Historical Precedents:

In his book, Spiritual Path, Sacred Place, Thomas Barrie provides an analysis of entry sequences and articulated places in selected examples of both ancient and modern sacred architecture. He argues that ritual and architecture, as reflections of their time, place and culture, are both concretizations of the myth of that particular culture. Thus, not only do they have a correspondence at the functional level, as the enactment of the myth and the stage set upon which it takes place respectively, but also at the deeper symbolic level. He, further, draws on commonalities amongst his cited examples and establishes fundamental themes, despite the seemingly disparate conditions and settings, which shape each one…all of this to suggest that sacred architecture is an archetype that symbolizes its spiritual path and goal. The threshold is of particular significance as it marks both the entry point of the path and the delineation between sacred ground and the exterior profane world.

 

 

Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae (1400 BC) This example of Mycenaean funerary architecture also displays an axial alignment of the entry path, though on a much smaller scale. The entrance to the tholoi of the Treasury is a straight, linear, path formed by cylopean walls on either side. Inside the "dromos" or beehive-shaped tomb were the remains of the king. On the day of the king's interment, the funerary procession would have traveled down the axial path, its walls rising incrementally higher as the path cut into the hillside, an intensifying experience of enclosure and sacrality. An imposing gateway, set within a battered wall and still partially extant marks the entrance to the inner sanctum. Inside was the dominant space of the tholoi. There, the king would have been lowered into a pit beneath the floor level and surrounded by his earthly treasures.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temple of Hathor, Dendara, Egypt (Ptolemaic era) Dedicated to the goddess Hathor, this temple was the setting for the beginning of the annual Festival of the Reunion when Hathor was symbolically reunited with Horus, a god associated with the sun. It sits today with most of its walls and roof still extant. The dramatic effect of sequentially aligned, increasingly small and dark spaces is most effectively observed in the section. As one walks along the axial path, the floor gradually rises, ascending a series of terraces, while the roof simultaneously lowers. Highlights of light breaking through heighten the experience as one traverses the path. The inner sanctum, shown at the right most end of the section, is a self-contained enclosure, oppressively small and dark in comparison to the immense, bright outer courtyard. It is at this most sacred spot that the procession would begin.*