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Barbara O’Neill
The Cult and the Royal Mortuary Temple in Ancient Egypt
Introduction
In this essay, I will investigate similarities and differences within temples at
Thebes and Abydos, examining ways in which important religious centres may
have been connected architecturally and ideologically by Nebpehtyre Ahmose,
(c.1550-1525.BC), at the dawn of the New Kingdom.
A distinct feature of ancient Egyptian religion was its complexity, (Spencer, 1982
p.163). The Egyptians never held a single view of the afterlife, with ‘conflicting’
views viable at any given time, (Spencer, 1982-p.139,.p.141). Ideology
surrounding the king indicated that in death he would join the sun-god in the
solar-boat on a daily journey across the sky, (Spencer, 1982-p.140). The king
was also identified with Osiris, ‘supreme god of the dead’, who like Re, was a
deity with regional and national significance, (Spencer,.1982-
p.141;.O’Connor,.2009-p.32). The association of kingship with the cults of
important gods, gained particular prominence within New Kingdom funerary
ideology, (Snape,.2011-p.184).

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Although Egyptian temples changed over time in both form and function, the
ontological relationship between deity and king was realised within the spatial
organisation, ritually-charged components and through the decorative
programme of all temples, representing as they did, a vital link between Egypt
and the cosmos, (Wenke,.2009-p.310;.O’Connor,1995-p.264;.Ullmann,2007-
p.12).
For ordinary Egyptians, temples were, for the most part a place of exclusion
unrelated to spiritual well-being, (Manley,.1996-p.78). The temple nonetheless,
offered limited accessibility to the people during festivals and played a vital role in
local and state economies, so in that sense temples functioned as ‘guarantors of
material well-being’ for every Egyptian, (Bell,1997-p135;.Manley,1996-p.78).
The Divine Cult Temple~An Overview
Kings of the New Kingdom endeavoured to fulfill three important tasks; to
prepare a tomb within the royal necropolis, build a separate mortuary temple on
the west-bank at Thebes and add to the divine temple of Amun-Ra on the east-
bank, (Snape,.2011-p184),.Fig:1. The temple form ensured an ordered cosmos,
with architectural elements ritually linked to the earth, the sky and the primeval
mound of creation, (Snape,1996-p.8;.Shafer,1997-p.2). This cosmological role
was maintained through ritual enacted there and through festival processions at
Thebes, when the divine family of Amun-Ra left the main temple on Karnak’s
east-bank in procession to royal mortuary temples on the west-bank,
(Ullmann,.2007-12). Successive kings built in and around the original structure
at Karnak and at major divine temples located at other religious centres,

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extending sacred space as personal acts of devotion, (Shafer,1997-
p.7;Ullmann,.2007-p.12).
The Royal Mortuary Temple~An Overview
In the Old and Middle Kingdoms, pyramid-complexes incorporated a mortuary
chapel where cult to sustain the deceased king could be maintained, (Arnold,
1994-p.187;.Snape,.2011-p.184). By the Eighteenth Dynasty, the royal-mortuary
temple had evolved from an integrated part of the burial complex, adopting a
more fragmented form within discrete structures at western Thebes,
(Snape,.2011-p.184). The mortuary temple’s structure was closely based upon
that of contemporary divine-cult temples, with Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir-el
Bahri exemplifying essential elements of a mortuary temple,.Fig.2:
A. Axial sanctuary for the barque of Amun-Ra
B. Open court for worship of the sun-god
C. False door for presentation of offerings
D. A place for commemoration of royal ancestors, (Snape,1996-
p41;.Haeny,1997-p.95).
Temple organisation evolved and changed through time, with cult for the living or
deceased king not restricted to mortuary temples, (Gundlach,.2009,.pp.64-65;
Arnold,.1997-84;.Haeny,1997-p.90).
Similarities and Differences in Form and Function
In their complex ‘onion-like’ structures, all temples fulfilled a similar, theological
purpose, (Gundlach,.2009-p.51;.Shafer,1997-p.4). Every temple represented the
primordial mound where ‘the first time’ occurred, (Assmann,1996-p.206;

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Wenke,.2009-p.311). The Egyptian geographic concept of ‘cosmos’, was fluid in
nature permitting an ‘other worldly’ understanding of time and place,
(Quirke,.2009-pp.128-129). There could be as many ‘first times’ as there were
temples, ritually synchronised throughout Egypt, (Assmann,.1989-
p.137;.Quirke,.2009-pp.128-129).
Similar architectural elements were found within divine and mortuary temples,
(Spencer,.1984-p.2;.Snape,1996-p.8). Although design varied, most temples
were arranged on a rectilinear axial plan, with focus on the sacred shrine at the
back of the structure, (Quirke,.http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/),.Fig.3. A place
separated from the human world, accessed only by kings or high-ranking priests,
the shrine was dark, narrow and located at the temple’s most elevated point,
(Quirke,.http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/;.Spencer,1984-p.63).
By the New Kingdom, the temple had achieved a ‘standard plan’, with the main
entrance, the ‘rwty-wrty’ located on the western-axis, (Spencer,.1984-
p.201),.Fig:3. Essential components usually included pylon entrances, the ‘bxnt’,
symbolic of vigilance and of the dawn horizon, accompanied by colossal statuary
and obelisks, themselves often objects of cult, (Spencer,.1984-
p.194;.Snape,.1996-pp.29-33;.Wenke,.2009-p.311). Beyond the temple’s open-
courts, the ground rose at a gradual incline, through zones of ‘increasing
sacredness’, leading to the hypostyle hall, the ‘iwntyt’ or ‘wADty’, (Spencer,1984-
p.27,.p.28). Here, the fecundity of creation was represented through vegetation
depicted on the lower courses of walls and through palm or lotiform-columned

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halls, located before the ‘SH-nTr’ at the rear of the temple, (Spencer,1984-
p.28;.Snape,1996-p.29;.Shafer,1997-p.5). The axial route to the shrine involved
four religious transitions;
• an east-west solar passage reflecting the route of the sun
• an impure to pure passage in approaching the god
• from the light of Re to the darkness of Osiris, ‘les deux principes unifiés de
l’Unité divine’
• from lower to higher elevation, on approaching the shrine, (Wenke,.2009-
p.311;.LeBlanc,.1997-p.55).
Overlaps and similarities occur in temple terminology, with royal mortuary
temples often designated, ‘mansions of millions of years’, while the term ‘Hwt-nTr’
was traditionally used to describe divine-cult temples, (Spencer,.1984-
p.23,.p.55;.Haeny,1997-p.86-89). As all temples served as the locus for sacred
ritual on behalf of the gods, the term Hwt-nTr could also be used for royal
mortuary temples, although in this instance, Hwt-nTr may refer specifically to the
main shrine itself, (Spencer,1984-p.50,.p.55). The term ‘mansion of millions of
years’, is now understood in reference to any structure where royal mortuary-cult
was enacted, including within divine-cult temples dedicated to major deities such
as Amun-Ra at Karnak, (Spencer,.1984-pp.25-26,.p.35;.Haeny,.1997-p.124).
Gundlach, (2009-p.61) refers to four ‘holy localities’, royal architectural settings
where the living king interacted with the gods in cultic performance, (Gundlach,
2009-pp..60-62),.Fig:4. The living king was ritually active in divine-cult and royal

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mortuary temples and within a range of related settings, including temple-
palaces, in festival halls related to coronations and Heb-Sed, and at Windows of
Appearance,(Spence,.2009-p.167,.p.171,.p.184;Haeny,.1997-p.90;
Gundlach,2009-p.67).
The deceased king was ritually active in both mortuary and divine-cult temples,
(Gundlach,.2009-p.61;.Leblanc,1997-p.55). Architectural components, axial
organisation, bilateral symmetry and narrative art within divine-cult and royal-
mortuary temples differentiated the ontological relationship between gods and
living monarchs, and between gods and deceased kings, (Spence,.2009-
p.175;.Gundlach,.2009-p.60;.Assmann,1996-p.202-204),.Fig:5.
By the Eighteenth Dynasty, all temples incorporated a complex ideology of
kingship, combining solar and Osirian elements, ‘Il confirme la reconnaissance
de cette nature divine du roi en tant qu'Osiris, et surtout, en tant que Ré’,
(Assmann,.2001-p.187;.LeBlanc,1997-p.55). The sun god was effectively united
with Osiris through the deceased king, whose control now extended to the
netherworld, (Spencer,.1982-p.152;.Assmann,2001-p.187;Gundlach,.2009-p.66;
Leblanc,.1997-p.55). In order to sustain the solar-cycle of renewal, the king
required cult to be performed at his mortuary temple and within divine-cult
temples; this was the role of his successor, (Assmann,.2001-
p.187;.Gundlach,2009-p.61).
On a practical level, perhaps the most distinct difference between temples was,
‘simply one of tenure’; many mortuary-cult temples barely outlasted their

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founders, while the divine-cult temple endured, ensuring continuance of worship
for kings and for the deities associated with it, (Wilkinson,.2000-
p.25;.Arnold,2003-p.113).
The Temple of Amun in the early Eighteenth Dynasty
The temenos of this vast temple-complex, designated ‘Ipet-isut’ or ‘Most Select of
Places’, incorporates many temples, each in its own right, a ‘Hwt-nTr’, or ‘house
of the god’, (Sullivan,.2010-p.1;.Spencer,1984-p.48;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.154). The
temple of Amun at the heart of the precinct, with a history spanning fifteen-
hundred years, functioned as residence of the supreme god, Amun-Ra and as
the central religious institution of the State,.(Sullivan,.2010-pp1-3;.Blythe,.2006-
p.7).
After the reunification of Egypt, King Ahmose I, (c.1550-1525.BC), made
significant contributions to this temple, forging strong links between the divine
cult and that of the Theban Dynasty, (Bryan,.2000-p.209,.Arnold,.1994-p.267).
Ahmose was the first king for over a century, able to embellish and support major
divine cult centres from Upper and Lower Egypt, following the expulsion of the
Hyksos, (Bryan,.2000-pp.207-209). That the king acted with the impetus of
theocratic reunification, following the political reunification he had already
effected, is perhaps evident from important cultic and economic resources he
bestowed upon this temple, (Harvey,.1998-p.13,.p.57;Bryan,.2000-pp.209-
210;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.154). During the reign of his son, Amenhotep I, the

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temple expanded from its ancient core towards the west and south towards the
temple of Mut, developing into ‘a sanctuary of supra-regional importance’,
(Wilkinson,.2000-p.155;.Arnold,1994-p.17;.Blyth,.2006-pp7-8),.Fig:5a.
Shaped in part by the Eighteenth Dynasty’s close association between Amun and
the ruling monarch, many kings contributed to the temple of Amun-Ra at the
heart of Ipet-isut, adding pylons, statuary, obelisks, chapels, courts and halls, all
of which added to its complex form and to the ritual enacted there, (Arnold,.2003-
p.17;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.155;.Ullmann,.2007-p.12;.Blyth,.2006-p.34).
There are three main compounds within the temple temenos, with the precinct of
Amun at the centre, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.154). To the south is the temple of Mut,
consort of Amun-Ra, with the small temple of the divine son, Khonsu positioned
between the two, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.154),.Fig:6. Amun-Ra, Mut and Khonsu
constitute the Theban Triad, a divine family essential to royal renewal rituals
within festivals of the Theban calendar, including that of Opet, (Bell,.1997-p.157-
160).
By the early New Kingdom, there were two integrated ritual axes representing
distinct branches of cult within the temple; a north-south axis, leading to the
divine sanctuary where a permanently installed cult image of Amun-Ra resided
and a second, west-east axis assigned to the cult of the divine-barque of Amun,
(Ullmann,.2007-p.9;.Blyth,.2006-p.33),.Fig:7. The position of the barque-shrine
indicates a processional way on the north-south axis, connecting the temple of

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Amun-Ra with those of Mut and Khonsu, progressing via a sphinx-lined route to
Luxor temple, two kilometers away, (Ullmann,.2007-p.11;.Arnold,.1994-p.17).
This processional way may predate the Eighteenth Dynasty phase, with
indications that both Karnak and Luxor shared similar axes with the small temple
at Medinet-Habu on the west-bank, (Ullmann,.2007,.pp.11-12). An important
divine cult temple, Medinet-Habu marked the ancient site of Djamet, burial
mound of the Ogdoad creator-gods and locus for Amun-of-the-Opet’s ‘decade-
festival’, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.193;.Bell,.1997-p.178),.Fig:8.
Approximately two-thousand dismantled limestone blocks from the expansive
building-phase of Amenhotep I at Karnak, including elements from barque
shrines and chapels, all bearing extensive relief-work are currently the subject of
investigation by French scholars, (Favro-Wendrich,.2010;.Graindorge,.1999-
p.83-90;.Ullmann,.2007-pp9-12). Continuing work on this early stage may result
in a clearer understanding of varying emphases in the integration of divine and
royal-mortuary cults, which seem to gain heightened significance within Theban-
Abydene mortuary culture in transition from intermediate phases,
(Ullmann,.2007-pp.8-12;.Harvey,.2007-p.344;.O’Connor,1974-pp.17-18).
By the early Eighteenth dynasty, the temple of Amun-Ra had developed
significant axial and theological links with Luxor, a temple dedicated to the cult of
the royal ka and the sacred rituals of the Opet, (Arnold,.1994-p.17;Bell,.1985-
pp.251-259;.Wilkinson,.2000-pp.154-155).

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Luxor Temple in the Eighteenth Dynasty
Land and riverine routes connected the temple of Karnak with the temple at
Luxor, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.167;Bell,.1997-pp.144-149),.Fig:9. Functioning as the
‘place of justification’ in which kings and deities were renewed during the Opet
festival, this temple was dedicated to a manifestation of Amun, ‘Amun-of-the-
Opet’, a self-generating fertility god, vital to eternal regeneration,
(Wilkinson,.2000-p.166,p.171;.Bell,.1985-p.259).
Luxor temple, in its Eighteenth dynasty phase is usually dated from Hatshepsut,
before significant expansion by Amenophis III who created the essential core of
the temple-complex, constructing a triple barque-shrine at the front and a large
colonnaded hall at the northern-end, (Arnold,.1994-p.135;.Bell,1985-pp261-
262;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.166),.Fig:10. Textual evidence however, from the el-
Ma’asara stelae, commemorating the opening of a limestone quarry in Regnal
Year 22, by Nebpehtyre Ahmose near Tura, outline the king’s plan to construct
‘mansions of millions of years’, throughout Egypt, (Harvey,.1998-p.40). The
inscriptions suggest that Ahmose may have been the first New Kingdom ruler to
build at Luxor, 'the Southern Opet', (Harvey,.1998-p.63,.p.72).
There are several significant features within Luxor temple which reflect the
structure’s importance to the cult of kingship, particularly during Opet, a festival
related to the divine-marriage of Amun-Ra, unrecorded before the Eighteenth
dynasty, (Bell,.1985-p.259,.pp.278-281;.Spalinger,.1998-p.244;.Darnell,.2010-
pp.4-5),.Fig:11. The temple’s architectural layout and decorative-programme
enshrined a complex series of rituals culminating in the king’s identification with

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Amun-Ra and his transformation into an immortal ka, (Bell,.1985-
p.255,.p.267;.Darnell,.2010-pp.4-5).
Ka-statues of deceased kings were located within mortuary and divine-cult
temples, however at Luxor, it is the living king who was the focus of cult,
(Bell,.1985-p.260),.Fig:12. Inscribed colossi functioned as cult-statues, with
related architraval inscriptions producing a ‘temporal sphere’, where ritual was
embedded and re-enacted perpetually, in a ‘recurrent festival of renewal’,
(Bell,.1985-p.260;.Grallert,.2007-pp38-39;.Bryan-Dorman,1994-p.xix).
Scenes depicting the royal family and the divine family of Amun-Ra in riverine
procession during Opet, are recorded within elaborate narrative imagery
spanning the eastern-wall of the colonnade hall, (Bryan-Dorman,.1994-p.xix),
Fig:13. At the southern end of the barque-sanctuary, the king was united with
Amun-Ra and with every preceding king; all shared the universal kA, a sacred
element in the chain of divine-kingship, (Bell,.1985-p.258,.p.262), At the
culmination of the ceremony, the king emerged from the chapel as ‘Foremost-of-
All-Living-kas’, making offerings of incense, libations and flowers to the god,
(Bell,.1985-p,281,.pp.266-267;.Spalinger,.1998-244). Amun-Ra had transferred
his powers to the king in a ‘singular event’ of Dt-perfection, manifesting divine
sovereignty, (Assmann,.1989-p.75;.1996-p.18,.p.364;.LeBlanc,1997-
p.55;.Bell,.1985-p.257). The ontological implications of renewal rites enacted at
Luxor temple, assumed ‘extraordinary prominence’ from the early Eighteenth

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Dynasty, directly influencing temple development, (Bell,.1985-p.284,
p.259;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.166-169).
The Mortuary Temple of Nebpehtyre Ahmose at Abydos
Re-excavation work, carried out between 1993-2006 at the mortuary complex of
King Ahmose I at Abydos, is providing insight into the conceptual variability of
intended functions within divine and mortuary cults, following the reunification of
Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom, (Harvey,.1998-
p.1,p.273;.Harvey,.2007-p.353). With no evidence of a mortuary temple at
Thebes, the vast mortuary complex constructed by Ahmose at South Abydos,
includes subsidiary structures for his sister-wife Ahmose-Nefertari and their
grandmother Tetesheri, with other cult-components possibly related to ‘Crown
Prince Ahmose’, an eldest son, (Harvey,.1998-p4;.2007-p.349).
Construction of his mortuary complex is believed to have begun late in Ahmose’s
reign between Regnal Years 18-22, following defeat of the Hyksos, an event
recorded on the outer walls of the pyramid-temple, attested through thousands of
carved relief and painted fragments, (Harvey,.1998-pp.150-151). Triumphant
battle-scenes depicting horses and chariots, perhaps the earliest example of this
genre, provide ‘unique historical data’, which may result in chronological revision
regarding narrative art in Egypt, (Harvey,.1998-p.150;.O’Connor,.2009-
p108),.Fig:14,.Fig:14a. Other innovative elements include stamped bricks, the
first ever attested in a royal-mortuary complex, indicating a revised titulary for
Ahmose as Sa-rA-HqAtAwy, and HqAtAwy-mry-Wsir, uniting the king with the
mortuary-cults of both Re and Osiris, (Harvey,.2007-pp.343-346).

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The pyramid-temple of Ahmose, the last to have been built in the Nile Valley by
an Egyptian king, was most likely intended to evoke the successful political and
economic reigns of earlier Middle Kingdom unifier kings, employing monumental
symbolism of pyramid and terrace temple forms, integrating Memphite, Theban
and Abydene, funerary ideologies, (Harvey,.1998-p.135;.O’Connor,.2009-
p.109),.Fig:15.
Constructed along a central north-south axis at South Abydos, the complex
includes a large mortuary temple close to the cultivation, with the subsidiary
temple of Ahmose-Nefertari nearby,.(Harvey,.1998-p.1). There is evidence of
tree-pits either side of the main temple’s northern entrance, approached through
a massive mud-brick pylon gateway before open courts, (Harvey,.1998-
p.143,.p.198;.O’Connor,.2009-p.107). Within the temple, pillars of colonnaded
halls bore scenes depicting Ahmose in the embrace of several deities,
(Harvey,1998-p.196),.Fig:16. Other carved and painted, now fragmented
imagery, attest to an ‘evident preoccupation with offering table scenes’, within
which Ahmose-Nefertari stands behind the king, who is seated before elaborate
offering scenes, served by iwnmwtf priests, clearly the object of
cult,.(Harvey,.1998-pp. 294-298).
Interpreting scene repertoire and the use of cultic-space within Ahmose’s temple
is important at the beginning of an era when significant changes occur in divine-
cult and royal-mortuary temple ideology, (Harvey,.1998-p.273). Enactment of

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ritual evolved from that carried out on behalf of the deceased king, to cult carried
out by the king on behalf of the gods, (Harvey,.1998-p.273). Depictions within the
South Abydos temple-complex and at his Northern shrine, portray Ahmose as
receiver of cult, signifying his divine nature, suggesting, ‘a compelling personal
need’ for deification and immortality, (Harvey,.1998-pp.419-421;.O’Connor,.2009-
p.109),.Fig:17.
The southern-axial placement of the nearby enclosure dedicated to Ahmose-
Nefertari may indicate her cultic role as an incarnation of Hathor, signifying the
prominent role of the queen during Ahmose’s reign, (Harvey,1998- pp.425-
426,.p.462). Further on from the pyramid complex is a shrine dedicated to
Tetesheri, followed by an unfinished, probable cenotaph-tomb, culminating in a
terraced temple built into the cliffs which surround the area, (Harvey,1998-
p.4),.Fig:18.
The elevated terrace temple may represent the rwd-nTr-aA, the staircase of
Osiris, with the related tomb symbolising the Osirian cave and the sacred grove
which surrounded it, (Harvey,1998-p.434). The pyramid and subsidiary
structures represent the Axt, the solar horizon, conceptualising Dt-Osirian time of
permanent perfection and cyclic nHH-time, related to solar renewal,
(Harvey,.1998-p.436;.Assmann,1996-p.18),.Fig:18.
With Osirian ideology, ‘an overarching factor’ in Ahmose’s funerary programme,
solar aspects are also evident in the east-west axis of the complex, referencing

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Memphite-style solar iconography through the pyramid dominating the eastern
end of the monumental axis; its form representing the primeval mound of
creation, (Harvey,.1998-p.435),.Fig:18a.
At North Abydos within the Osiris temple complex, Amenhotep I built a cult-
chapel for his father, where Ahmose’s Osirian transformation appears
paramount, (Harvey,.2011;.personal communication). Ahmose therefore has two
physically separate cult locales at Abydos, with evidence that both were
connected through ritual procession, supported by depictions of the Ahmose
barque within the temples of Ramesses II and Seti I nearby,
(Harvey,.2011;.personal communication). The interconnectivity of Ahmose’s
royal-mortuary cult structures at Abydos, incorporating key funerary traditions
from other important religious centres, notably Thebes and Memphis, reflects ‘a
consciousness late in Ahmose's reign, of the commencement of a new era,
occasioned by the reunification of North and South’, (Harvey,.1998-pp.373-374).
Conclusion
The mortuary complex of Nebpehtyre Ahmose has ‘paradigmatic and extra-
regional significance’ in the development of royal cult from the start of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, (O’Connor,.2009-pp.107). This is also evident in the newly
emergent cult of the royal-ka, as exemplified within the Theban temples of Amun-
Ra at Karnak and Luxor, and within the Southern and Northern mortuary
structures of Ahmose at Abydos,.(O’Connor,.2009-pp.107-108). Modifications
created by Ahmose within post-Hyksos Egyptian royal funerary ideology,
‘profoundly affected the rest of the 18th
dynasty’, (Bryan,2000-p.207).

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It was once noted that the reign of Ahmose lacked the time and resources for
significant construction, with his finest ‘monument’, the Eighteenth Dynasty itself,
(Lefebvre,.1929-p.67 in Harvey,.2007-p.352). I would argue that the unique
legacy emerging from investigations into this king’s intriguing mortuary complex
at Abydos, indicates significant architectural and theological innovations which
may have influenced royal and divine-cult ideologies from the dawn of the New
Kingdom, (Harvey,.2007,.p.352;.O’Connor,.2009-pp107-110).
Images:

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