The Ancient Egyptian Metaphysical Architecture Read online

  Tomb decoration was not an exercise in self expression, but was for magical/religious purposes. The main theme of wall decorations is similar, yet no two tombs are identical. The walls are covered with various scenes of daily life, such as farming, fishing, hunting, sailing, metal-working, music, playing etc. These scenes of daily life have deep symbolic metaphysical meanings.

  Since its remote history, each tomb typically consisted of a rectangular superstructure that was low in proportion to its length, and had a convex roof. They varied in size from 24 square yards (20 sq. m) to an area of more than ¼ acre. These types of tombs were called mastabas, meaning benches.

  From a distance, these chapels have the appearance of truncated pyramids, varying in size. There are some that measure 30-40’ in height, with a facade 160’ long and a depth from back to front of some 80’, while others attain only a height of some 10’ upon a base of 16’ square. The walls slope uniformly towards one another and usually have a smooth surface; sometimes, however, their courses are set back one above the other almost like steps. The outer walls of superstructures were surrounded on all sides with deep recesses.

  Mastabas are built of mud-brick or stone blocks. The superstructure is made of dried mud-brick or with a center core of rubble.

  4. A chapel in the visitation area containing the threshold [false door] where the [earthly] living visitors “meet’ the visiting departed soul.

  The chapel is usually small, and is almost lost in the great extent of the building, varying from 14’-4” long by about 3’-3” deep to 10’-4” by 3’-7”.

  Even today, when we enter one of these decorated chapels, the idea of death scarcely presents itself. Rather, we have the impression of being in some old-world house to which the master may at any moment return. The whole atmosphere is active and festive, with a reception hall in every tomb-chapel. One or two statues of him stand at the end of the room, in constant readiness to undergo the “Opening of the Mouth” and to receive offerings. Should these be accidentally removed, others secreted in a little chamber hidden in the thickness of the masonry are there to fill their places [this is the “serdab” or “passage”].

  On the western side of ALL Egyptian temples and tombs there is always a crack in the wall, or what is commonly described as a false door. This was for the use of the departed, and it was believed that the ghost entered or left it at will.

  False doors acted as interfaces between the divine and human spheres. The false door remained the focal point of the chapel.

  The ‘false door’ was a monolithic limestone with torus molding and cavetto cornice.

  The term ‘false door’ is itself something of a misnomer as, from the Egyptian perspective, these features were fully functional portals by which the spirit of the deceased might leave or enter the inner tomb to receive the offerings presented to them.

  It effectively separated the world of living from the dead.

  3.5 Non-Burial Domed Shrines

  The shrine for a folk saint is usually a small, square, whitewashed building crowned with a dome-shaped roof that represents the shape of the sky and the Ancient Egyptian symbol for Neb (meaning ‘gold’). The dome sits directly over a mostly-empty vault, an oblong monument of stone or brick or wood or copper, usually covered with silk or linen and surrounded by a railing or screen of wood or bronze called maksoorah.

  While the shrine houses the folk-saint’s Ka (a relic of his choice), his spirit—Ba (shown as a bird)—is nearby. The depicted Ancient Egyptian illustration of the tomb/shrine of Hau shows the dome-roofed shrine with a sacred tree next to it.

  Note the bird depicted on the top of the tree. Over the bird is written Soul of Osiris. Everyone, after leaving the earthly realm, is equated to Osiris, and as such, the Ba represents the soul of any deceased person.

  Access for the Ba of the folk saint is made available along the western wall of the shrine in the form of a recess in the wall (mehrab).

  Chapter 4 : The Sealed Pharaohs Tombs

  4.1 The King is Dead—Long Live The King

  Tombs for those who were successful pharaohs were designed to be permanently inaccessible for further participation in the earthly realm. Upon the death of the pharaoh, the high priest would ask if there was any objection to entombing the pharaoh into his designated tomb. If the public was unsatisfied with his performance, they objected, and subsequently he was denied this special burial. He was buried in a communal grave so as to be reincarnated in another mortal form.

  The successful pharaoh will be entombed permanently in his designated inaccessible tomb. The reader may wonder why such “exceptions”? The answer is found on the nature of and role of the pharaoh.

  Based on his extensive training with the powers of the supernatural, the Pharaoh’s body was believed to be charged with a divine dynamism that communicated itself to everything he touched.

  The eternal power of the leader/King never dies. The power is merely transferred from one human body to another human body (medium).

  Even the British of today follow, unconsciously, the same belief that eternal power transfers from one human body to another, when they say: “The king is dead. Long live the king.” [More detailed information about this subject is found in Egyptian Cosmology: the Animated Universe, by same author.]

  In short, successful pharaohs join/rejoin the highest Council in Heaven which, as discussed earlier, has no contacts on earthly matters. The same Egyptian concept was later adopted by others in the system of Arch-angels.

  4.2 The Pharaoh’s Tomb

  These tombs, which were designed to be inaccessible, generally consist of a long, inclined, rock-hewn corridor descending into either an antechamber or a series of sometimes-pillared halls, ending in the burial chamber.

  The walls of the tombs are decorated almost exclusively with the afterlife’s transformational process from the carnal to the purely spiritual (resurrection) to rejoin the Divine Source. The intent is evident at the burial chamber that shows the end of a celestial cycle. The colorful paintings and reliefs are extracts from the Ancient Egyptian Sacred Texts.

  4.3 Sample Pharaohs Tombs from Luxor

  Here are sample profiles of such tombs, despite the fact that some of these pharaohs were denied entombing because of dissatisfaction of the Egyptian public with their ability to fulfill their duties:

  Tomb of Tutankhamen

  Chapter 5 : Egyptian Temples of the Divine Forces

  5.1 The Function/Objective of the Temple

  It is a common tendency to ignore the generative function of the Ancient Egyptian temples. Instead, they are wrongly viewed as merely an art gallery and/or an interplay of forms against a vague historical presentation.

  The Egyptian temple was a machine for maintaining and developing divine energy. Therefore, we must forego viewing the temple as an interplay of forms against a vague historical, archaeological presentation. Instead, we must try to see it as the relationship between form and function.

  The temple is the link, the proportional mean, between the Macrocosmos (world) and Microcosmos (man). It was a stage upon which meetings were enacted between the neter (god) and the king, as a representative of the people. It was the place in which the cosmic energy, neter (god), came to dwell and radiate its energy to the land and people. As described in various Ancient Egyptian texts, the temple or pylon is:

  …as the pillars of heaven, [a temple] like the heavens, abiding upon their four pillars … shining like the horizon of heaven … a place of rest for the lord of neteru (gods, goddesses), made like his throne that is in heaven …like Re when he rises in the horizon … like Atam’s great house of heaven.

  Only after the Egyptian neteru (gods, goddesses) had examined the temple destined for them did they come and dwell there, as per this Ancient Egyptian text:

  When the great winged scarab rises from the primordial ocean and sails through the heavens in the guise of Horus . . . he stops in the heaven before this temple and his heart is filled with joy as he
look at it. Then he becomes one with his image, in his favorite place . . . he is satisfied with the dwelling that the king has erected for him.

  The harmonious power of the temple plans, the images engraved on the walls, and the forms of worship all led to the same goal; a goal that was both spiritual, as it involved setting superhuman forces in motion; and practical, in that the final awaited result was the maintenance of the country’s prosperity.

  It is therefore that the Egyptian temple was not a place of public worship in our “modern” understanding. It was the interface between the divine forces and humans. The Egyptian temple served as the theater in which symbolic rituals were performed by the Pharaoh and his designated priests, providing assurances that the society has conformed to its divine obligations of hard work, virtues, justice, harmony, and order. In return, the divine forces [Neteru] gave acceptance, prosperity, etc. In short, the Egyptian temple was the source of power by which all of Egyptian society followed.

  These truly divine places were accessible only to the priesthood, who could enter the inner sanctuaries where the sacred rites and ceremonies were performed. In some instances, only the King himself or his authorized substitute had permission to enter.

  The general public participated in the many great festivals and celebrations held outside the temples in honor of the various deities. Public participation was a duty by everyone, and an essential aspect in the “worship” process to maintain the universal harmony. [For more info, read Egyptian Mystics: Seekers of the Way, by Moustafa Gadalla.]

  5.2 Components of the Temple Complex .

  In general, the Egyptian temple was surrounded by a massive wall of mud-brick that was typically set in wavy courses to symbolize primeval waters, representing the first stage of creation.

  Outside the walls of the temple were the residences of the priestly staff, workshops, storerooms, and other ancillary structures. They are always made of mud-brick, for they believed that all human beings (including the Pharaoh) were mortals made of clay, and therefore their abodes on Earth must likewise be made of impermanent material—the mud—as shown here in this aerial of the Ramesseum on Luxor West Bank.

  Here are close-ups of these mud-brick residences.

  Every temple structure was divided into zones of increasing sacredness.

  First were the temple approaches and the area within the compound’s enclosure—an area open to every Egyptian. The exterior walls of the temple resembled a fortress, so as to defend it against all forms of evil. The temple was entered through two pylons, beyond which lay an open court. This court sometimes had colonnades along the sides and an altar in the middle. These outer courts of the temple proper were accessible to the priests and, on some occasions, to representatives of the populace.

  Next, along the temple axis, came the hypostyle, a pillared hall often surrounded by small rooms that were used for the storage of temple equipment and for other secondary functions.

  Finally there were the inner halls which only the purified priests were allowed access to, and the sanctuary itself, which could be entered only by the king and certain priests of the highest ranks.

  The sanctuary was a dark room containing the shrine where the image of the neter was placed. The sanctuary’s doors were shut and sealed all year long, and were open only for the great festivals. The sanctuary was called the Great Seat.

  Beyond these areas central to every temple’s form and role, other ancillary elements were often also present—administrative chambers, residences of the priestly staff, workshops, storerooms, and other ancillary structures, sacred lakes, gardens, schools, libraries, and areas dedicated to numerous other uses.

  See the general plans of sample Egyptian temples with short descriptions of each, in Appendix A of this book.

  5.3 The Metaphysical Funnel Conduit Design

  The design of the temple usually started from the sanctuary, which is the focal point. The typical Egyptian temple plan increases in width and height from the sanctuary towards the front. This over-all delimitation was based upon a “telescopic system” of design.

  The same telescopic configuration applied to the vertical plan, whereby the floor of the temple descended and the roofs ascended, outwardly, towards the temple’s pylons.

  This beautiful aerial view of the temple at Medinet Habu in Luxor clearly shows the graduation in height between the back and front of the temple. The aerial view also allows us to see how the temple was divided into various areas, each with its own entry point. Looking at the temple from its point of entry, we can see the perfect alignments of all openings throughout the temple, and the effect of such telescopic design.

  Here, we are looking from the sanctuary towards the temple entrance, which shows us the telescopic design in the other direction.

  Here is another example of telescopic design in the Deir Medinet Temple in Luxor.

  In Abydos Temple—the same telescopic design.

  In Kom Ombo Temple.

  In Philae Temple in Aswan:.

  The telescopic design allows the flow of energy from human beings towards the seat of the Divine energy in the sanctuary.

  If the divine energy accepts the offering from a human, it will radiate its divine energy outwardly from the seat of the divine energy to the entrance gateway of the temple.

  The depiction in the Egyptian temple shows us how man approaches the divine by presenting offerings—the fruit of labor.

  Offering processions entering and proceeding towards the focal point of the temple or tomb is a constant theme.

  At the end of the Great Court, the Pharaoh or his designates will systematically provide ritualistic offerings to the divine forces as they proceed towards the holy of holiest.

  At the end of the temple, the human incoming presentation from both sides ends where the holy of holiest is.

  The divine energies will respond to the proper action of man by radiating its divine energies to the benefit of all the worthy.

  5.4 The Generative Significance of Jointing Patterns

  In the Litany of Re, the cosmic creative force—being Re—is described as:

  “The One Joined Together—who comes out of his own members”.

  This is the perfect definition of the unity of multiplicities as the archetype of the created universe.

  In order to ensure the function of a temple, a statue, etc. as a living organism, its components must be connected so that the cosmic energy can flow through unimpeded.

  It is incorrect to merely think that a connection between two components/parts is only to ensure the structural stability of the part(s) and the whole building.

  We can take clues from the human body (the house of the soul) when reviewing the Egyptian temple (the house of cosmic soul/energy/neter).

  The human body is connected with muscles, etc., but veins and nerves are not interrupted at the bone joints of the skeleton. The living Ancient Egyptian temple was designed likewise.

  The unity of the components of the temple must be like the components of the human body. The walls of a temple consist of blocks and corners, and such components (blocks) must be connected together in a way that allows the flow of divine energy, just like the parts of a human being.

  Bas-reliefs of all sizes, as well as the hieroglyphic symbols, span two adjoining blocks with total perfection. The intent is very clear—to bridge over the joint between adjacent blocks next to each other, or on top of each other.

  The blocks themselves were joined together in some type of nerve/energy system. A continuation of energy flow required special interlocking patterns.

  The practice of joining blocks together prevailed in every Egyptian temple throughout the known history of Ancient Egypt.

  1. Here are a few examples of joining applications, as found in the Khafra Pyramid Valley Temple in Giza, near the Sphinx.

  Many of the stones are set at different angles. This practice, which was common in Egyptian buildings, has no structural advantage over regular coursing. The add
itional calculations and labor involved in this type of jointing is considerable, and this Western notion of “design practicalities” or “economic consideration” should never be considered in Ancient Egypt.

  The stone corners are not regular, interlocking dovetails, but rather, alternate inverse quoins. The joints go around the corners. To form such corners, the entire face of the stone has been carved away, in some cases dramatically, for over a foot (30 cm) – in other cases, barely creating a return of only an inch (2 cm) or so.

  This unique method of creating corners was commonly used throughout Egyptian history. The purpose of the above unique feature is to avoid continuous cracks, so as to maintain the unity of the temple. As a result, the temple’s components must be connected so that the cosmic energy can flow throughout, unimpeded.

  2. Also found in Saqqara from the Old Kingdom era.

  After going to the entrance through the enclosure wall, we find the same jointing pattern techniques:

  3. Further south into Egypt, at the Karnak Temples Complex, we find the same technique in jointing the blocks and depictions upon them.

  4. As we go further south along the River Nile, we come to the Temple at Kom Ombo. Here again, we find hieroglyphic symbols spanning two adjoining blocks with total perfection.

  At the end of this particular wall, we encounter the internal organic connections between the blocks of the temple walls. Here we find intentional, well-defined, neat, man-made hammer marks on the side of the blocks. Such work has absolutely no structural value whatsoever (and I say that with full authority, since I am a civil engineer with over 40 years of experience).