Egyptian sun temple

Egyptian sun temples were ancient Egyptian temples to the sun god Ra. The term has come to mostly designate the temples built by six or seven pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period.^[1] However, sun temples would make a reappearance a thousand years later under Akhenaten in the New Kingdom with his building of the Karnak Temple in Thebes.^[2]

Fifth Dynasty sun temples were built in two localities, Abu Gorab and Abusir, within 1 km (0.62 mi) of each other and around 15 km (9.3 mi) south of modern-day Cairo. They may have been modeled after an earlier sun temple in Heliopolis.^[2] Six or seven temples are thought to have been built, but only two have been uncovered: that of Userkaf and that of Nyuserre.^[3] The six kings associated with having built sun temples are: Userkaf, Sahure, Neferirkare, Reneferef or Neferefre, Nyuserre, and Menkauhor.^[4] Djedkare Isesi, the eighth king of the 5th Dynasty, seems to have abruptly stopped the building of sun temples.^[4] The uncovered temple of Nyuserre near the village of Abu Gorab still holds impressive remains, in particular the central altarpiece which includes a well-preserved sacrificial altar composed of a number of alabaster parts.^[1] The two found sun temples (thus far) are so destroyed that excavators rely mostly on the hieroglyphic signs in the temples' names in order to reconstruct the shape of a characteristic Egyptian sun temple features like the obelisk.^[4] However, ruins suggest that these were open air worship structured instead of enclosed.^[2]