t was the
entrance to the peristyle or court, surrounded by a corridor which had
a multitude of columns. From this court, where there was room for ten
thousand people, persons of the noble order might go still farther to
the first hall, the hypostyle; this had a ceiling which rested on two
rows of lofty columns, and there was space in it for two thousand
worshippers. This hall was the last to which lay people were admitted.
The highest dignitaries who had not received ordination had the right
to pray there, and look thence at the veiled image of the god which
rose in the hall of "divine apparition."

Beyond the hall of "divine apparition" was the chamber of "tables of
offering," where priests placed before the gods gifts brought by the
faithful. Next was the chamber of "repose," where the god rested when
returning from or going to a procession, and last was the chapel or
sanctuary where the god had his residence.

Usually the chapel was very small, dark, sometimes cut out of one block
of stone. It was surrounded on all sides by chapels equally small,
filled with garments, furniture, vessels and jewels of the god which in
its inaccessible seclusion slept, bathed, was anointed with perfumes,
ate, drank, and as it seems even received visits from young and
beautiful women.

This sanctuary was entered only by the high priest, and the ruling
pharaoh if he had received ordination. If an ordinary mortal entered he
might lose his life there.

The walls and columns of each hall were covered with inscriptions and
explanatory paintings. In the corridor surrounding the peristyle were
the names and portraits of all the pharaohs from Menes the first ruler
of Egypt to Ramses XII In the hypostyle, or hall for nobles, the
geography and statistics of Egypt were presented pictorially, also the
subject nations. In the hall of "apparition" were the calendar and the
results of astronomical observation; in the chamber of "tables of
offering," and in that of "repose" figured pictures relating to
religious ceremonial, and in the sanctuary rules for summoning beings
beyond the earth and controlling the phenomena of nature.

This last kind of knowledge was contained in statements so involved
that even priests in the time of Ramses XII did not understand them.
The Chaldean Beroes was to revive this expiring wisdom.

Ramses XIII, after he had rested two days in the official palace at
Abydos, betook himself to the temple. He wore a white tunic