Although there must have been a temple for the sun god at Heliopolis, now a suburb northeast of cairo, the evidence there from the Old Kingdom is meager: inscribed fragments from shrines of Djoser and Tety, and a broken obelisk with Tety’s cartouche. With the 5th Dynasty a new type of cult temple developed to honor Ra - in addition to the symbolism inherent in royal pyramids - demonstrating the increasing importance of this god’s cult and theology. From inscriptions it is known that six kings of the 5th Dynasty built sun temples, which in terms of support were closely associated with their pyramid pious foundations. Only two sun temples have been discovered, however - those of Userkaf and Nyuserra at Abu Ghurob, to the northwest of Abusir, where four of the 5th-Dynasty kings built their pyramids. Userkaf, the first king of the 5th Dynasty, built the first sun temple, and Menkauhor’s was the last one.
Why the construction of sun temples began in the early 5th Dynasty, and ended abruptly with Menkauhor’s temple, is not known. British archaeologist David Jeffreys has drawn sight-lines from the 4th-Dynasty pyramids at Giza to the location of the sun temple (lunu) across the river at Heliopolis. But there was no more room on the Giza plateau to build later pyramids, and the 5th-Dynasty pyramids were built farther south - and out of sight of the lunu. Possibly the 5th-Dynasty royal monuments had a dual focus: sun temples were built within sight of these kings’ pyramids, with a direct link between the burial place of the king and the cult center of the sun god.
In some respects the sun temples were similar to pyramid complexes. Nyuserra’s sun temple complex has a small valley temple at the edge of cultivation, connected by a causeway to the main temple, which was walled (100 x 76 meters; Figure 6.14). The main monument, however, was not a tomb, but has been reconstructed as a ben-ben, a hieroglyphic sign (which looks like a kind of squat obelisk). Both of the surviving sun temples were not well preserved, and this reconstruction is based in part on the form of hieroglyphic signs of the temples’ names.
Nyuserra’s sun temple was excavated in 1898-1901 by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt working with Egyptologist Heinrich Schafer. Parts of the temple complex were first built in mud-brick, and later in stone. Its monument was erected on a high platform of limestone blocks, with steeply inclined sides and granite around the base. Instead of having a temple on the east side of a pyramid, Nyussera’s sun temple has a large open court, with an open-air altar of five travertine slabs on the east side. Borchardt thought that channels and basins on the north side of the walled temple were for cattle slaughtering, but no other equipment associated with such activity was found there. Miroslav Verner, a Czech archaeologist who has worked for many years at Abusir, suggests that this area was for purification ceremonies using liquids. To the south of the monument was a small chapel and the “Room of the Seasons,” decorated with beautifully carved low reliefs depicting scenes from two seasons, including harvesting.
To the south of the temple wall was a large model of a boat (ca. 30 x 10 meters) in mud-brick. A village, probably for temple personnel and administration, was located outside the walls of the sun temple; it has not been excavated.
Pedestal
Valley temple
Figure 6.14 Plan of Nyussera’s sun temple complex at Abu Ghurob. Source: Drawn by Philip Winton. From Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids. London and new York: Thames & Hudson, 1997, p. 151.
World History
