Temple

==Egyptian temples==
{{main|Egyptian temple}}
[[File:Philae temple at night.jpg|thumb|left|Temple of [[Philae]], [[Egypt]]]]

[[Ancient Egypt]]ian temples were meant as places for the [[Ancient Egyptian deities|deities]] to reside on earth. Indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, {{Lang|egy-latn|ḥwt-nṯr}}, means 'mansion (or enclosure) of a god'.<ref>Spencer 1984, p. 22, 44; Snape 1996, p. 9</ref>

A god's [[Divine presence|presence]] in the temple linked the human and divine realms and allowed humans to interact with the god through ritual. These rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were, therefore, a key part of the maintenance of ''[[maat]]'', the ideal order of nature and of human society in Egyptian belief.<ref>Dunand and Zivie-Coche 2005, pp. 89–91</ref> Maintaining {{Lang|egy-latn|maat}} was the entire purpose of [[Ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian religion]],<ref>Assmann 2001, p. 4</ref> and thus it was the purpose of a temple as well.<ref>Shafer, Byron E., "Temples, Priests, and Rituals: An Overview", in Shafer 1997, pp. 1–2</ref>

[[Ancient Egypt]]ian temples were also of economic significance to Egyptian society. The temples stored and redistributed grain and came to own large portions of the nation's arable land (some estimate as much as 33% by the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] period).<ref>André Dollinger. The Ancient Egyptian Economy. pp. 5 [http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/The-Ancient-Egyptian-Economy.pdf] Retrieved June 19, 2012</ref> In addition, many of these Egyptian temples utilized the Tripartite Floor Plan in order to draw visitors to the center room.