inanimate symbol of the local god, or the living animal, or the image of
the animal, sacred to that god. A temple must necessarily contain this one
chamber; and if it contained but this one chamber, it would be no less a
temple than the most complex buildings. Very rarely, however, especially in
large towns, was the service of the gods thus limited to the strictly
necessary. Around the sanctuary, or "divine house," was grouped a series of
chambers in which sacrificial and ceremonial objects were stored, as
flowers, perfumes, stuffs, and precious vessels. In advance of this block
of buildings were next built one or more halls supported on columns; and in
advance of these came a courtyard, where the priests and devotees
assembled. This courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade to which the public
had access, and was entered through a gateway flanked by two towers, in
front of which were placed statues, or obelisks; the whole being surrounded
by an enclosure wall of brickwork, and approached through an avenue of
sphinxes. Every Pharaoh was free to erect a hall still more sumptuous in
front of those which his predecessors had built; and what he did, others
might do after him. Thus, successive series of chambers and courts, of
pylons and porticoes, were added reign after reign to the original nucleus;
and--vanity or piety prompting the work--the temple continued to increase
in every direction, till space or means had failed.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.--South Temple of Amenhotep III. at Elephantine.]

[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., at El Kab.]

The most simple temples were sometimes the most beautiful. This was the
case as regards the sanctuaries erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of
Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at
the end of the last century, and destroyed by the Turkish governor of Asûan
in 1822. The best preserved, namely, the south temple (fig. 75), consisted