pr - temple
The ancient Egyptians used the same word as “house” for their word for temple. This is because they believed that the temples were the actual physical houses of the diety worshipped there.
The ancient Egyptian word for “house” is “pr” (shown below). The hieroglyph “pr” is a line drawing of a house’s walls viewed from above. Because the hieroglyph “pr” is used both for the word “house” and for the syllabic sound “pr” are the same character, the ideogram (also called the pictorial sign, drawn as a short vertical line) is placed below the hieroglyph “pr” when the meaning is house rather than just the sound. Context indicates whether the word means an ordinary house or a temple.
hieroglyph for temple
per - temple
The ancient Egyptian word house is also used for temples, which are considered to be the personal house of the corresponding deity.
The ancient Egyptians built many of their earliest temples with wooden columns topped with palm leaves. When the Egyptians switched to stone columns they continued to carve palm fronds and leaves into the tops of the columns (see example below).
illustration of temple columns and ceiling
submerged temple at Philae
Baalbec ruin
