Pylon (Egypt)
The pylon of Egyptian sacred buildings is a monumental, double-towered structure with a connecting gate structure, which frames a portal and forms the entrance to a temple or tomb.
The two towers of the pylon were built on a rectangular floor plan from unfired bricks or stone ashlar masonry and are each roughly as wide as they are high. Its facade is sloped , the roof is set off with a cove . In the front facade there are mostly niches that could accommodate flagpoles.
The image motifs on the entrance sides, executed as sunk reliefs , often show rituals to ward off enemies and thus strengthen the effect of pylons as protective structures for the temple or the grave. Large temples have several staggered pylons, the Amun temple of Karnak had after numerous extensions in the 4th century BC. Finally ten pylons.
The first approaches to these gate constructions are already suspected in the pyramid districts of the Old Kingdom . Probably the oldest, but no longer completely preserved pylon, dates from the time of Mentuhotep III. (20th century BC, Middle Kingdom ). The older pylons have massive towers. Since the New Kingdom, the pylon towers have had single-flight stairs inside that lead to the lintel or the roofs (e.g. Luxor and Karnak ). In the Ptolemaic period they were expanded to multi-storey buildings with lighted interiors and stairwells (e.g. Edfu and Philae ).
1. Pylon of the Temple of Luxor with obelisk
1. Pylon of the Temple of Chons in Karnak
1. Pylon of the Temple of Edfu
1st and 2nd pylon of the temple of Philae
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See also
literature
- Dieter Arnold : Lexicon of Egyptian architecture . Albatros, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-491-96001-0 .
- Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Small Lexicon of Egyptology . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , Pylon, p. 229 f .
- Ulrike Fauerbach : The great pylon of the Temple of Horus in Edfu. A building research study . University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2009 ( online ).