Carlisle Patriot 18 May 1844 Pyramids and Temples of Egypt

Pyramids and Temples of Egypt

Carlisle Patriot - 18 May 1844

THE PYRAMIDS AND TEMPLES OF EGYPT. - The Egyption monarchs appear to have gratified their ambition as much in the provision for their own reception after this life as during their continuance in it. If we except the Memnonium, and what is called the labyrinth at Memphis, temples and tombs are all that remain of their architectural works. Diodorus says, that the Kings of Egypt spent those enormous sums on their sepulchres which other kings expend on palaces. They considered that the frailty of the body during life ought not to be provided with more than necessary protection from the seasons, and that the palace was nothing more than an inn, which at their death the successor would in his turn inhabit, but that the tomb was their eternal dwelling, and sacred to themselves alone. Hence they spared no expense in erecting indestructible edifices for their reception after death. Against the violation of the tomb it seems to have been a great object with them to provide, and doubts have existed on the minds of some whether the body was, after all, deposited in the pyramids, which have been thought to be enormous cenotaphs, and that the body was in some subteraneous and neighbouring spot. Other writers pretend that the pyramids were not tombs, assigning to them certain mystic or astronomical destinations. There are, however, too many circumstances contradictory of such an assumption to allow us to give it the least credit; and there is little impropriety in calling them sepulchral monuments, whether or not the bodies of the monarchs were ever deposited in them. The religion of Egypt, though not so fruitful, perhaps, as that of Greece in the production of a great number of temples, did not fail to engender an abundant supply. The priesthood was powerful, and the rites unchangeable; a mysterious authority prevailed in its ceremonies and outward forms. The temples of the country are impressed with mystery, on which the religion was based. Here, indeed, secrecy was deified in the person of Harpocrates; and according to Plutarch (De Iside,) the sphinx, which decorated the entrances of their temples, signified that mystery and emblem were engrafted on their theology. Numerous doors closed the succession of apartments in the temples, leaving the holy place itself to be seen only at a great distance. This was of little extent containing merely a living idol, or the representation of one. The larger portion of the temple was laid out for the reception of the priests, and disposed in galleries, porticoes, and vestibules. With few and unimportant variations, the greatest similarity and uniformity is observable in their temples, in plan, in elevation, and in general form, as well as in the details of their ornaments. In no country was the connection between religion and architecture closer than in Egypt. - Gwilt's Architecture.

 

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