Temple Comparison

COMPARISON OF TEMPLES

Today we will be comparing some of the most important buildings of the Ancient Egyptians and Romans; Temples.

As it is commonly known, religion was taken very seriously in the Ancient periods, to the point of sacrifices and death. Lives, cattle and land were given to the gods of the civilisations, purely to please and hopefully be rewarded. Buildings of worship were constructed for them, and we call them temples.

Egypt: Egyptian structures were grand places of worship. They received endowments from the country such as gold, land and livestock, to support priests and workers that fled there to seek holy enrichment.

Temples were sometimes splayed over whole towns, purely because the number of worshipers were so many.

There is a picture of an old temple here, it is called the Ramessuem (Luxor):

All the little trenches around the structure in the middle are bases of the walls that used to form rooms, most likely lodgings or praying areas for aspiring priests.

There are also carvings on the wall, telling the story of the reign of an emperor or the life of a particular god worshipped in that area. These would have been fantastically painted, but as the centuries passed by the color has faded but we are still left with the mark of a historical story.

The carvings are seen here:

I think we can agree that the Egyptians were very spiritual people, and built the temples as a sign of respect and love for their gods.

Rome: The Roman temples, although still highly spiritual, were mainly built to impress. They were built with marble, rare gems, expensive timber and the finest materials money could buy. Buildings with roofs that soar up fifty meters high. Expensive marbles on every inch of every surface. The Romans were very proud of their buildings, and liked to show them off.

When paeganism was overruled as the national religion and Christianity was introduced the temples were either converted to churches, or stripped of their marble and statues to be used in the Churches.

One of the converted temples is the Pantheon, a Christian church in the heart of Rome. It is here:

A temple stripped of it's treasures is shown here:

Thank you for listening. Next time we will cover the heirarchy and how to identiy the levels of homes.