Inside the Temple of Edfu From "la Description de l'Egypte"

Standing far down the open court, in the full sunshine, I could see into the first hypostyle hall, but beyond only a darkness--a darkness which led me on, in which the further chambers of the house divine were hidden. As I went on slowly, the perfection of the plan of the dead architects was gradually revealed to me, when the darkness gave up its secrets; when I saw not clearly, but dimly, the long way between the columns, the noble columns themselves, the gradual, slight upward slope--graduated by genius; there is no other word--which led to the sanctuary, seen at last as a little darkness, in which all the mystery of worship, and of the silent desires of men, was surely concentrated, and kept by the stone for ever. Even the succession of the darknesses, like shadows growing deeper and deeper, seemed planned by some great artist in the management of light, and so of shadow effects. The perfection of form is in Edfu, impossible to describe, impossible not to feel. The tremendous effect it has--an effect upon the soul--is created by a combination of shapes, of proportions, of different levels, of different heights, by consummate graduation. And these shapes, proportions, different levels, and heights, are seen in dimness. Not that jewelled dimness one loves in Gothic cathedrals, but the heavy dimness of windowless, mighty chambers lighted only by a rebuked daylight ever trying to steal in. One is captured by no ornament, seduced by no lovely colors. Better than any ornament, greater than any radiant glory of color, is this massive austerity. It is like the ultimate in an art. Everything has been tried, every strangeness bizarrerie, absurdity, every wild scheme of hues, every preposterous subject--and at the end a genius writes a little song, and the world gives the tribute of its breathless silence and its tears. And it knows that though other things may be done, better things can never be done. For no perfection can exceed any other perfection.

Edfu Courtyard. In later life David Roberts sometimes created oil versions of the subjects of his earlier engravings.

And so in Edfu I feel that this untinted austerity is perfect; that whatever may be done in architecture during future ages of the world, Edfu, while it lasts, will remain a thing supreme--supreme in form and, because of this supremacy, supreme in the spell which it casts upon the soul. The sanctuary is just a small, beautifully proportioned, inmost chamber, with a black roof, containing a sort of altar of granite, and a great polished granite shrine which no doubt once contained the god Horus. I am glad he is not there now. How far more impressive it is to stand in an empty sanctuary in the house divine of "the Hidden One," whom the nations of the world worship, whether they spread their robes on the sand and turn their faces to Mecca, or beat the tambourine and sing "glory hymns" of salvation, or flagellate themselves in the night before the patron saint of the Passionists, or only gaze at the snow- white plume that floats from the snows of Etna under the rose of dawn, and feel the soul behind Nature. Among the temples of Egypt, Edfu is the house divine of "the Hidden One," the perfect temple of worship.  Photo taken before 1872, ashmolean.museu An Alternative Egyptian Mysteries and Science Directory

Ascending Passage

In the Great Pyramid of Egypt the Ascending Passage is a narrow tunnel into the ancient House of Secrets. After a long climb it emerges into the sublime Grand Gallery that connects the King's and Queen's chambers - to stretch a metaphor - balancing the male and female energies and partaking in both. Ancient Egypt did balance the energies: Art, Science, Medicine, Architecture, all were based on the same core of Knowledge.

Offerings to Pharaoh Ramesses III and Isis.  by Salvador Cherubini, 1832-1844

If we only see the Egyptians through modern eyes we miss half of the story - the most interesting half - because the spiritual understanding of these ancient people is as valid today as it was in the age of the pyramids. So explore Ancient Egypt in a way neglected by conventional archeology. There are unexplained mysteries and secrets on one side, intense beauty and artistic achievement on another. There is a third side, something beyond the words and pictures, something only to be understood. It is this third side that is, after all, the true ascending passage.

Map of the passages within the Great Pyramid. from "la Description de l'Egypte",  the account of studies performed by scholars who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt in 1798-9. Many more etchings from this important work, which is considered to be the beginning of modern Egyptology, are included in this website.

SECTIONS: please click the titles... The Library of Egyptian Secrets Directory and Commentary: Exploring Egypt Giza: The Pyramids and Sphinx Mysteries in Stone Schwaller de Lubicz Sacred Science Atlantis

The Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Egypt.  By David Roberts, 1841. Look for more David Roberts paintings of Egypt throughout this website.

Photo © copyright Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, p. 148.

Strabo visited the Osireion in the first century B.C. He wrote:

Above this city [Ptolemaïs] lies Abydus, where is the Memnonium, a royal building, which is a remarkable structure built of solid stone, and of the same workmanship as that which I ascribed to the Labyrinth, though not multiplex; and also a fountain which lies at a great depth, so that one descends to it down vaulted galleries made of monoliths of surprising size and workmanship. [Geography, 17.1.42]

Strabo identified the builder as Ismandes, or Mandes (Amenemhet III), under whom the Labyrinth was constructed. Naville, who excavated the site in 1913-14, saw similarities between Khafre's Valley Temple at Giza and the Osireion, and concluded that they were of the same Old Kingdom era. Both are stark and megalithic, and the style of the Osireion is noticeably different than that of the Temple of Seti I. It is also situated some fifty feet lower and thus generally flooded with water.

In time, more clues were discovered. Frankfort found the cartouche of Seti I in a granite dovetail joint. Another tenon bearing the king's cartouche was exposed when part of the sandstone wall blocks broke away (blocks that were once clad in granite), indicating its presence in the original construction. There are astronomical scenes, also made by Seti, on the ceiling of the northern transverse chamber. Other decorations were made by the king's grandson, Merenptah. Sandstone was used in the original construction (for central court wall-cladding and for the base of the island), a material used mainly beginning in the 11th Dynasty.

Some authors pay particular attention to the layout of the Temple of Seti II. In The Traveler's Key to Ancient Egypt, John Anthony West wrote, "The curious and unique L shape of the main temple could well be explained as a result of initial groundwork in Seti's time uncovering the hitherto buried older temple, necessitating a change of plan." (p. 391) The problem with this scenario is that the location of the Osireion is fully integrated into the plan of the temple complex as a whole (see plan below). The axis of the Osireion is north-northeast, matching exactly the axis of the temple complex. Such uniformity could hardly be accidental. It becomes clear, then, that the site is comprised of a mortuary temple in front of the tomb (or in this case, cenotaph, dedicated to Osiris) in the classical arrangement.