Pilgrimage in ancient Egypt

To employ the term of “pilgrimage” for ancient Egypt implies certain reserves: no equivalent word existed indeed in the hieroglyphic language, and it is of nothing comparable with the modern pilgrimages with Lourdes or Mecque.

The question of the pilgrimage poses from the start the problem of the voyage. To leave sound names was not in the practices of the Egyptians, especially for the peasant very attached to his ground. Civils servant, soldiers and craftsmen were brought to move, but to travel remained despite everything something of extraordinary.

Where did the Egyptians in pilgrimage thus go? It is known that, not being authorized to penetrate in the temples, the faithful ones remained with the periphery of the sanctuaries; the direct accesses were thus places of multitude and life. The gone of Sphinx which carried out to it was also a place of market. The visitors were thus not attracted exclusively by pious reasons, but also by the merchants or the priests who gave judgments to the doors of the temples. piety appeared thus outside the enclosure, where small vaults were often drawn up for the faithful ones, or via statues placed at the entry of the temple and transmitting the prayers to the gods in exchange of offerings.

A pilgrimage, occasional or not, implied a certain attachment with the divinity. In fact, our knowledge of the pilgrimage is limited to the Nouvel Empire, no documentation on the popular religion having arrived us for the Egyptian Empire |Old] and the Average Empire. It is known, for example, that under the New Empire, the local pilgrimage, i.e. within the framework of its area, was frequent. The great festivals were thus the occasion of large gatherings the faithful ones; the local god had indeed an importance such as, if one were obliged to move, one took along his own representations of gods.

With the Low time, the practice of the pilgrimage seems to become more extensive. Certain places are famous for their virtues healers as an inscription testifies some on a statue to Imhotep, dated from and discovered with Saqqarah: who come from the provinces and the cities to beseech the life with the Master of life, so that it gives a son to that which requires it, a woman with that which begs for that and which it cures any child malade.

The funerary temple of Amenhotep {{III}}, on western bank of Thèbes, attracted during centuries the most famous visitors. One of both colossi which kept the entry of it indeed had the characteristic to emit a whistle at dawn. Fascinated by the phenomenon, the Greeks transfer there an image of Memnon, the son of the Aurore. It is Strabon which spoke for the first time about this wonder in -24. Hundred seven graffiti Greek and Latin testify there to the favor of the site.

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