Daily ritual in the hypostyle hall of the temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak: religious architecture through worship

Abstract

The magical conception of the monuments of Ancient Egypt, as they conceived them, transcended beyond the stone representation or the support of religious iconography. The ancient Egyptians considered their monuments as a ritual element in a cultic religion in which cult prevailed over myth, so the architecture was one more ritual element. The temple as a representation of the universe interacted with the cult representations to provide the ancient Egyptians with the Maat — the cosmic order— that they so longed for. The conception of the orientation and location of the holy places draws us back to Christian architectural consideration. The daily divine worship ritual performed in the Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak is one of the best examples of the interaction of the universe embodied in stone, with a clearly ritual location intended to protect the order of creation, as well as of the pharaonic royalty.