Pylon (architecture)

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Pylon (architecture)

Pylon is the Greek term for a monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple

Ancient Egyptian architecture

The Nile valley has been the site of one of the most influential civilizations which developed a vast array of diverse structures encompassing ancient Egyptian architecture....
(Egyptian bxn.t in the Manuel de Codage

Manuel de Codage

The Manuel de Codage is a standard system for the computer-encoding of Transliteration of ancient Egyptian of Egyptian hieroglyphs texts....
transliteration.) It consists of two tapering towers, each surmounted by a cornice

Cornice

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Pylon is the Greek term for a monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple

Ancient Egyptian architecture

Manuel de Codage

Cornice

The term cornice comes from Italian cornice, meaning ?ledge.?Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding which crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal....
, joined by a less elevated section which enclosed the entrance between them. The entrance was generally about half the height of the towers. Contemporary paintings of pylons show them with long poles flying banners.

In ancient Egyptian theology, the Pylon mirrored the hieroglyph for 'horizon' or akhet
Akhet

Akhet is a double CD released by Klinik in 2003. The name, which means "horizon" in Egyptian language, is taken from Egyptian mythology....
, which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set." Consequently, it played a critical role in the symbolic architecture of a cult building which was associated with the place of recreation and rebirth. Pylons were often decorated with scenes emphasizing a king's authority since it was the public face of a cult building. On the first Pylon of the temple of Isis at Philae

Philae

Philae or Pilak or P'aaleq or Arabic language: Anas el Wagud, is an island in the Nile River and the previous site of an Ancient Egyptian temple complex in southern Egypt....
, the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies while Isis

ISIS

ISIS is an industry standard interface for technologies, developed by Pixel Translations in 1990 .ISIS is an open standard for scanner control and a complete image-processing framework....
, Horus

Horus

Horus is a god of the Ancient Egyptian religion, most commonly known by the Greek language version Horus, of the Egyptian language Heru/Har....
and Hathor

Hathor

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....
look on. Other examples of Pylons can be seen in Luxor

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile in the city today known as Luxor and was founded in 1400 BC....
and Edfu

Edfu

Edfu is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the Nile River between Esna and Aswan, with a population of approximately sixty thousand people....
.

Rituals to the god Amun

Amun

Amun, reconstructed Egyptian language Yamanu , was the name of a deity in Egyptian mythology who gradually rose from being an abstract concept to the patron deity of Thebes, Egypt and one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt before fading into obscurity....
who became identified with the sun god Ra

Ra is an ancient Egyptian Solar deity . By the Fifth dynasty of Egypt he became a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon, with other deities representing other positions of the sun....
were often carried out on the top of temple pylons. In addition to standard vertical grooves on the exterior face of a pylon wall which was designed to hold flag poles, some pylons also contained internal stairways and rooms. The oldest intact pylons belong to mortuary temples from the 13th and 12th century BC Ramessside period. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon.

Pylon (architecture)

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