TEMPLE, a word signifying, loosely, any enclosed space or structure erected for purposes of worship, or to protect a cult image or cult objects. In a figurative sense the word is used for (I) any shrine ; (2) any building built in a style similar to that of a classic temple; (3) for the meeting houses of certain noncon formist denominations; (4) for synagogues; (5) for the meeting places of certain fraternal orders.
perhaps antedated by existing tem ple remains of the earliest Chaldean and Egyptian periods, a prim itive type of cave temple culturally much earlier is that of certain cave temples of the Mediterranean basin, of which the most re markable are those on the island of Malta, apparently dating orig inally to a neolithic culture, although undoubtedly in use for a thousand years afterwards. It is remarkable that in these temples, despite their early date ( ?5000 B.c.), great care is shown in the decoration and finish of altar stones, doors and other important features, and that many steatopygous female statues were found in the temples. This, together with the large size and important position of many phallic stones, would seem to indicate that the temple was dedicated to a god or goddess of fertility, or perhaps to a pair. The most important sites are Hagar Kim, Hal Tarxien and Mnaidra. There is also at Hal Saflieni a large, neolithic series of caves which seem to have been both for habitation and wor ship; the presence of enormous numbers of human bones also in dicates that part of it was used as an ossuary. The much later Egyptian cave temples at Abu Simbel (time of Rameses the Great) are merely highly developed descendants of such primitive cave structures, and the great groups of temple caves in India, as well as certain early cave temples along the Yangtse river, China, show that this tendency was wide spread.
only do such primitive hill-top altars, com mon to many parts of western Asia, indicate the love for such positions, but also megalithic remains like those of Stonehenge (q.v.) indicate a similar feeling. It is noteworthy that even in China the great Temple of Heaven in Peking takes the form of a series of circular terraces, obviously pointing to a primitive desire to imitate hill forms, and the Assyrian ziggurat (q.v.), as
well as the Mexican and Central American pyramids are merely variant expressions of the same controlling emotion. This prob ably explains the situation of the temple at Jerusalem upon the hill top, and, combined with ease of military defence and love of architectural effect, the site of the temples of the Greek cities.
the civilization of Egypt the struc tural temple assumes a controlling importance, for the cave temples of Egypt are exceptional and secondary. The developed Egyptian temple shows a complex type which is evidently the accretion of many stages. The earliest examples were probably simple, square or rectangular shrines of small size and with no openings but a door. Occasionally four columns supported the roof of flat stone. As worship grew more complex and wealth increased, additional halls were added in front of and around the original shrine, with a monumental, colonnaded hall open at the front, probably for the combined purposes of narthex (or vesti bule) and prayer hall. Finally, a large court with entrance pylons of enormous size became part of the scheme, and by far the greater number of the Egyptian temples existing show all of these elements. The result was characteristic ; both the widest and the highest elements in the building were toward the front (pylons, forecourt, hypostyle hall) and the narrowest and lowest at the rear (the shrine). The mystical effect of this gradual narrowing down and darkening of the interior scheme is impressive. In addition to these simple elements, the great temples of Thebes (Karnak and Luxor), representing the building of many genera tions and many dates, have the shrines surrounded with a maze of small rooms, courts and corridors, whose use is difficult to assign. The most perfect example of Egyptian temples, so well preserved that its ancient effect can be readily judged, is the late temple at Edfu (237-257 B.c.).