God's House. One of the king's duties was to build and maintain temples throughout Egypt. The Egyptian word for temple meant "god's house," and temples were designed to be the earthly dwellings of the gods. As such, they included all the elements necessary to provide for the care and feeding of the gods. To meet the needs of the gods, a temple needed to control an extensive network of land, livestock, and personnel. All of the elements necessary to conduct the business of the temple were referred to as the r-pr, or temple estate. There were two main classes of temples in ancient Egypt, the cult temple and the mortuary temple, called by the Egyptians the "House of Millions of Years." The cult temple had as its main purpose to carry out the worship of a particular deity or deities. The...