Favourite Temple

[Rennie`]

Woah the Guild has been rather quiet!

So tell me, what is your favourite temple? I have two:

Edfu Temple - Belongs to my favourite God, Horus. There are carvings of him everywhere and of his birth etc.

Philae Temple - It has a beautiful view of the River Nile. It also belongs to Isis, Horus's mother.

So what is your favourite?  

[GAZE_smuggler_Smoo]

You know what? Thought I ve never been there.. *yet* I do have some favorite tempels* My particular favorites are: Luxor, and Karnak. But I must admitt, I like the one that Ramsses II Built in honor of his wife. *The one that had to be moved because of the building of the Aswan dam?* I thought that to be suce a cute idea.  

[Rennie`]

Water__Princess

You know what? Thought I ve never been there.. *yet* I do have some favorite tempels* My particular favorites are: Luxor, and Karnak. But I must admitt, I like the one that Ramsses II Built in honor of his wife. *The one that had to be moved because of the building of the Aswan dam?* I thought that to be suce a cute idea.

Abu Simbel is amazing!! the place. I went into both temples and it is just amazing. The colours are still vibrant and the carvings look like they were carved a few weeks ago. Yes both were moved because of Aswan Dam, I didn't know this until I got there, you wouldn't have known it was moved!  

[WebenBanu]

Frankly, I'm amazed that they even could move something like that. From my understanding, they moved an entire cliff wall to go with it?! I'd love to read an article on the move itself just to see how they did it.

Personally, I've never been to any of the temples- and though I'm interested, I'd have mixed feelings about actually doing so. I mean, there were the courtyards which served as a general marketplace/hospital/social gathering area for the people... but there were also areas beyond that where only the priesthood was allowed to go. And then there were areas beyond even that where only the highest ranked of the priests could go. I think that most of the tours go into those areas- and as much as I'd love to go in there, I'd feel odd going "sight seeing" into somebody else's holy of holies just because they were no longer alive to stop me. It's a tough call to make.

So for now, I stick to pictures taken during archeological studies (which I excuse, because without them the context and "life" of these places would have disappeared forever, and I don't think that the ancient peoples would have wanted that). I particularly love the 3D programs which let you walk around in virtual reproductions of the sites- and sometimes even venture to reconstruct how they would have appeared in their original glory. Now that's fun!^_^

If I had a favorite, it would probably be Bast's temple at Bubastis- it's described as being particularly lovely, with a canal dug from the Nile which surrounded the temple on three sides. The land swept up on all sides away from the temple- so that anywhere you were in the city around it, you could look down on the beauty of the temple. I believe they had a garden inside, and of course the temple cats. There was also a small chapel on the grounds devoted to Bast's son, Maa-Hs (also written Mai-Hs, or Mihos). And, well, I'm particularly fond of Bast so I may be biased in this respect. 3nodding

Unfortunately, there's not much left of the temple today- so we can only guess at its original glory. I heard of a project a while back about some people who were going to attempt to rebuild it- using the original stones, and accounts of the temple from ancient writings and blueprints (most temples had a copy of the blueprints of the building around somewhere, so we can at least see the layout). But I never really heard anything more from them, and I don't know if that project ever really got off the ground. It was a really cool idea, though.  

[Rennie`]

Yes when I went to Abu Simbel both temples were moved AND the surrounding mountains as the temples were built into it. Because the temple was built in a certain position where the sun would hit inside the temple, onto the staues, on two certain days. When it was moved they had to place it in that position so the sun would hit these statues, well that was what the Egyptologists wanted, and Frankly, so would I.  

[WebenBanu]

Heh, you know I'd heard about the sun coming in and illuminating those statues inside in a particular way on a particular day- but I'd never put that together with the move. It amazes me that they could figure out how to place the temple so that the light hit it in exactly the same way- then again, I suppose that's a small thing compared to having the temple built that way to begin with, or the fact that it was moved at all. It just boggles my mind. eek  

[Rennie`]

They used to stars to create their temples and tombs. The Pyramids for instance, they are created the same way that you see Orign (sp?) in the sky, I'll try and find some pictures if I can.  

[LynUridain]

I've never actually been to any of the temples, but my Art History prof is an Egyptology nut-- our final exam last semester was nothing but being able to name/date/locate pictures of different Egyptian temples and pyramids and things of the like nature. 3nodding

The Temple of Horus at Edfu was certainly one of my favorites... I loved the description we got of the room with the hole in the ceiling that let a beam of light shine on the statue-- very cool.

King Djoser's palace outside of the Step Pyramid was pretty cool, too, though. cool  

[LynUridain]

Rennie`

They used to stars to create their temples and tombs. The Pyramids for instance, they are created the same way that you see Orign (sp?) in the sky, I'll try and find some pictures if I can.

The pyramids of the Giza plateau (Kufu, Khafre, and Menkhure) are arranged in exactly the same way as the stars of Orion's belt. The stars of the shoulders and the bottom edges of his skirt/wrap also correspond with pyramids further north and south of the Belt. They are all positioned in such a way that the position of the Nile River corresponds with the Milky Way.

*feels smart*  

[WebenBanu]

LynUridain

I've never actually been to any of the temples, but my Art History prof is an Egyptology nut-- our final exam last semester was nothing but being able to name/date/locate pictures of different Egyptian temples and pyramids and things of the like nature. 3nodding

Cool prof! That is interesting about the light shaft in the Temple of Horus, I hadn't heard about it before- traditionally it becomes more and more dark as you approach the inner sanctum. Abu Simbel has a neat light trick though- twice a year the sun shines a beam illuminating precisely three of the temple's four statues. I've heard that the fourth, Ptah, was left in the dark because of his status as an "underworld god" or "god of darkness." Now this has always perplexed me because I'm trying to figure out what exactly is meant by Ptah being associated with either of these things, because I certainly haven't heard anything of the sort elsewhere. A primordial god I could concede, since he is a creator in at least one version of the creation myth... but by "underworld" I assume they mean the Duat, and/or the realm of the dead. And by "darkness" I've no idea what is meant. *shakes head* I suppose I have some more reading to do. wink  

[Nevira Shadowfire]

*waves hand enthusiastically* Ooh! Ooh! I know how they moved Abu Simbel! blaugh

What they did was they carved the temple and surrounding cliff into great big blocks and numbered them. (I don't know the exact dimensions off the top of me head...) Then they moved them, block by block, to the new location, and put them back together according to the numbers.

I'd hate to have to piece together THAT 3-D puzzle gonk  

[Rennie`]

Nevira Shadowfire

*waves hand enthusiastically* Ooh! Ooh! I know how they moved Abu Simbel! blaugh

What they did was they carved the temple and surrounding cliff into great big blocks and numbered them. (I don't know the exact dimensions off the top of me head...) Then they moved them, block by block, to the new location, and put them back together according to the numbers.

I'd hate to have to piece together THAT 3-D puzzle gonk

I think they should make a 3D puzzle of Abu Simbel, would be like going back into the 1970's xd

For those who just can not believe how to move such a temple at that scale to another place then here are some pictures (It took me weeks before I could believe they moved it):

(Was the only picture I could fine, sorry =[ wink  

[evolvingwolf]

Even though it lays is ruins today, Bubastis is my favorite temple site. It was said to be made out of pink granite with long groves full of beautiful flowers... Herodotus said it was one of the most beautiful temples he ever saw! Now, to be fair, I don't care if it was the ugliest temple... it belongs to my sweet goddess Bast, whom I adore. Anything connected to her I love. ^_^