The House of Books

About the House of Books

The temple library, where the holy books made of leather or papyrus rolls were kept. Columned niches carved into the side walls stored the texts, and though the books themselves were never recovered, the niches were labeled thus:

The Books and the great parchments of pure leather for bringing about the overthrowing of the Evil One, the repelling of the Crocodile (Setekh), the blessing of the hour, the preservation of a boat, the procession of the great barque

The book for setting the King off on procession.

The book for performing the ritual for the protection of the city, of the houses, of the White Crown, of the year.

The book for appeasing the goddess Sekhmet.

The book for hunting the lion, repelling crocodiles, driving away reptiles; knowing the secrets of the Laboratory; knowing all the details about the divine offerings, all the lists of the secret forms of the god and all the aspects of the associated deities, copied for the temple day after day; one after the other, for the souls of the deitites which live in this place and never leave this temple.

The book of the temple inventory.

The book of capturing enemies.

The book of marshal combat.

The book of temple regulations.

The roll book of temple guards.

Instructions for the decoration of a wall; the protections of the body.

The book of magical protection of the King in his palace.

Formulae for warding off the Evil Eye.

Information about the regular appearance of two stars (sun and moon) and the periodical return of the other stars.

Enumeration of all the sacred places and knowledge about what is in them.

All the rituals concerning the God leaving his temple on feast days.

According to the inscriptions on the wall, a reader-priest was on duty for twelve hours of the day.

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