Great Hall

The Great Hall is in front of it (the Naos) : it has twelve columns, great supports, wonderful to behold. The hall is 37 (cubits) long and 26 wide. Its walls are most perfectly decorated: it is called Place of Pleasure. It is also known as Place of Joy and Place of Enjoyment of Ra and Horus, for it resembles the Chemmis (papyrus thicket) of their son (Horus, Uniter of the Two Lands).

– The Great Building Inscription of the edfu Temple Translated by Dieter Kurth

About The Great Hall

The Great Hall, and those halls and chapels beyond it, make up the original nucleus of the temple, or the Naos. The Great Court has twelve free-standing columns, more slender than those in the Pronaos, and the lower part of the columns being more slender. The Great Court had several names (above), and as the names indicate, The great Hall is the place where the gods enjoy themselves. On the west side of the Hall, the rooms of the ointment-workshop, and Room of the Nile. To the east of the Hall, the Treasury, and a stairway leading to the roof of the Naos.