top of page

Chapels within the enclosure wall of the
main Ptolemaic temple

The chapels within the enclosure walls of the Ptolemaic temple at Deir el-Medina consist of a group of four adjacent chapels situated on the southern side. During the Coptic period, when the temple area was used as a monastery, these chapels underwent numerous alterations, some of which affected the basic plan of the structure.
My aim was to compare Ann Bomanns plans and detailed descriptions, based on her text published in 1991 pp. 45-47 with the remains of the cult buildings at Deir el-Medina in February 2007.
The results together with the photographs can be found on the following pages.
Luxor 396.jpg
Chapel no. 1 consisted of a hall, pronaos and sanctuary, of which little remains today to the south (left in the picture above) of the main temple building. The hall originally had columns and benches. These have now all disappeared. The Pronaos was attached to the southern wall of the main temple. Later a door was built into this wall to connect the pronaos with the temple. The sanctuary was originally divided into three sections with vaulted ceilings. Today only two niches remain. The southern niche (on the right in the picture below) contained a bench measuring 57 cm wide x 110 cm long and 72 cm high.
Luxor_398-1.jpg
Luxor_399-2.jpg
Looking at the group of four chapels located on the southern side of the main temple.
Luxor_395-349x256.jpg
Chapel No. 2 consisted of an outer and an inner hall, a pronaos, a sanctuary and an enclosure. The outer hall, which is no longer visible, had benches on the north and south walls and columns. A flight of steps led to the inner hall, where there was a rectangular pit measuring 2.37 x 1.03 m with a partition wall dividing it in two. The pit, called a crypt by Bruyère, was dug out of the rock, lined with bricks and plastered. Today it is filled with rubble. The pronaos was entered between 2 pillars with screen walls and was vaulted. The sanctuary went through 3 phases, but seems to have always been divided into 3 parts. The walls were decorated with painted cartouches of Tuthmosis III. There were benches in the central and southern niches. The 1st one was 63 cm high. All the naoi were vaulted and during the Coptic period the northern niche became a magazine. An enclosure adjoined the southern wall of the inner and outer halls. What appears to be a blocked doorway led from the enclosure into the inner hall. Another blocked entrance was in the southern wall of the enclosure leading to Chapel No. 3.
Luxor_3972-4.jpg
Chapel no. 3 consisted of an inner hall, a pronaos and a sanctuary. The building had 2 phases. Benches, of which little remains, were placed against the north and south walls of the hall, which had 2 columns placed axially. The pronaos was delimited by 2 columns that joined the screen walls. Inside the pronaos there was a platform in front of the sanctuary. In its first phase it contained only 1 naos, which was vaulted. In the second phase, the sanctuary was divided into three parts and had a flat ceiling.
It does not appear to have had any wall decorations as it was simply whitewashed. Benches were placed against the back walls of each niche. These were 42 cm high and between 42 and 50 cm deep. Slots were visible in the mud-brick thresholds to each shrine, indicating the presence of architraves. The sanctuary was cut into the rock behind it at an oblique angle. Behind it was a narrow corridor which ran from the rear to the north side of the sanctuary. To the south of the pronaos was a staircase leading to the rock terrace above. A narrow annex adjoining the south wall of the chapel was entered through a doorway in the wall of the inner hall.
Luxor_4012-6.jpg
Chapel no. 4 had an outer and an inner hall, a pronaos and a sanctuary, and lay on a northwest-southeast axis. Little remains of the outer hall, which had a bench on its southern wall. 2 pillars separated the entrance to the inner hall and the pronaos. The pronaos, into which the shrine projected, had the same dimensions as the inner hall: 5.92 m wide x 2.31 m long. It was separated from the latter area by 2 column bases that formed partitions. A platform of 58 cm in height protruded from the shrine and was separated from it by a whitewashed bench. The sanctuary consisted of a single naos faced with limestone. It had an arched doorway measuring 108 cm high x 107 cm wide. The back wall of the niche was made of plastered brick. Traces of 2 squatting figures with raised arms were found on either side of the doorway. Adjacent to the northern wall of the chapel was another annex containing an oven.
Luxor_4022-7.jpg
Luxor_4032-8.jpg
In addition to these four adjoining chapels to the south of the main temple, there was another chapel located in the north-west corner of the enclosure wall. This chapel was first excavated by Baraize and later by Bruyère, who called it Chapel E.
It is no longer visible. It was damaged by the enclosure wall which was built through it. It consisted of a forecourt, an inner hall, a pronaos and a sanctuary. Part of its northern wall was used by chapels outside the northern enclosure wall.  Other remains of small New Kingdom chapels, built by the occupants of Deir el-Medina, are scattered within the northern enclosure wall.
Luxor_457-9.jpg
Photography © Lenka Peacock 2007
Sources:
1. Bomann, Ann H.: The private chapel in ancient Egypt : a study of the chapels in the workmen's village at el Amarna with special reference to Deir el-Medina and other sites.
London : Kegan Paul International, 1991.
 
Further bibliography
bottom of page