads outside the court. 



This construction proves that the middle part of the court was from 

 the first intended to be uncovered, and it also refutes the still 

 frequently' repeated assertion that no rain fell in ancient times in 

 Egypt. At a more recent period the Egyptian temple terminatt^d 

 with such an open court, its entrance forming a monumental, fortress- 

 like gate, the so-called " pylon," but at Abusir this was not A^et the case. 

 A simple door here leads into the court and a long passage leads up to 

 it from the opposite direction. To the right and left of the passage 

 are storerooms that have their continuation in still other passages 

 surrounding the entire building and even extending to the north of 

 the temple in front of the pj'^ramid. At the end of the main passage 

 is the entrance door, which was reached from the plain of Memphis 

 by a slanting, inclined path. The storeroom plan is thus still retained, 

 but it is onl}' externally, not organically, attached to the cult rooms, 

 which on their part have become an independent temple. 



The temple just described is not located before the center of the 

 pyramid, but before the southern part of the east side. In the course 

 of tlie excavations at Abusir it turned out that the storerooms of the 

 temple extended northward on the east side of the pyramid, and that 

 l)etween them and the center of the pyramid there was a large struc- 

 ture which on th(^ front side of the pyramid was shut oft' by a large 

 blind door. This building was not the holy of holies, or sanctum, of 



