04. The Temples of Ancient Egypt, New Insights PROVE the Unthinkable, a Secret Place Called the Duat

Egyptian temples were sacred places where priests served the gods. A temple was a house for the one or more deities it was dedicated to. Gods were believed to live within their statues in the temple’s shrine. Temples were where cultural knowledge was stored and curated. Each temple had a library of ritual papyri. Major temples had a ‘House of Life’ where such texts were compiled and copied. Temples were designed to reflect and maintain the universe. Their decoration presents a cross-section of the world as the Egyptians understood it. The lower sections of walls and columns are carved with plant motifs, the middle sections show the king conducting rituals and worshipping the gods, and the ceilings were covered in stars and constellations. Temples were also powerful economic institutions. Their estates controlled huge amounts of land and wealth. Many temple complexes would have looked like small towns, with the temple itself surrounded by workshops, storage areas, and living quarters for on-duty staff. Temples continuously evolved over Egyptian history. They developed from smaller structures built of organic materials into large stone monuments. No two temples are the same, but most surviving examples share a similar set of features.