Egypt today is mainly Islamic in faith. However, with a history spanning several centuries, and its attractiveness to invading rulers of different faiths, it is but natural that Egypt has strong roots of several religions, including the Pharonic, Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths.

In the Pharonic era (period before Christ), ancient Egyptians built all their cult temples on the East Bank of the Nile, while the West bank had the tombs, pyramids, funerary temples and other monuments of the dead. This practice arose from the belief that the rising sun was associated with the present life and the setting sun with the afterlife. While cult temples were for the world of living, the pharaohs built mortuary temples to ensure their eternal life in the netherworld.

All cult temples in the Pharonic era have a generally similar structure, with an outer courtyard, one or two hypostyle halls with amazingly huge columns, and an inner sanctum with side rooms leading off of the inner sanctum. The sanctum was called the "holy of holies" and only the pharaoh and priest were allowed to enter it. Side rooms were like store-rooms for cult furniture, perfumes, incense, and so on. Some temples had secret vaults and passageways under the floor, like the one at Kom Ombo. The Ptolemic period temples also had outer walls around the temples. Looking at the structure of these temples gave us a sense of déjà vu, due to the uncanny resemblance to Indian temple structures. It is possible that many of the traditional Indian temple designs have been influenced by these Egyptian temples, especially the concept of the sanctum, outer wall, and purification tank. Also, from time to time, the gods were taken out from their seclusion in the sanctuary and taken in a procession in their sacred barque to visit other gods: reminded us of those temple processions that are taken out on holy days in India!

Almost all the walls have reliefs of the gods and goddesses of those times, with the pharaoh who built the temple making offerings to these gods. All temples have a wide variety of intricate carvings in stone depicting various scenes in the life and after life. Cartouches, which were like a pharaoh's emblem, are engraved all over the temples to indicate the ruler who commissioned the building of the temple. Even the gods had cartouches, which were open, while kings' cartouches were closed. Another guide to figuring out a god from human, is the way the beard is portrayed. While humans are portrayed with open beards, Gods had curled beards, which our guide informed us was because in the life of the afterworld, there was no opportunity to groom one's hair!!! Most statues of pharaohs have their left foot forward, which is attributed to different reasons from the exotic (right foot being preserved for the afterlife), to the mundane (stability of balance). Some interpretations go so far as to suggest that army style marching has its origins in Egyptian antiquity......

Almost all temples have Nilometers, which measured the rise and fall of the Nile, and in its own way, indicated to the agriculturists what to expect for that season and the tax to be levied on the crops that year.

Pyramids were the resting places of dead pharaohs in the old kingdom, where they were supposed to lead a comfortable afterlife surrounded by their various possessions. However, these pyramids were robbed in antiquity. During later periods, tombs cut in the rock became increasingly popular in the middle and new kingdoms. The Pyramids were huge structures constructed above the ground and visible to the eye, so the tombs were designed to merge in with the surrounds, as they do in the Valley of the Kings.

Egypt, especially Cairo, has a lot of beautiful mosques. Although time didn't permit us to explore any of these mosques from the inside, the outside architecture seemed very restrained, old world and magnificent. Interestingly, the few churches that we saw were not in gothic style but had dome shaped structures, somewhat like St. Peter's basilica in Rome. A marriage of Roman and Arab influences perhaps? Interestingly, our guide told us that the Islamic faith also believes in the existence of Moses as a prophet. In fact, Mt. Sinai is of religious significance to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

© Vixabs Vacations Unlimited

May 01 2003