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136-609: In the 14th century BC, Atenism was Egypt's state religion for around 20 years, and Akhenaten met the worship of other gods with persecution; he closed many traditional temples, instead commissioning the construction of Atenist temples, and also suppressed religious traditionalists. However, subsequent pharaohs toppled the movement in the aftermath of Akhenaten's death, thereby restoring Egyptian civilization's traditional polytheistic religion . Large-scale efforts were then undertaken to remove from Egypt and Egyptian records any presence or mention of Akhenaten, Atenist temples, and assertions of

272-412: A ba , the set of spiritual characteristics unique to each individual. Unlike the ka , the ba remained attached to the body after death. Egyptian funeral rituals were intended to release the ba from the body so that it could move freely, and to rejoin it with the ka so that it could live on as an akh . However, it was also important that the body of the deceased be preserved by mummification, as

408-557: A step pyramid under which he was buried: the Pyramid of Djoser . For the rest of the Old Kingdom, tomb and temple were joined in elaborate stone pyramid complexes. Near each pyramid complex was a town that supplied its needs, as towns would support temples throughout Egyptian history. Other changes came in the reign of Sneferu who, beginning with his first pyramid at Meidum , built pyramid complexes symmetrically along an east–west axis, with

544-455: A distinct solar god, and his son Amenhotep III established and promoted a separate cult for the Aten. However, there is no evidence that Amenhotep III neglected the other gods or attempted to promote the Aten as an exclusive deity. Amenhotep IV initially introduced Atenism in the fifth year of his reign (1348/1346 BC), raising Aten to the status of supreme god, initially permitting continued worship of

680-420: A familiar religious context. 'Aten' is the name given to the solar disc, and the god's full title on boundary steles of the new capital was " Ra- Horus , who rejoices in the horizon in his name of the light which is in the sun disc ". However, in the ninth year of his reign, Akhenaten declared a more radical version of his new religion by declaring Aten not merely the supreme god but the only god, and Akhenaten as

816-519: A few gods who, at various points, rose to supreme importance in Egyptian religion. These included the royal patron Horus, the sun-god Ra, and the mother-goddess Isis. During the New Kingdom ( c.  1550 – c.  1070 BC ), Amun held this position. The theology of the period described in particular detail Amun's presence in and rule over all things, so that he, more than any other deity, embodied

952-452: A few years, however, Neferneferuaten disappeared, and her successor Tutankhaten (with Akhenaten's old vizier , Ay , as regent) changed his name to Tutankhamun in the third year of his reign (c. 1330 BC), restored power to the Amun priesthood, and moved the capital away from Akhetaten, perhaps to Memphis , or, less likely, Thebes. The following two decades saw Atenism's terminal decline. Most of

1088-417: A god often associated with chaos. Osiris' sister and wife Isis resurrected him so that he could conceive an heir, Horus. Osiris then entered the underworld and became the ruler of the dead. Once grown, Horus fought and defeated Set to become king himself. Set's association with chaos, and the identification of Osiris and Horus as the rightful rulers, provided a rationale for pharaonic succession and portrayed

1224-532: A god. It seems most likely that the Egyptians viewed royal authority itself as a divine force. Therefore, although the Egyptians recognized that the pharaoh was human and subject to human weakness, they simultaneously viewed him as a god, because the divine power of kingship was incarnated in him. He therefore acted as intermediary between Egypt's people and the gods. He was key to upholding Ma'at , both by maintaining justice and harmony in human society and by sustaining

1360-415: A key part of the maintenance of maat , the ideal order of nature and of human society in Egyptian belief. Maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion , and it was the purpose of a temple as well. Because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh , as a sacred king , was regarded as Egypt's representative to the gods and its most important upholder of maat . Thus, it

1496-668: A large portion of Egypt's wealth. Anthony Spalinger suggests that, as the influence of temples expanded, religious celebrations that had once been fully public were absorbed into the temples' increasingly important festival rituals. The most important god of the time was Amun , whose main cult center, the Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak in Thebes , eventually became the largest of all temples, and whose high priests may have wielded considerable political influence. Many temples were now built entirely of stone, and their general plan became fixed, with

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1632-707: A long tradition of sophisticated Nubian temple building. Amid this turmoil, the fortunes of various temples and clergies shifted and the independence of Amun's priesthood was broken, but the power of the priesthood in general remained. Despite the political upheaval, the Egyptian temple style continued to evolve without absorbing much foreign influence. Whereas earlier temple building mostly focused on male gods, goddesses and child deities grew increasingly prominent. Temples focused more on popular religious activities such as oracles, animal cults , and prayer. New architectural forms continued to develop, such as covered kiosks in front of gateways, more elaborate column styles, and

1768-460: A more personal way, asking for blessings, help, or forgiveness for wrongdoing. Such prayers are rare before the New Kingdom, indicating that in earlier periods such direct personal interaction with a deity was not believed possible, or at least was less likely to be expressed in writing. They are known mainly from inscriptions on statues and stelae left in sacred sites as votive offerings . Among

1904-410: A more radical version of his new religion, declaring Aten not merely the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon but the only God of Egypt, with himself as the sole intermediary between the Aten and the Egyptian people. Key features of Atenism included a ban on idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc in which the rays (commonly depicted ending in hands) appear to represent

2040-621: A non-royal, came to power. He ordered a purge of the Amarna Period rulers, removing Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Neferneferuaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay from the official lists of Pharaohs, and destroying their monuments, including most remaining Aten temples. Nevertheless, the Aten temple in Akhetaten was still in use during Horemheb's first years, suggesting that the purge was not universal, perhaps leaving some small pockets of Atenism in Egypt. Though this marked

2176-510: A pillared hall frequently appears in Middle Kingdom temples, and sometimes these two elements are fronted by open courts, foreshadowing the standard temple layout used in later times. With greater power and wealth during the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC), Egypt devoted still more resources to its temples, which grew larger and more elaborate. Higher-ranking priestly roles became permanent rather than rotating positions, and they controlled

2312-526: A principal deity, and most were dedicated to other gods as well. Not all deities had temples dedicated to them. Many demons and household gods were involved primarily in magical or private religious practice, with little or no presence in temple ceremonies. There were also other gods who had significant roles in the cosmos but, for unclear reasons, were not honored with temples of their own. Of those gods who did have temples of their own, many were venerated mainly in certain areas of Egypt, though many gods with

2448-460: A protruding belly and wide hips. Other leading figures of the Amarna period, both royal and otherwise, are also shown with some of these features, suggesting a possible religious connotation, especially as some sources suggest that private representations of Akhenaten, as opposed to official art, show him as quite normal. It is also suggested by Brier that the family suffered from Marfan's syndrome , which

2584-437: A radical program of religious reform. For about twenty years, he largely supplanted the age-old beliefs and practices of the Egyptian state religion, and deposed its religious hierarchy, headed by the powerful priesthood of Amun at Thebes. For fifteen centuries, the Egyptians had worshiped an extended family of gods and goddesses, each of which had its own elaborate system of priests, temples, shrines and rituals. A key feature of

2720-415: A reform on land possession and taxation. The Egyptian temples, as important landowners, were made to either pay rent to the government for the land they owned or surrender that land to the state in exchange for a government stipend. However, the temples and priests continued to enjoy privileges under Roman rule, e.g., exemption from taxes and compulsory services. On the official level, the leading officials of

2856-408: A series of steps culminating in the official installment of the Aten as Egypt's sole god. Although each line of kings prior to the reign of Akhenaten had previously adopted one deity as the royal patron and supreme state god, there had never been an attempt to exclude other deities, and the multitude of gods had always been tolerated and worshipped. During the reign of Thutmose IV , it was identified as

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2992-407: A set literary formula, designed to expound on the nature, aspects, and mythological functions of a given deity. They tend to speak more explicitly about fundamental theology than other Egyptian religious writings, and became particularly important in the New Kingdom, a period of particularly active theological discourse. Prayers follow the same general pattern as hymns, but address the relevant god in

3128-416: A short reign, eventually leaving Neferneferuaten as the acting regent of Egypt. Though Akhenaten's last years saw possibly the most aggressive repression of Amun and, less likely, other gods, his death quickly resulted in the resurgence of the old cults. Neferneferuaten appears to have attempted to reach some accommodation with the Amun priesthood, while still preserving a less exclusive form of Atenism. After

3264-450: A signal of Akhenaten's symbolic death and rebirth. It may also have coincided with the death of his father and the end of the coregency. In addition to constructing a new capital in honor of Aten, Akhenaten also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at Karnak and one at Thebes, close to the old temple of Amun . In the ninth year of his reign (1344/1342 BC), Akhenaten declared

3400-415: A strong local tie were also important across the nation. Even deities whose worship spanned the country were strongly associated with the cities where their chief temples were located. In Egyptian creation myths , the first temple originated as a shelter for a god—which god it was varied according to the city—that stood on the mound of land where the process of creation began. Each temple in Egypt, therefore,

3536-544: A temple's most sacred areas. Nevertheless, a temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray , give offerings, and seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within. The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary , which typically contained a cult image , a statue of its god. The rooms outside the sanctuary grew larger and more elaborate over time, so that temples evolved from small shrines in late Prehistoric Egypt (late fourth millennium BC) to large stone edifices in

3672-463: A temple, but in some cases, as with mortuary temples or the temples in Nubia, the temple was a new foundation on previously empty land. The exact site of a temple was often chosen for religious reasons; it might, for example, be the mythical birthplace or burial place of a god. The temple axis might also be designed to align with locations of religious significance, such as the site of a neighboring temple or

3808-442: A temple. Other revenue came from private individuals, who offered land, slaves , or goods to temples in exchange for a supply of offerings and priestly services to sustain their spirits in the afterlife. Much of a temple's economic support came from its own resources. These included large tracts of land beyond the temple enclosure, sometimes in a completely different region than the temple itself. The most important type of property

3944-580: A uniquely supreme god. The word Aten ( Ancient Egyptian : jtn ), meaning "circle", "disc", and later "sun disc", is first found in the 24th century BC Abusir Papyri , discovered in the mortuary temple of the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai . Aten , the god of Atenism, first appears as a god in texts dating to the Twelfth Dynasty , in the Story of Sinuhe . During the Middle Kingdom, Aten "as

4080-494: A valley temple on the banks of the Nile linked to a pyramid temple at the foot of the pyramid. Sneferu's immediate successors followed this pattern, but beginning in the late Old Kingdom, pyramid complexes combined different elements from the axial plan and from the rectangular plan of Djoser. To supply the pyramid complexes, kings founded new towns and farming estates on undeveloped lands across Egypt. The flow of goods from these lands to

4216-447: A way that benefited Akhenaten, quoting a statement of Egyptologist John Baines : "Amarna religion was a religion of god and king, or even of king first and then god". Initially, Akhenaten presented Aten to the Egyptian people as a variant of the familiar supreme deity Amun-Ra (itself the result of an earlier rise to prominence of the cult of Amun , resulting in Amun becoming merged with the sun god Ra ), in an attempt to put his ideas in

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4352-414: Is derived mostly from hymns that detail the roles of specific deities, from ritual and magical texts which describe actions related to mythic events, and from funerary texts which mention the roles of many deities in the afterlife. Some information is also provided by allusions in secular texts. Finally, Greeks and Romans such as Plutarch recorded some of the extant myths late in Egyptian history. Among

4488-527: Is evident in the great efforts made to ensure the survival of their souls after death – via the provision of tombs, grave goods and offerings to preserve the bodies and spirits of the deceased. The religion had its roots in Egypt's prehistory and lasted for 3,500 years. The details of religious belief changed over time as the importance of particular gods rose and declined, and their intricate relationships shifted. At various times, certain gods became preeminent over

4624-477: Is known to cause elongated features, which may explain Akhenaten's appearance. The collapse of Atenism began during Akhenaten's late reign when a major plague spread across the ancient Near East . This pandemic appears to have claimed the lives of numerous royal family members and high-ranking officials, possibly contributing to the decline of Akhenaten's government. The events of this period are not well known due to

4760-480: Is no clear division between the two. The Egyptians did not refer to mortuary temples by any distinct name. Nor were rituals for the dead and rituals for the gods mutually exclusive; the symbolism surrounding death was present in all Egyptian temples. The worship of gods was present to some degree in mortuary temples, and the Egyptologist Stephen Quirke has said that "at all periods royal cult involves

4896-435: Is reflected in the Egyptian term for temple lands and their administration, pr , meaning "house" or "estate". Some of the temple's supplies came from direct donations by the king. In the New Kingdom , when Egypt was an imperial power , these donations often came out of the spoils of the king's military campaigns or the tribute given by his client states. The king might also levy various taxes that went directly to support

5032-710: The mammisi , a building celebrating the mythical birth of a god. Though the characteristics of the late temple style had developed by the last period of native rule, most of the examples date from the era of the Ptolemies , Greek kings who ruled as pharaohs for nearly 300 years. After Rome conquered the Ptolemaic kingdom in 30 BC, Roman emperors took on the role of ruler and temple patron. Many temples in Roman Egypt continued to be built in Egyptian style. Others, including some that were dedicated to Egyptian gods—such as

5168-456: The Egyptian language possessed no single term corresponding to the concept of religion. Ancient Egyptian religion consisted of a vast and varying set of beliefs and practices, linked by their common focus on the interaction between the world of humans and the world of the divine. The characteristics of the gods who populated the divine realm were inextricably linked to the Egyptians' understanding of

5304-408: The New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC) and later. These edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of ancient Egyptian architecture , with their elements arranged and decorated according to complex patterns of religious symbolism . Their typical layout consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, and entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond

5440-569: The Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) that followed the Early Dynastic Period, royal funerary monuments greatly expanded, while most divine temples remained comparatively small, suggesting that official religion in this period emphasized the cult of the king more than the direct worship of deities. Deities closely connected with the king, such as the sun god Ra , received more royal contributions than other deities. Ra's temple at Heliopolis

5576-545: The Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC and Egyptians began converting to Christianity . In addition practices such as mummification halted. The Ancient Egyptian religion was considered to have fully died in the 530s. Following the Arab conquest of Egypt under Amr ibn al-As , Egyptians started to convert to Islam . The beliefs and rituals now referred to as "ancient Egyptian religion" were integral within every aspect of Egyptian culture; thus

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5712-463: The de facto end of Atenism, the revolutionary cult left some lasting impact on ancient Egyptian religion. For example, some changes in funerary rites during the Amarna Period remained in place under Horemheb and his successors. Because of the monolatristic or monotheistic character of Atenism, a link to Judaism (or other monotheistic religions) has been suggested by various writers. For example, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud assumed Akhenaten to be

5848-487: The de facto ruler of Upper Egypt , beginning the political fragmentation of the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070–664 BC). As the New Kingdom crumbled, the building of mortuary temples ceased and was never revived. Some rulers of the Third Intermediate Period , such as those at Tanis , were buried within the enclosures of divine temples, thus continuing the close link between temple and tomb. In

5984-430: The gods to reside on earth. Indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr , means "mansion (or enclosure) of a god". A divine presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and allowed humans to interact with the god through ritual . These rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore

6120-441: The son of Aten was the only intermediary between the Aten and his people. He ordered the defacing of Amun's temples throughout Egypt. Key features of Atenism included a ban on idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc in which the rays, commonly depicted as ending in hands, appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten. Later still, even this was done away with. Styles of art that flourished during

6256-499: The Aten prominently above that pair, with the hands of the Aten closest to each offering Ankhs. Unusually for New Kingdom art, the Pharaoh and his wife are depicted as approximately equal in size, with Nefertiti's image used to decorate the lesser Aten temple at Amarna. That may suggest that she also had a prominent official role in Aten worship. Artistic representations of Akhenaten usually give him an unusual appearance, with slender limbs,

6392-403: The Egyptians believed that the ba returned to its body each night to receive new life, before emerging in the morning as an akh . In early times the deceased pharaoh was believed to ascend to the sky and dwell among the stars . Over the course of the Old Kingdom ( c.  2686 –2181 BC), however, he came to be more closely associated with the daily rebirth of the sun god Ra and with

6528-565: The New Kingdom, this material gave rise to several "books of the netherworld", including the Book of Gates , the Book of Caverns , and the Amduat . Unlike the loose collections of spells, these netherworld books are structured depictions of Ra's passage through the Duat, and by analogy, the journey of the deceased person's soul through the realm of the dead. They were originally restricted to pharaonic tombs, but in

6664-573: The Nile from quarries elsewhere. Temple structures were built on foundations of stone slabs set into sand-filled trenches. In most periods, walls and other structures were built with large blocks of varying shape. The blocks were laid in courses , usually without mortar . Each stone was dressed to fit with its neighbors, producing cuboid blocks whose uneven shapes interlocked. The interiors of walls were often built with less care, using rougher, poorer-quality stones. To build structures above ground level,

6800-445: The Old and Middle Kingdoms their designs grew more elaborate, and they were increasingly built out of stone. In the New Kingdom, a basic temple layout emerged, which had evolved from common elements in Old and Middle Kingdom temples. With variations, this plan was used for most of the temples built from then on, and most of those that survive today adhere to it. In this standard plan, the temple

6936-447: The Pharaoh's divine powers of kingship. Traditionally held in the thirtieth year of the Pharaoh's reign, it possibly was a festival in honour of Amenhotep III. Some Egyptologists think that he had a coregency with Amenhotep IV of 2–12 years. The fifth year is believed to mark the beginning of Amenhotep IV's construction of a new capital, Akhetaten ( Horizon of the Aten ), at the site known today as Amarna . Evidence appears on three of

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7072-598: The Third Intermediate Period and the following Late Period (664–323 BC), the weakened Egyptian state fell to a series of outside powers, experiencing only occasional periods of independence. Many of these foreign rulers funded and expanded temples to strengthen their claim to the kingship of Egypt. One such group, the Kushite pharaohs of the eighth and seventh centuries BC, adopted Egyptian-style temple architecture for use in their native land of Nubia , beginning

7208-480: The Third Intermediate Period they came to be used more widely. Temples existed from the beginning of Egyptian history, and at the height of the civilization they were present in most of its towns. They included both mortuary temples to serve the spirits of deceased pharaohs and temples dedicated to patron gods, although the distinction was blurred because divinity and kingship were so closely intertwined. The temples were not primarily intended as places for worship by

7344-634: The afterlife. The relationships between deities could also be expressed in the process of syncretism , in which two or more different gods were linked to form a composite deity. This process was a recognition of the presence of one god "in" another when the second god took on a role belonging to the first. These links between deities were fluid, and did not represent the permanent merging of two gods into one; therefore, some gods could develop multiple syncretic connections. Sometimes, syncretism combined deities with very similar characteristics. At other times, it joined gods with very different natures, as when Amun,

7480-514: The afterlife. The spells appear in differing arrangements and combinations, and few of them appear in all of the pyramids. At the end of the Old Kingdom a new body of funerary spells, which included material from the Pyramid Texts, began appearing in tombs, inscribed primarily on coffins. This collection of writings is known as the Coffin Texts , and was not reserved for royalty, but appeared in

7616-508: The all-encompassing power of the divine. The Egyptian conception of the universe centered on Ma'at , a word that encompasses several concepts in English, including "truth", "justice", and "order". It was the fixed, eternal order of the universe, both in the cosmos and in human society, and was often personified as a goddess. It had existed since the creation of the world, and without it the world would lose its cohesion. In Egyptian belief, Ma'at

7752-472: The annual Nile flood and the succession from one king to another, but the most important was the daily journey of the sun god Ra. When thinking of the shape of the cosmos, the Egyptians saw the earth as a flat expanse of land, personified by the god Geb , over which arched the sky goddess Nut . The two were separated by Shu , the god of air. Beneath the Earth lay a parallel underworld and undersky, and beyond

7888-469: The boundary stelae used to mark the boundaries of this new capital. Then, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten ( Spirit of the Aten ) as evidence of his new worship. The date given for the event has been estimated to fall around January 2 of that year. In the seventh year of his reign (1346/1344 BC), the capital was moved from Thebes to Akhetaten, but construction of the city seems to have continued for two more years. In shifting his court from

8024-429: The brief period are markedly different from other Egyptian art. They bear a variety of affectations, from elongated heads to protruding stomachs, exaggerated ugliness, and the beauty of Nefertiti. Significantly, for the only time in the history of Egyptian royal art, Akhenaten's family was depicted in a decidedly naturalistic manner. It is clearly shown displaying affection. Images of Akhenaten and Nefertiti usually depict

8160-476: The central government and its temples helped unify the kingdom. The rulers of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) continued building pyramids and their associated complexes. The rare remains from Middle Kingdom temples, like the one at Medinet Madi , show that temple plans grew more symmetrical during that period, and divine temples made increasing use of stone. The pattern of a sanctuary lying behind

8296-425: The close intertwining of divinity and kingship in Egyptian belief. Temples were key centers of economic activity. The largest required prodigious resources and employed tens of thousands of priests, craftsmen, and laborers. The temple's economic workings were analogous to those of a large Egyptian household, with servants dedicated to serving the temple god as they might serve the master of an estate. This similarity

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8432-426: The country or even beyond Egypt's borders. Thus, as Richard H. Wilkinson says, the temple estate "often represented no less than a slice of Egypt itself". As a major economic center and the employer of a large part of the local population, the temple enclosure was a key part of the town in which it stood. Conversely, when a temple was founded on empty land, a new town was built to support it. All this economic power

8568-426: The course of these additions, they frequently dismantled old temple buildings to use as fill for the interiors of new structures. On rare occasions, this may have been because the old structures or their builders had become anathema , as with Akhenaten's temples, but in most cases, the reason seems to have been convenience. Such expansion and dismantling could considerably distort the original temple plan, as happened at

8704-420: The cults of all other deities and, with them, the large and lucrative industry of sacrifices and tributes that the priests controlled. At the same time, he strengthened the role of the Pharaoh. Dominic Montserrat , analyzing the various versions of the hymns to the Aten, argues that all versions of the hymns focus on the king; he suggests that the real innovation is to redefine the relationship of god and king in

8840-465: The cults was the veneration of images and statues of the gods, which were worshipped in the dark confines of the temples. The pinnacle of the religious hierarchy was the Pharaoh, both king and living god. The administration of the Egyptian kingdom was thus inextricably bound up with and largely controlled by the power and influence of the priests and scribes. Akhenaten's reforms cut away both the philosophical and economic bases of priestly power, abolishing

8976-453: The deceased soul traveled with Ra on his daily journey, was still primarily associated with royalty, but could extend to other people as well. Over the course of the Middle and New Kingdoms, the notion that the akh could also travel in the world of the living, and to some degree magically affect events there, became increasingly prevalent. During the New Kingdom the pharaoh Akhenaten abolished

9112-470: The discipline of Egyptology and drawing increasing numbers of visitors to the civilization's remains. Dozens of temples survive today, and some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute significantly to the modern Egyptian economy . Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones as invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for

9248-525: The existence of other gods; he simply refrained from worshipping any but the Aten. Under Akhenaten's successors Egypt reverted to its traditional religion, and Akhenaten himself came to be reviled as a heretic. While the Egyptians had no unified religious scripture, they produced many religious writings of various types. Together the disparate texts provide an extensive, but still incomplete, understanding of Egyptian religious practices and beliefs. Egyptian myths were stories intended to illustrate and explain

9384-553: The following centuries, Christian emperors issued decrees that were increasingly hostile to pagan cults and temples. Some Christians attacked and destroyed temples, as in the plundering of the Serapeum and other temples in Alexandria in AD 391 or 392. Through some combination of Christian coercion and loss of funds, temples ceased to function at various times. The last temple cults died out in

9520-457: The forces of chaos. These rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat , the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, who therefore dedicated prodigious resources to temple construction and maintenance. Pharaohs delegated most of their ritual duties to a host of priests, but most of the populace was excluded from direct participation in ceremonies and forbidden to enter

9656-598: The fourth through sixth centuries AD, although locals may have venerated some sites long after the regular ceremonies there had ceased. Temples were built throughout Upper and Lower Egypt , as well as at Egyptian-controlled oases in the Libyan Desert as far west as Siwa , and at outposts in the Sinai Peninsula such as Timna . In periods when Egypt dominated Nubia, Egyptian rulers also built temples there, as far south as Jebel Barkal . Most Egyptian towns had

9792-514: The general populace, and the common people had a complex set of religious practices of their own. Instead, the state-run temples served as houses for the gods, in which physical images which served as their intermediaries were cared for and provided with offerings. This service was believed to be necessary to sustain the gods, so that they could in turn maintain the universe itself. Thus, temples were central to Egyptian society, and vast resources were devoted to their upkeep, including both donations from

9928-453: The general populace. The Egyptians produced numerous prayers and hymns, written in the form of poetry. Hymns and prayers follow a similar structure and are distinguished mainly by the purposes they serve. Hymns were written to praise particular deities. Like ritual texts, they were written on papyri and on temple walls, and they were probably recited as part of the rituals they accompany in temple inscriptions. Most are structured according to

10064-403: The god Aten over all others and eventually abolished the official worship of most other gods. Traditional temples were neglected while new Aten temples, differing sharply in design and construction, were erected. But Akhenaten's revolution was reversed soon after his death, with the traditional cults reinstated and the new temples dismantled. Subsequent pharaohs dedicated still more resources to

10200-404: The god associated with a place had originated there. For instance, the god Montu was original patron of the city of Thebes . Over the course of the Middle Kingdom , however, he was displaced in that role by Amun , who may have arisen elsewhere. The national popularity and importance of individual gods fluctuated in a similar way. Deities had complex interrelationships, which partly reflected

10336-401: The god of hidden power, was linked with Ra , the god of the sun. The resulting god, Amun-Ra, thus united the power that lay behind all things with the greatest and most visible force in nature. Many deities could be given epithets that seem to indicate that they were greater than any other god, suggesting some kind of unity beyond the multitude of natural forces. This is particularly true of

10472-566: The gods and set them apart from buildings for the use of mortals, which were built of mudbrick. Early temples were built of brick and other perishable materials, and most of the outlying buildings in temple enclosures remained brick-built throughout Egyptian history. The main stones used in temple construction were limestone and sandstone , which are common in Egypt; stones that are harder and more difficult to carve, such as granite , were used in smaller amounts for individual elements like obelisks . The stone might be quarried nearby or shipped on

10608-417: The gods for their own purposes, appealing for help through prayer or compelling the gods to act through magic . These practices were distinct from, but closely linked with, the formal rituals and institutions. The popular religious tradition grew more prominent over the course of Egyptian history as the status of the pharaoh declined. Egyptian belief in the afterlife and the importance of funerary practices

10744-577: The gods in art were not meant as literal representations of how the gods might appear if they were visible, as the gods' true natures were believed to be mysterious. Instead, these depictions gave recognizable forms to the abstract deities by using symbolic imagery to indicate each god's role in nature. This iconography was not fixed, and many of the gods could be depicted in more than one form. Many gods were associated with particular regions in Egypt where their cults were most important. However, these associations changed over time, and they did not mean that

10880-444: The gods through offerings and by performing rituals which staved off disorder and perpetuated the cycles of nature. The most important part of the Egyptian view of the cosmos was the conception of time, which was greatly concerned with the maintenance of Ma'at . Throughout the linear passage of time, a cyclical pattern recurred, in which Ma'at was renewed by periodic events which echoed the original creation. Among these events were

11016-449: The gods with temples and offerings. For these reasons, he oversaw all state religious activity. However, the pharaoh's real-life influence and prestige could differ from his portrayal in official writings and depictions, and beginning in the late New Kingdom his religious importance declined drastically. The king was also associated with many specific deities. He was identified directly with Horus , who represented kingship itself, and he

11152-415: The gods' actions and roles in nature. The details of the events they recounted could change to convey different symbolic perspectives on the mysterious divine events they described, so many myths exist in different and conflicting versions. Mythical narratives were rarely written in full, and more often texts only contain episodes from or allusions to a larger myth. Knowledge of Egyptian mythology, therefore,

11288-429: The gods, but equally... all cult of the gods involves the king". Even so, certain temples were clearly used to commemorate deceased kings and to give offerings to their spirits. Their purpose is not fully understood; they may have been meant to unite the king with the gods, elevating him to a divine status greater than that of ordinary kingship. In any case, the difficulty of separating divine and mortuary temples reflects

11424-402: The heart) to the feather of Ma'at, to determine whether he or she had behaved in accordance with Ma'at. If the deceased was judged worthy, his or her ka and ba were united into an akh . Several beliefs coexisted about the akh 's destination. Often the dead were said to dwell in the realm of Osiris, a lush and pleasant land in the underworld. The solar vision of the afterlife, in which

11560-493: The impermanence of these early buildings, later Egyptian art continually reused and adapted elements from them, evoking the ancient shrines to suggest the eternal nature of the gods and their dwelling places. In the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BC), the first pharaohs built funerary complexes in the religious center of Abydos following a single general pattern, with a rectangular mudbrick enclosure. In

11696-488: The interaction of the forces they represented. The Egyptians often grouped gods together to reflect these relationships. One of the more common combinations was a family triad consisting of a father, mother, and child, who were worshipped together. Some groups had wide-ranging importance. One such group, the Ennead , assembled nine deities into a theological system that was involved in the mythological areas of creation, kingship, and

11832-416: The king as part of his religious duties; indeed, in Egyptian belief, all temple construction was symbolically his work. In reality, it was the work of hundreds of his subjects, conscripted in the corvée system. The construction process for a new temple, or a major addition to an existing one, could last years or decades. The use of stone in Egyptian temples emphasized their purpose as eternal houses for

11968-448: The king managed the nation's resources and its people. As the direct overseers of their own economic sphere, the administrations of large temples wielded considerable influence and may have posed a challenge to the authority of a weak pharaoh, although it is unclear how independent they were. Once Egypt became a Roman province , one of the first measures of the Roman rulers was to implement

12104-471: The monarchy and large estates of their own. Pharaohs often expanded them as part of their obligation to honor the gods, so that many temples grew to enormous size. However, not all gods had temples dedicated to them, as many gods who were important in official theology received only minimal worship, and many household gods were the focus of popular veneration rather than temple ritual. The earliest Egyptian temples were small, impermanent structures, but through

12240-471: The mortuary temples of the Theban Necropolis in the New Kingdom oversaw the provision of the royally employed tomb workers at Deir el-Medina . Kings could also exempt temples or classes of personnel from taxation and conscription. The royal administration could also order one temple to divert its resources to another temple whose influence it wished to expand. Thus, a king might increase the income of

12376-461: The most significant and extensively preserved Egyptian writings are funerary texts designed to ensure that deceased souls reached a pleasant afterlife. The earliest of these are the Pyramid Texts . They are a loose collection of hundreds of spells inscribed on the walls of royal pyramids during the Old Kingdom, intended to magically provide pharaohs with the means to join the company of the gods in

12512-501: The nation's decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire in 30 BC. With the coming of Christianity , traditional Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, and temple cults died out during the fourth through sixth centuries AD. The buildings they left behind suffered centuries of destruction and neglect. At the start of the nineteenth century, a wave of interest in ancient Egypt swept Europe, giving rise to

12648-475: The official worship of other gods in favor of the sun-disk Aten . This is often seen as the first instance of true monotheism in history, although the details of Atenist theology are still unclear and the suggestion that it was monotheistic is disputed. The exclusion of all but one god from worship was a radical departure from Egyptian tradition and some see Akhenaten as a practitioner of monolatry or henotheism rather than monotheism, as he did not actively deny

12784-426: The official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated. Within them, the Egyptians performed a variety of rituals , the central functions of Egyptian religion : giving offerings to the gods, reenacting their mythological interactions through festivals, and warding off

12920-460: The others, including the sun god Ra , the creator god Amun , and the mother goddess Isis . For a brief period, in the theology promulgated by the pharaoh Akhenaten , a single god, the Aten , replaced the traditional pantheon. Ancient Egyptian religion and mythology left behind many writings and monuments, along with significant influences on ancient and modern cultures. The religion declined following

13056-429: The paucity and fragmentary nature of surviving sources. According to the most likely scenario, the widespread deaths due to the plague caused Akhenaten to appoint two co-regents in quick succession: Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten . The origin of both is not attested, though it has been speculated that Smenkhkare was a younger brother of Akhenaten, whereas Neferneferuaten was in fact, Queen Nefertiti. Smenkhkare died after

13192-448: The performance of temple rituals was still an official duty, restricted to high-ranking priests. The participation of the general populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines , separate from official temples. As the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians. Each temple had

13328-459: The pharaohs as the upholders of order. At the same time, Osiris' death and rebirth were related to the Egyptian agricultural cycle, in which crops grew in the wake of the Nile inundation, and provided a template for the resurrection of human souls after death. Another important mythic motif was the journey of Ra through the Duat each night. In the course of this journey, Ra met with Osiris, who again acted as an agent of regeneration, so that his life

13464-557: The pioneer of monotheistic religion and Moses as Akhenaten's follower in his book Moses and Monotheism . The modern Druze regard their religion as being descended from and influenced by older monotheistic and mystic movements, including Atenism. In particular, they attribute the Tawhid 's first public declaration to Akhenaten. Ancient Egyptian religion B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Ancient Egyptian religion

13600-471: The prohibition of idols was a radical departure from Egyptian tradition, but some scholars see Akhenaten as a practitioner of monolatry or henotheism rather than monotheism, as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods. He simply refrained from worshipping any but Aten. These reforms were later reversed by his successor Pharaoh Tutankhamen . Some historians argue that only Akhenaten and Nefertiti could worship Aten directly. Akhenaten carried out

13736-483: The properties of the world in which they lived. The Egyptians believed that the phenomena of nature were divine forces in and of themselves. These deified forces included the elements, animal characteristics, or abstract forces. The Egyptians believed in a pantheon of gods, which were involved in all aspects of nature and human society. Their religious practices were efforts to sustain and placate these phenomena and turn them to human advantage. This polytheistic system

13872-496: The rising place of the sun or particular stars. The Great Temple of Abu Simbel , for instance, is aligned so that twice a year the rising sun illuminates the statues of the gods in its innermost room. Most temples were aligned toward the Nile with an axis running roughly east–west. An elaborate series of foundation rituals preceded construction. A further set of rituals followed the temple's completion, dedicating it to its patron god. These rites were conducted, at least in theory, by

14008-493: The rulers of Egypt, believed to possess divine powers by virtue of their positions. They acted as intermediaries between their people and the gods, and were obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain Ma'at , the order of the cosmos , and repel Isfet , which was chaos. The state dedicated enormous resources to religious rituals and to the construction of temples . Individuals could interact with

14144-416: The sanctuary, halls, courtyards, and pylon gateways oriented along the path used for festival processions. New Kingdom pharaohs ceased using pyramids as funerary monuments and placed their tombs a great distance from their mortuary temples. Without pyramids to build around, mortuary temples began using the same plan as those dedicated to the gods. In the middle of the New Kingdom, Pharaoh Akhenaten promoted

14280-413: The significant Egyptian myths were the creation myths . According to these stories, the world emerged as a dry space in the primordial ocean of chaos. Because the sun is essential to life on earth, the first rising of Ra marked the moment of this emergence. Different forms of the myth describe the process of creation in various ways: a transformation of the primordial god Atum into the elements that form

14416-497: The skies lay the infinite expanse of Nu , the chaos and primordial watery abyss that had existed before creation. The Egyptians also believed in a place called the Duat , a mysterious region associated with death and rebirth, that may have lain in the underworld or in the sky. Each day, Ra traveled over the earth across the underside of the sky, and at night he passed through the Duat to be reborn at dawn. In Egyptian belief, this cosmos

14552-460: The stone or, if the stone was of too poor quality to carve, a layer of plaster that covered the stone surface. Reliefs were then decorated with gilding , inlay , or paint. The paints were usually mixtures of mineral pigments with some kind of adhesive, possibly natural gum . Temple construction did not end once the original plan was complete; pharaohs often rebuilt or replaced decayed temple structures or made additions to those still standing. In

14688-470: The sun disk...was merely one aspect of the sun god Re ." It was a relatively obscure sun god ; without the Atenist period, it would barely have figured in Egyptian history. Although there are indications that it was becoming slightly more important during the eighteenth dynasty, notably Amenhotep III 's naming of his royal barge as Spirit of the Aten , it was Amenhotep IV who introduced the Atenist revolution in

14824-488: The temple building proper was the outermost wall. Between the two lay many subsidiary buildings, including workshops and storage areas to supply the temple's needs, and the library where the temple's sacred writings and mundane records were kept, and which also served as a center of learning on a multitude of subjects. Egyptian temple B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Egyptian temples were built for

14960-552: The temple libraries. Temples themselves are also inscribed with such texts, often accompanied by illustrations. Unlike the ritual papyri, these inscriptions were not intended as instructions, but were meant to symbolically perpetuate the rituals even if, in reality, people ceased to perform them. Magical texts likewise describe rituals, although these rituals were part of the spells used for specific goals in everyday life. Despite their mundane purpose, many of these texts also originated in temple libraries and later became disseminated among

15096-501: The temple proper was an outer wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple also owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs. Temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers. The priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, and despite their ostensible subordination to the king, they may have posed significant challenges to his authority. Temple-building in Egypt continued despite

15232-455: The temple to Isis at Ras el-Soda were built in a style derived from Roman architecture . Temple-building continued into the third century AD. As the empire weakened in the crisis of the third century , imperial donations to the temple cults dried up, and almost all construction and decoration ceased. Cult activities at some sites continued, relying increasingly on financial support and volunteer labor from surrounding communities. In

15368-561: The temples became part of the Roman ruling apparatus by, for example, collecting taxes and examining charges against priests for violating sacral law. The earliest known shrines appeared in prehistoric Egypt in the late fourth millennium BC, at sites such as Saïs and Buto in Lower Egypt and Nekhen and Coptos in Upper Egypt . Most of these shrines were made of perishable materials such as wood, reed matting, and mudbrick . Despite

15504-442: The temples of a god he favored, and mortuary temples of recent rulers tended to siphon off resources from temples to pharaohs long dead. The most drastic means of controlling the temple estates was to completely revise the distribution of their property nationwide, which might extend to closing down certain temples. Such changes could significantly alter Egypt's economic landscape. The temples were thus important instruments with which

15640-453: The temples that Akhenaten had built from talatat blocks, including the temple at Thebes, were disassembled, reused as a source of building materials and decorations for other temples, and inscriptions to Aten were defaced. Though Akhetaten was not fully abandoned, and the local Aten temple continued to function, most residents left over time. After Ay's short rule as pharaoh in his own right following Tutankhamun's death, his general, Horemheb ,

15776-405: The temples, particularly Ramesses II , the most prolific monument-builder in Egyptian history. As the wealth of the priesthoods continued to grow, so did their religious influence: temple oracles, controlled by the priests, were an increasingly popular method of making decisions. Pharaonic power waned, and in the eleventh century BC a military leader Herihor made himself High Priest of Amun and

15912-537: The tombs of non-royal officials. In the New Kingdom, several new funerary texts emerged, of which the best-known is the Book of the Dead . Unlike the earlier books, it often contains extensive illustrations, or vignettes. The book was copied on papyrus and sold to commoners to be placed in their tombs. The Coffin Texts included sections with detailed descriptions of the underworld and instructions on how to overcome its hazards. In

16048-409: The traditional ceremonial centres, he was signalling a dramatic transformation in the focus of religious and political power. The move separated the Pharaoh and his court from the influence of the priesthood and from the traditional centres of worship, but his decree had deeper religious significance too. Taken in conjunction with his name change, it is possible that the move to Amarna was also meant as

16184-434: The traditional gods. Later, during the reign of Akhenaten, he forbade the worship of other gods, a radical departure from the centuries of Egyptian religious practice. To emphasise the change, Aten's name was written in the cartouche form normally reserved for Pharaohs, an innovation of Atenism. The religious reformation appears to coincide with the proclamation of a Sed festival , a sort of royal jubilee intended to reinforce

16320-519: The underworld ruler Osiris as those deities grew more important. In the fully developed afterlife beliefs of the New Kingdom, the soul had to avoid a variety of supernatural dangers in the Duat, before undergoing a final judgement, known as the "Weighing of the Heart", carried out by Osiris and by the Assessors of Ma'at . In this judgement, the gods compared the actions of the deceased while alive (symbolized by

16456-524: The unseen spirit of Aten. Aten was addressed by Akhenaten in prayers, such as the Great Hymn to the Aten : "O sole God beside whom there is none". Aten's name is also written differently after the ninth year of the Pharaoh's rule to emphasise the radicalism of the new regime. Aten, instead of being written with the symbol of a rayed solar disc, now became spelled phonetically. The details of Atenist theology are still unclear. The exclusion of all but one god and

16592-414: The workers used construction ramps built of varying materials such as mud, brick, or rough stone. When cutting chambers in living rock , workers excavated from the top down, carving a crawlspace near the ceiling and cutting down to the floor. Once the temple structure was complete, the rough faces of the stones were dressed to create a smooth surface. In decorating these surfaces, reliefs were carved into

16728-458: The world, as the creative speech of the intellectual god Ptah , and as an act of the hidden power of Amun. Regardless of these variations, the act of creation represented the initial establishment of Ma'at and the pattern for the subsequent cycles of time. The most important of all Egyptian myths was the Osiris myth . It tells of the divine ruler Osiris, who was murdered by his jealous brother Set ,

16864-453: The worship of deceased pharaohs as gods. The elaborate beliefs about death and the afterlife reinforced the Egyptians theology in humans possessions a ka , or life-force, which left the body at the point of death. In life, the ka received its sustenance from food and drink, so it was believed that, to endure after death, the ka must continue to receive offerings of food, whose spiritual essence it could still consume. Each person also had

17000-449: Was farmland , producing grain, fruit, or wine, or supporting herds of livestock. The temple either managed these lands directly, rented them out to farmers for a share of the produce, or managed them jointly with the royal administration. Temples also launched expeditions into the desert to collect resources such as salt, honey, or wild game, or to mine precious minerals. Some owned fleets of ships with which to conduct their own trade across

17136-403: Was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present and in control of the world. About 1,500 deities are known. Rituals such as prayer and offerings were provided to the gods to gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaohs ,

17272-399: Was a major religious center, and several Old Kingdom pharaohs built large sun temples in his honor near their pyramids . Meanwhile, the small provincial temples retained a variety of local styles from Predynastic times, unaffected by the royal cult sites. The expansion of funerary monuments began in the reign of Djoser , who built his complex entirely of stone and placed in the enclosure

17408-476: Was built along a central processional way that led through a series of courts and halls to the sanctuary, which held a statue of the temple's god. Access to this most sacred part of the temple was restricted to the pharaoh and the highest-ranking priests. The journey from the temple entrance to the sanctuary was seen as a journey from the human world to the divine realm, a point emphasized by the complex mythological symbolism present in temple architecture. Well beyond

17544-423: Was constantly under threat from the forces of disorder, so all of society was required to maintain it. On the human level this meant that all members of society should cooperate and coexist; on the cosmic level it meant that all of the forces of nature—the gods—should continue to function in balance. This latter goal was central to Egyptian religion. The Egyptians sought to maintain Ma'at in the cosmos by sustaining

17680-608: Was equated with this original temple and with the site of creation itself. As the primordial home of the god and the mythological location of the city's founding, the temple was seen as the hub of the region, from which the city's patron god ruled over it. Pharaohs also built temples where offerings were made to sustain their spirits in the afterlife , often linked with or located near their tombs. These temples are traditionally called " mortuary temples " and regarded as essentially different from divine temples. In recent years some Egyptologists, such as Gerhard Haeny, have argued that there

17816-400: Was inhabited by three types of sentient beings: one was the gods; another was the spirits of deceased humans, who existed in the divine realm and possessed many of the gods' abilities; living humans were the third category, and the most important among them was the pharaoh, who bridged the human and divine realms. Egyptologists have long debated the degree to which the pharaoh was considered

17952-435: Was renewed. He also fought each night with Apep , a serpentine god representing chaos. The defeat of Apep and the meeting with Osiris ensured the rising of the sun the next morning, an event that represented rebirth and the victory of order over chaos. The procedures for religious rituals were frequently written on papyri , which were used as instructions for those performing the ritual. These ritual texts were kept mainly in

18088-429: Was seen as the son of Ra, who ruled and regulated nature as the pharaoh ruled and regulated society. By the New Kingdom he was also associated with Amun, the supreme force in the cosmos. Upon his death, the king became fully deified. In this state, he was directly identified with Ra, and was also associated with Osiris , god of death and rebirth and the mythological father of Horus. Many mortuary temples were dedicated to

18224-426: Was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites. While it is uncertain how often he participated in ceremonies, the existence of temples across Egypt made it impossible for him to do so in all cases, and most of the time these duties were delegated to priests. The pharaoh was nevertheless obligated to maintain, provide for, and expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority,

18360-502: Was ultimately under the pharaoh's control, and temple products and property were often taxed. Their employees, even the priests, were subject to the state corvée system, which conscripted labor for royal projects. They could also be ordered to provide supplies for some specific purposes. A trading expedition led by Harkhuf in the Sixth Dynasty ( c.  2255 –2246 BC) was allowed to procure supplies from any temple it wished, and

18496-587: Was very complex, as some deities were believed to exist in many different manifestations, and some had multiple mythological roles. Conversely, many natural forces, such as the sun, were associated with multiple deities. The diverse pantheon ranged from gods with vital roles in the universe to minor deities or "demons" with very limited or localized functions. It could include gods adopted from foreign cultures, and sometimes humans: deceased pharaohs were believed to be divine, and occasionally, distinguished commoners such as Imhotep also became deified. The depictions of

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