How To Build A Temple

Those ancient Egyptians certainly didn't mess around.

Temple structures were built on foundations of stone slabs set into sand-filled trenches.  In most periods, walls and other structures were built with large blocks of varying shape.  The blocks were laid in courses, usually without mortar.  Each stone was dressed to fit with its neighbors, producing cuboid blocks whose uneven shapes interlocked. 

The interiors of walls were often built with less care, using rougher, poorer-quality stones.  To build structures above ground level, the workers used construction ramps built of varying materials such as mud, brick, or rough stone.

The Egyptians also had a few ancient construction secrets that made building the massive columns a bit simpler. Constructing and positioning them took careful planning; in order to build them, crews placed foundational blocks where the columns would stand, filled the entire area with sand, and then dragged and layered additional blocks on top. They repeated this to create 20 layers, at which point they dragged the roof beams across the sand and positioned them over the columns. Finally, they removed the sand that filled the space between the columns and smoothed them so they appeared to be single structures.

Once the temple structure was complete, the rough faces of the stones were dressed to create a smooth surface. In decorating these surfaces, reliefs were carved into the stone or, if the stone was of too poor quality to carve, a layer of plaster that covered the stone surface.