Per-Ankh

When a new temple was to be constructed, the foundation had to be laid out according to a special foundation ritual.

First there was the staking out of where the foundations should be laid. The king did this with his own hands, watched over by the goddess Seshat. The plan for the future building was marked out by stretching a cord between two poles. It was all done at night for the four corners of the temple was to be determined by the position of the stars with the Great Bear as orientation point.

Sehsat oversaw that the ground plan had been laid out accurately and assured the king that the construction was stable:

"As surely as your building is firm on its foundations, like the sky on its supports, so your edifice will endure together with its master, as the earth (endures) with the Ennead". (P. Montet: Kémi 17, 1964: 78 (scene 3)

The next thing the king had to excavate the foundations down to the depth of the water table, which was equalled to the Primeval Waters. With this done, he were to mold bricks from moist silt mixed with straw, these were to be placed on the four corners of the temples, symbolizing all the thousands of bricks that would be needed to build the caissons, which once in place the king had to fill with sand. This symbolized the creating of the primordial virginal earth on which every temple had to be built. Obviously workers carried out this part of the work as it probably would not have been considered worthy of the king to do it.

When this part had been completed, the king placed foundation deposits; pottery and objects made of gold, silver, copper, iron, stone and fayence at the four corners of the future temple. Also placques with the king´s cartouche were placed there, for the king to leave his mark there to safeguard it against destruction.

The actual building of the temple did not include any special rituals apparently. The foundations were considered as the most important part and the next step in the rituals came when it was time for the king to tamp down the flagging.

When the temple was completed, it was purified with natron and incense was burnt. It was now to be awakened to life in a special ritual before it could be handed over to the deity it was built for.