TEMPLE: ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN AND
MEDITERRANEAN TEMPLES
Modern writers use the term temple in different ways. Ap-
plied to Near Eastern religion, it refers to a complete archi-
tectural complex, including a shrine with the cult statue. Ap-
plied to Greek, Etruscan, and Roman architecture, temple
refers to the equivalent of this shrine, and the whole complex
is termed sanctuary.
EGYPT. Modern scholars have traditionally divided Egyptian
temples into several types, according to their functions. The
two principal are “divine” temples, the residence of a god or
gods, and “mortuary” temples, the place for rituals, offerings,
and sacrifices for a deceased king. Ancient Egyptians, howev-
er, did not see the functions, plans, symbols, and rituals of
their temples quite so separately and distinctly as modern
taxonomies would suggest. Thus, “divine” temples could also
serve for the worship of the king, while “mortuary” temples
were often used for a joint cult of the king and the god. Ac-
cordingly, these modern divisions are currently being ques-
tioned.
Recent excavations show that the earliest temples date
back to the Early Dynastic period (c. 3185–2630 BCE). These
temples were still quite simple in their plan, generally con-
sisting of an open court followed by a shrine made of mud-
brick, which contained the cult statue. During the Old King-
dom (c. 2630–2160 BCE) stone was introduced as a building
material, especially for royal cult complexes. In contrast,
shrines for the gods remained modest in scale and materials.
During the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1650) the state took
an unprecedented interest in temples, which were erected for
the gods in all the major cult places of Egypt. Stone was regu-
larly used as a building material, and there was a particular
emphasis on figural decoration. During that period, the plan
that became characteristic of the divine cult complexes of the
New Kingdom (c. 1550–1075 BCE) appeared. This is the
plan that we now usually associate with the Egyptian temple,
mainly because in no other period of Egyptian history has
the construction of monumental temples been more inten-
sive than it was during the New Kingdom.
The Egyptian temple of the New Kingdom was set apart
from the outside world by a massive enclosure wall made of
mud-brick and without decoration. This wall was a bounda-
ry between order and disorder; it transformed the temple
into a fortress against chaos. Within this enclosure was the
pylon (a modern term derived from the ancient Greek word
for “gateway”), a monumental entrance built of stone which
consisted of a gateway flanked by two towers. This pylon was
decorated on the outside with reliefs representing the king
hunting or defeating his enemies in battle. Only the king,
the priests, and, on some ritual occasions, representative
commoners, were admitted beyond this gateway, and then
only after having performed a ritual of purification. After the
pylon was a large open-air court surrounded by columns.
This court led to the most sacred part of the temple, where
access was restricted to the king and certain selected priests.
The first room of this part of the temple was the hypostyle
hall, an enclosed, basilica-like space whose roof rested on nu-
merous rows of close-set columns. This hall was like a vesti-
bule, which gave access to a series of chambers with different
functions. One contained small tables and stands for offer-
ings and sacrifices. Another had the sacred boat of the god,
installed atop a platform. One housed the cult statue, closed
in a shrine. Because the statue was the very being of god, its
shrine was the heart of the temple, the holy of holies. In the
inner area of the temple there could be also shrines for divini-
ties associated with the principal god, storerooms for the par-
aphernalia of ritual, and rooms with administrative purposes.What is characteristic about this architecture is that
rooms and unroofed spaces, which were always rectangular,
were disposed in exact sequence according to an axial align-
ment from the entrance pylon to the inner chambers. The
courts were unroofed, though often surrounded by a colon-
nade; the inner parts were completely roofed and increasing-
ly in shadow. The roof level decreased as the floor level rose.
All these solutions enhanced a sense of mystery that culmi-
nated in the heart of the temple.
The precise arrangement of this plan varied from temple
to temple, with some larger and more complex than others.
As time went on, temples could be greatly expanded with ad-
ditional sections (most frequently, a new pylon, followed by
an additional open-air court). This was the result of the de-
sire for personal display of individual kings, who by trans-
forming famous temples reasserted their primary role in
Egyptian religion and society. The degree of complexity pos-
sible for an Egyptian temple can be illustrated by the Temple
of Amun at Karnak, one of the most important, which has
been added to and altered over millennia. Elements go back
to the Middle Kingdom (presumably obliterating even earlier
construction) and extended down to the Ptolemaic and
Roman periods (Figure 1 shows a portion of the final ar-
rangement). Complex though it is, in principle it is the same
as the smaller temples which share its twenty-five-hectare
precinct.
Both texts and images give us an idea about the rituals
performed in these temples. The daily ritual consisted in
tending the cult statue, which was cleaned and provided with
clothes, food, drink, and other offerings. This daily ritual in
essence provided the god with the needs of life, which were
thought to be the same as those of humans. In theory, it was
the king who performed this daily ritual, because he was, in
theory, the sole priest; for this reason, only the king is depict-
ed in the wall decorations performing the appropriate ac-
tions. In fact, the daily ritual was performed by the priests,
the vicars of the sacerdotal power of the king, who thus acted
on his behalf. Another ritual that took place in temples, and
which was performed on the occasion of many religious festi-
vals, was the procession of the god from the inner part to the
open-air court. The cult statue, closed in a shrine, was
mounted on a barque borne on the shoulders of the priests,
or sometimes carried on a sledge. It was enveloped in incenseTEMPLE: ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN AND MEDITERRANEAN TEMPLES 9061