House of the Millions

Millions of years in hieroglyphics

Hut-net-hehu-em-renput
Ḥw.tn.t-ḥḥw-m-rnp.wt
"House of Millions of Years"

Temple area of Thebes west of the Nile

House of the Millions (also House of Millions of Years, Millions of Years House ) is a term that appears at the end of the Middle Kingdom of Egyptian history and first designates a temple for the cult of the king, then especially in the New Kingdom the royal mortuary temple , but also other temples of the royal cult. In them, in the cult image and the wall reliefs, a mystical union of the king with a powerful deity (such as Amun , Osiris or Ptah ) was depicted, which in faith ensured the king's continued existence.

Most of the millions of years old once lay parallel to the Nile on the other side of the Valley of the Kings in Thebes-West , but also in Memphis ( Amenhotep III , Ramses II ), Abydos ( Seti I , Ramses II), Soleb (Amenhotep III) and Abu Simbel (Ramses II). Here the kings ( pharaohs ) set a monument in which they were venerated during their lifetime . In the millions of years old , regular barge processions took place in which the cult image of the god in question was brought into the temple.

historical development

Already at the beginning of the 4th dynasty , the classic structure of the pyramid districts with the components valley temple - pathway - mortuary temple - pyramid took place , for the first time with the Meidum pyramid . This arrangement was retained until the Middle Kingdom.

For security reasons, the New Kingdom started burying the kings in rock tombs ( Valley of the Kings ) and relocated the associated mortuary temples to the edge of the fruiting land. Occasionally the valley temple and the access road can still be traced ( Hatshepsut ). The Theban mountain el-Qurn (“the horn”) can be seen as a “ pyramid ” , a natural pyramid at the foot of which is the Valley of the Kings. In the New Kingdom, millions of years old are not only documented in Thebes, but also in other places where there were no royal tombs.

Examples

Thebes West

Rock temple in Deir el-Bahari :

the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II.
the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut ( Djeser djeseru - "holiest of the holiest")
the mortuary temple of Thutmose III. (Deir el-Bahari)

Actual million year houses in el-Qurna :

the mortuary temple of Seti I.
the temple of the Ramessids (Asasif)
the temple of Thutmose III. (el-Qurna)
the temple of Ramses Siptah
the temple of Amenhotep II
the Ramesseum (Temple of Ramses II )
the temple of Thutmose IV.
the temple of Tausret
the temple of Merenptah
the temple of Amenhotep III. (behind the Colossi of Memnon )
the temple of Ramses IV.
the temple of Thutmose II.
the temple of the Haremhab , Eje and Tutankhamun
the mortuary temple of Ramses III. ( Medinet Habu )

Abydos

the temple of Ramses II of Abydos
the mortuary temple of Seti I (Abydos) : Hut-abdu-men-maat-Re ( Ḥwt-3bḏw-mn-m3ˁ.t-Rˁ ) - "House of Men-Maat-Re in Abydos"

literature

Martina Ullmann: King for Eternity - The Houses of Millions of Years: An Investigation of the King's Cult and Temple Typology in Egypt. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-04521-3 .
Stefanie Schröder: Millions of years. On the conception of the space of eternity in constellative kingship in language, architecture and theology. 1st edition, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-447-06187-2 .

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Dieter Arnold : Lexicon of Egyptian architecture . Albatros, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-491-96001-0 , Million Years House , p. 164 .

[Arnold164-1] A ^b Dieter Arnold : Lexicon of Egyptian architecture . Albatros, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-491-96001-0 , Million Years House , p. 164 .