22 ANCIENT EGYPT, 



THE TEMPLE. 



The temple is not a church in the ordinary sense, that is, a 

 place for public worship, for the people had no right to address 

 the deity except through the intermediation of Pharaoh, who 

 partook of the divine nature. Rather is it the pharaoh's pro- 

 pitiatory offering to the deity whom he looked upon as his own 

 special ancestor and protector : and it is, to a great extent, 

 his own personal monument. The inscriptions which cover 

 the walls form, for the most part, invocations addressed to the 

 deity, offerings to the gods, and an inflated account of the 

 pharaoh's own martial achievements and campaigns. There 

 are frequent repetitions, and one cannot resist the impression 

 that many were cut more especially for decorative purposes. 



A typical Egyptian temple may be described something as 

 follows. It is surrounded by its temenos, or sun-dried brick 

 enclosure, within which is a lake for the sacred ark to sail on, 

 brought in procession, shoulder high, from the tabernacle. 

 The lake is surrounded by massive stone quays, with flights 

 of steps down to the water, and there is a grove of palm trees 

 within the enclosure. Entrance is through a pylon, a great 

 triumphal gateway, bearing the cartouche, or oval, with the 

 divine name of the king inscribed, and figures of the pharaoh 

 cut in colossal proportions. An avenue, or dromos, of sphinxes 

 leads up to the entrance propylon, with sentinel colossi 

 flanked by obelisks, and through it you enter a large open 

 court with colonnades ; thence into the hypostyle hall of 

 assembly, ox _pronaos. Around the sanctuary, or naos, which 

 is the very heart and crux of the building, the holy of holies, 

 are the various offices for the temple service, such as rooms 

 for receiving offerings, apartments for the priests for robing 

 and disrobing, sacrificial chambers, the treasury, &c. The 

 vaos contains a tabernacle of grey granite, used as a receptacle 

 for the sacred ark, and perhaps also for the veiled emblem 

 of the deity — this, the first chamber built, is indeed a perfect 

 temple in itself. The illustration on the screen is taken from 

 the sanctuary of Edfoo. The temple itself is a beautiful 



