In The King Offers to the Gods you saw the king serving the gods on temple walls. Now we look at the temples themselves. Egyptians built two main kinds, and telling them apart helps you read any site.
Key idea
A cult temple was the house of a god, where the god’s statue lived and was cared for. A memorial (mortuary) temple kept up the cult of a dead king, joined with a god, forever.
| Cult temple | Memorial temple | |
|---|---|---|
| Egyptian name | ḥwt-nṯr, "god’s mansion" | "mansion of millions of years" |
| For | a god (Amun, Horus, Hathor…) | a king, joined with Amun |
| Examples | Karnak and Luxor (Amun), Edfu (Horus), Dendera (Hathor), Philae (Isis) | Deir el-Bahari (Hatshepsut), the Ramesseum (Ramesses II), Medinet Habu (Ramesses III) |
| At Thebes | east bank, with the living city | west bank, with the tombs |
Why it works
Why put the memorial temples on the west bank? The sun sets in the west, and Egyptians placed the land of the dead there. In the New Kingdom, kings hid their tombs in the Valley of the Kings and built their memorial temples at the edge of the fields, where priests could bring offerings every day. The cult temples of the living gods stood on the east bank, with the city.
Neither kind was a place for public worship like a church or a mosque. A temple was a god’s house, closed to most people. Ordinary Egyptians could come into the outer courts on feast days, pray at the gates, and see the god when the statue came out in procession.
Worked example: Which kind?
Medinet Habu stands on the west bank at Thebes, and its walls celebrate the victories of Ramesses III. What kind of temple is it?
- West bank at Thebes: the side of the dead.
- It celebrates a king and kept his cult.
- So it is a memorial temple.
Answer: The memorial temple of Ramesses III.
Worked example: Reading a name
The temple at Dendera is dedicated to Hathor and was finished in Roman times. What kind is it?
- It houses a goddess, Hathor.
- It is not tied to one dead king.
- So it is a cult temple.
Answer: A cult temple of Hathor.
Common mistake
Thinking temples were for public worship, like churches. Most people never went inside; temples were the houses of the gods, served by priests. Quick check: ask who lived there, a god, or the cult of a king.
Some temples were cut into rock instead of built. At Abu Simbel in Nubia, Ramesses II cut two temples into a cliff; they were moved to higher ground in 1964–68 when Lake Nasser rose.