We will begin with the sanctuary.

This is a low, small, obscure, rectangular chamber, inaccessible to all save Pharaoh and the priests.

As a rule it contained neither statue nor emblem, but only the sacred bark, or a tabernacle of painted wood placed upon a pedestal.

A niche in the wall, or an isolated shrine formed of a single block of stone, received on certain days the statue, or inanimate symbol of the local god, or the living animal, or the image of the animal, sacred to that god.

A temple must necessarily contain this one chamber; and if it contained but this one chamber, it would be no less a temple than the most complex buildings.