The House of Life (Per-Ankh)
The temple 'House of Life,' where priests copied the sacred books and guarded Egypt's learning.
Also: House of Life · Per-Ankh · per ankh · temple scriptorium · temple library · scriptorium
Attached to major temples was the 'House of Life' (per-ankh), a combination of scriptorium, library, and school where learned scribes composed and copied sacred and scholarly texts — ritual, mythological, medical, astronomical — and where this knowledge was guarded and taught. It was the institutional heart of Egyptian learning and the place much of the surviving literature was produced and preserved.
In short
The per-ankh, 'House of Life' — the scriptorium-cum-institution attached to temples where sacred, ritual, medical, and scholarly texts were composed, copied, stored, and studied by learned priests and scribes.
Where it’s found
References from the Middle Kingdom onward; New Kingdom and later temple sources
How the idea developed across Egypt
Attested by name from the Middle Kingdom and especially well documented in the New Kingdom and later (e.g. references at Amarna, and Late/Ptolemaic temple libraries such as Edfu); the institution is known more from references than from excavated buildings.
Known largely from textual references; reconstructions of its exact organization are partly inferential — hedge.