Mammisi
Encyclopedia
Mammisi is a term used for a small chapel
attached to a larger temple
, and associated with the nativity of a god. The word is derived from Coptic
. Its usage is attributed to Jean-François Champollion
. The most important surviving examples are from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods in Egypt.
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
attached to a larger temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
, and associated with the nativity of a god. The word is derived from Coptic
Coptic language
Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
. Its usage is attributed to Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion was a French classical scholar, philologist and orientalist, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs....
. The most important surviving examples are from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods in Egypt.