Temple T (Robing Pavilion)

Temple T from the South Court

In the southwest corner of the Heb Sed Court is an open passageway which leads around the corner to a building lying just to the back of the western row of chapels. The rear corner of the last

chapel has been rounded considerably, perhaps to give room to manoeuvre for some bulky object, a carrying chair for example. When Lauer cleared it he gave it a purely alphabetical designation, Temple T. It has nothing to do with its shape. Its external appearance was very similar to a sah netjer shrine and it has been widely suggested that it was a temple to the god Osiris. Unlike most of the buildings in Djoser’s complex, this one had actual rooms. There were two entrances, one in the middle of the south wall and the other just around the corner on the east side. As was the case with the chapels, the stone doors stood permanently open, swung inwards against the wall.

The first room entered was a hypostyle hall (albeit one with only two columns). The columns, like those in the entrance passage, were papyrus bundles and were attached to the side wall, as was the single column in the small antechamber next door. The west side of the building consists of a set of

rooms of various sizes and unknown function. The focal point was a square room with a niche in the north wall. The niche was flanked by pilasters and surmounted by a frieze of djed symbols (djed is the hieroglyph for “endure”). It probably once held a statue of the pharaoh.

The layout has many of the features associated with later temples, so it was easy enough to assume that that was what Temple T was. But, since temples themselves are basically dwelling places for the gods, it does not preclude other interpretations. Most scholars today believe the suite of rooms replicated the sort of pavilion that was used by the pharaoh to rest and change clothes in the course of the Heb-Sed festival. Toilet facilities, sleeping compartment and dining areas could easily be accomodated within, and there was a formal setting for intimate ritual activities that must have been part and parcel of the proceedings. Rainer Stadelmann thinks it was the prototype for the ‘temple palaces’ found at New Kingdom mortuary temples, which served pretty much the same function.