As in the 18th Dynasty, several kings of the Ramessid Period (19th-20th Dynasties) built mortuary temples in western Thebes which were connected by ritual to the temples of Luxor and Karnak (Figure 8.14). The first of these was built by Sety I (and finished by Rameses II) in the north at Qurna. The plan of this temple, which has been excavated by the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo, would continue to be used in more elaborated form into the 20th Dynasty. Two courts were entered through pylons (mostly built of mud-brick), leading to a portico and a columned hall, to the west of which were bark shrines for the Theban triad (Amen, Mut, and Khonsu) and the innermost sanctuary. Flanking the hypostyle hall to the south was a chapel for Sety’s father Rameses I, who only ruled for two years and thus did not build his own mortuary temple, and to the north a long chapel for the sun cult. To the south of the first court was a small palace, probably for ritual use only, first seen at Thebes in the mortuary temple that was begun by Ay and usurped by Horemheb (at the end of the 18th Dynasty). In Sety’s temple there were also long narrow storerooms to the north, between the outer walls of the temple proper and the enclosure walls of the temple precinct.
At Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, almost 2 kilometers to the southwest of Sety’s mortuary temple, is that of his son Rameses II, now called the Ramesseum. Enclosing an area of 210 x 178 meters, Rameses’s mortuary temple was much more grandiose than that of his father. For the first time there are two pylons made of stone, both of which had reliefs with scenes of the Battle of Qadesh. In the first court was the gigantic granite statue of the seated king, now toppled, but originally ca. 20 meters high and probably weighing over 1,000 tons (Figure 8.15). Quarried in Aswan, it is one of the largest monolithic sculptures ever erected.
Figure 8.14 Map/location of the (royal) mortuary temples of western Thebes. Source: J. Baines and J. Malek. Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt. oxford: Andromeda, 2000, p. 91.
Figure 8.15 The Ramesseum with fallen colossus of Rameses II.
The main temple was actually a long parallelogram in plan, with a number of columned halls, the largest of which (hypostyle) had 48 papyriform columns. Three small columned halls led to the innermost part of the temple, now badly destroyed. A small contiguous temple on the northern side of the main temple was dedicated to Rameses’s mother Tuya and his chief wife Nefertari.
Although much of the Ramesseum’s stonework was dismantled for reuse in later times, much of the vast network of mud-brick storerooms is still standing around three sides of the temple, some even with sections of vaulted roofs. The storerooms were probably used as granaries, although other uses would have been possible. Barry Kemp has estimated that if all of the Ramesseum storerooms were filled to capacity (an unlikely event) they could feed 17,000-20,000 people for a year. In the New Kingdom, large temples such as the Ramesseum were an important part of the economic infrastructure of the state, acting as centers of tax collection and redistribution.
The best-preserved (and partially restored) Ramessid mortuary temple was built by Rameses III at Medinet Habu (Figure 8.16). First investigated in 1859 by Auguste Mariette, the temple was systematically excavated by the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, under the direction of Uvo Holscher, beginning in the 1920s. Study and recording of the temple’s reliefs and inscriptions were conducted by the oriental Institute’s Epigraphic Survey.
Two mud-brick walls surrounded the Medinet Habu precinct, with the northern wall abutting Horemheb’s mortuary temple. Originally canals connected Rameses III’s temple to the river, and a quay was built near the eastern entrance. The temple precinct was entered through the fortress-like High Gate; an earlier, 18th-Dynasty temple (the “Small Temple”) to the north has a slightly different axis. There was also an elaborate western gate to the temple precinct, but this may have been only for temple personnel. constructed of stone, the eastern High Gate was decorated with reliefs, including scenes of the king symbolically trampling on Egypt’s many enemies, and in upper rooms there are “harem scenes.” During the 20th Dynasty the temple was the administrative center of western Thebes, and mud-brick administrative buildings were located around the main temple structure. The many storerooms/granaries to the north and west of the main temple are also evidence of its redistributive function.
The main temple is fronted by an enormous pylon carved with scenes of the king smiting his enemies with a mace. On the temple’s north wall are reliefs and inscriptions of Rameses’s battles with the Libyans (regnal Years 5 and 11) and with the Sea Peoples (Year 8). To the south of the first court was a symbolic palace with a “Window of Appearances” opening from the audience hall. The palace also contained private apartments, one of which had a small throne room, bedroom, and bathroom.
Similar in plan to the Ramesseum, the main temple was entered through two porticoed courts. To the west of the second court were two hypostyle halls, one with 24 columns and the second with eight. At the rear of the temple was a bark shrine for Amen, behind which was a room that Holscher called the “Holy of Holies,” with a large false door. This part of the temple is not well preserved, but reliefs in chambers to the north and south of the innermost sanctuary identify chapels to various deities.
Figure 8.16 Plan ofthe temple complex at Medinet Habu. Source: Drawn by Philip Winton. Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000, p. 193.
With unsettled conditions at the end of the New Kingdom, Medinet Habu became a fortified settlement, and tomb workers from Deir el-Medina were relocated there. Gradually much of the temple was taken over with settlement, and in the first millennium bc only the Small Temple was used for ritual of the Amen cult.
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