The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

by Bolesław Prus

The central part of the gardens occupied a rectangular space nine hundred yards long and three hundred wide. This space was enclosed by a wall of no great height which had one visible gate and a number of secret entrances. Through the gate pious people entered the space which surrounded the dwelling of Osiris; this space was covered with a stone pavement. In the middle of the space stood the temple, a rectangular pile four hundred and fifty yards long and in width one hundred and fifty.

From the public gate to the temple was an avenue of sphinxes with human heads and lion bodies. They were in two lines, ten in each, and were gazing into each others' eyes. Only the highest dignitaries might pass between these sphinxes.

At the head of this avenue, and opposite the public gate, rose two obelisks or slender and lofty granite columns of four sides, on which was inscribed the history of the pharaoh Seti.

Beyond the obelisks rose the gate of the temple having at both sides of it gigantic piles in the form of truncated pyramids called pylons. These were like two strong towers, on the walls of which were paintings representing the visits of Seti, or the offerings which he made to divinities.

Earth-tillers were not permitted to pass this gate which was free only to wealthy citizens and the privileged classes. Through it was the entrance to the peristyle or court, surrounded by a corridor which had a multitude of columns. From this court, where there was room for ten thousand people, persons of the noble order might go still farther to the first hall, the hypostyle; this had a ceiling which rested on two rows of lofty columns, and there was space in it for two thousand worshippers. This hall was the last to which lay people were admitted. The highest dignitaries who had not received ordination had the right to pray there, and look thence at the veiled image of the god which rose in the hall of "divine apparition."

Beyond the hall of "divine apparition" was the chamber of "tables of offering," where priests placed before the gods gifts brought by the faithful. Next was the chamber of "repose," where the god rested when returning from or going to a procession, and last was the chapel or sanctuary where the god had his residence.

Usually the chapel was very small, dark, sometimes cut out of one block of stone. It was surrounded on all sides by chapels equally small, filled with garments, furniture, vessels and jewels of the god which in its inaccessible seclusion slept, bathed, was anointed with perfumes, ate, drank, and as it seems even received visits from young and beautiful women.

This sanctuary was entered only by the high priest, and the ruling pharaoh if he had received ordination. If an ordinary mortal entered he might lose his life there.

The walls and columns of each hall were covered with inscriptions and explanatory paintings. In the corridor surrounding the peristyle were the names and portraits of all the pharaohs from Menes the first ruler of Egypt to Ramses XII In the hypostyle, or hall for nobles, the geography and statistics of Egypt were presented pictorially, also the subject nations. In the hall of "apparition" were the calendar and the results of astronomical observation; in the chamber of "tables of offering," and in that of "repose" figured pictures relating to religious ceremonial, and in the sanctuary rules for summoning beings beyond the earth and controlling the phenomena of nature.

This last kind of knowledge was contained in statements so involved that even priests in the time of Ramses XII did not understand them. The Chaldean Beroes was to revive this expiring wisdom.