RUINS OF DOOR AT ENTRANCE OF THE SANCTUARY.
In the temple of Amen-Rā there are 17 or 18 of these apertures, limiting the light which falls into the Holy of Holies or the Sanctuary. This construction gives one a very definite impression that every part of the temple was built to subserve a special object, viz., to limit the light which fell on its front into a narrow beam, and to carry it to the other extremity of the temple—into the sanctuary, so that once a year when the sun set at the solstice the light passed without interruption along the whole length of the temple, finally illuminating the Sanctuary in most resplendent fashion and striking the Sanctuary wall. The wall of the Sanctuary opposite to the entrance of the temple was always blocked. There is no case in which the beam of light can pass absolutely through the temple.
THE OBELISKS NEAR THE OLDEST PART OF THE TEMPLE OF AMEN-RĀ AT KARNAK.
The point was to provide an axis open at one end and absolutely closed at the other, the open courts being only found towards that end towards which the temple opened, the other end being all but absolutely dark and quite blocked up at the extremity.
These sunlight effects were fully appreciated. Referring to the obelisks erected by Queen Hāt-shepset as a monument to her father Amen, an inscription at the base of one of these says, "They are seen an endless number of miles off: it is a flood of shining splendour when the sun shines between the two;"[27] and again, "The sun's disc shines between them as when it rises from the horizon of heaven."[28]
Passing from the temple at Karnak to others in a better state of preservation, we can gather that the part of the axis furthest from the entrance was covered, so that in the penetralia there was only a dim religious light. The entrance is also, as it were, guarded by a massive exterior pylon, as in the more or less modern temple of Edfû. This, again, reduces the light in the interior.
It is easy to recognise that these arrangements bear out the idea of an astronomical use of the temple.
INNER COURT AND SANCTUARY AT EDFÛ.
(From a Photograph by the Author.)