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3rd
day
(West
bank)
-
The
Ramesseum
or temple of a Million years of Ramesses II. Each major
Pharaoh of the New Kingdom (~1570 -1070 BC) had a
temple built on the Nile west bank, both a funerary
temple for the burial ceremony and a temple dedicated to
recall his glory and to worship him after his death. Do
not miss the fallen colossus of Ramesses II that
lies down in pieces, here the head, there the chest,
here the foot, there the hand (in such condition
probably due to an earthquake that damaged several parts
of the temple). See also the picture of the famous
Qadesh battle on the reverse of the
second pylon. See, last but not least, on the back wall
of the Hypostyle Hall, a beautiful scene where Pharaoh
is seated under the Ished, a persea tree, on the leaves
of which God Thoth (left) and Goddess Seshat (right) are
writing the name of the King and recording his years of
reign.
- The
Medinet Habu memorial
temple
of Ramesses
III,
in our view, the best preserved among all temples in
Luxor
and one the most beautiful in
Egypt
because of its good overall condition, its size and its
painting remains. You will enter the temple through a
monumental door, with a straight passage between two
high gate lodges, inspired of Asian fortresses conquered
by Pharaoh during his campaigns in
Asia
Minor,
the Migdol, unique in
Egypt.
Notice the deepness of sculptures, especially the
Cartouches into which one can easily thrust half of
one's hand: Ramesses III did not want his temple to be
usurped by his successors as had already happened
before. Also notice, on the pylons, ritual scenes of
enemies being massacred: they show not only Pharaoh's
valour but also his capacity to maintain order and
guarantee the country cohesion. Do not miss
:
¤ The
Chapels of the Divine Adoratrices of Amun,
to the left after the Migdol; dating back to
the Lower Period, they served as memorial temples for
the Adoratrices of Amun, royal princesses who
represented Pharaoh to the Luxor clergy and ruled upper
Egypt on behalf of the King
;
¤ the small
Tuthmosis III
temple, to the right, the oldest building on
the site, with some nice polychrom reliefs; the symbol
attached to this place, once called Djanet, is
interesting: in Egyptian mythology, it was there that
first arose the primeval mound out of the Nun, a dark
watery abyss; the first deity could then come into
existence and create gods and men ;
¤ the
Ramesses III temple,
with its two Peristyle Courts presenting mostly the
victorious battles of Ramesses III against Egypt's
enemies, its Hypostyle Halls and many chapels and
shrines ;
¤ the
exceptional reliefs
of
the hunting
of the wild bull in the
marshes,
on the south-western side of the first pylon, a
masterpiece indeed. As a symbol, the success of this
bull-hunting demonstrated the King' capacity to reign
and maintain order over chaos; it was a test for
acceding to the
throne.
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