Ramesseum
Location | Luxor, Luxor Governorate, Egypt |
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Region | Upper Egypt |
Coordinates | 25°43′40″N 32°36′38″E / 25.72778°N 32.61056°E |
Type | Sanctuary |
Part of | Theban Necropolis |
History | |
Builder | Ramesses II |
Founded | 13th century BC |
Arab States |
The Ramesseum is the
History
Ramesses II modified, usurped, or constructed many buildings from the ground up, and the most splendid of these, in accordance with New Kingdom royal burial practices, would have been his memorial temple: a place of worship dedicated to pharaoh, god on earth, where his memory would have been kept alive after his death. Surviving records indicate that work on the project began shortly after the start of his reign and continued for 20 years.
The design of Ramesses's mortuary temple adheres to the standard canons of New Kingdom temple architecture. Oriented northwest and southeast, the temple itself comprised two stone
Only fragments of the base and torso remain of the syenite statue of the enthroned pharaoh, 19 m (62 ft) high and weighing more than 1000 tons.[3] This was alleged to have been transported 170 mi (270 km) over land. This is the largest remaining colossal statue (except statues done in situ) in the world. However, fragments of four granite colossi of Ramesses were found in Tanis (northern Egypt) with an estimated height of 69 to 92 feet (21 to 28 meters). Like four of the six colossi of Amenhotep III (Colossi of Memnon), there are no longer complete remains, so the heights are based on unconfirmed estimates.[4][5]
Remains of the second court include part of the internal façade of the pylon and a portion of the Osiride portico on the right.
Adjacent to the north of the hypostyle hall was a smaller temple; this was dedicated to Ramesses's mother, Tuya, and to his beloved chief wife, Nefertari. To the south of the first courtyard stood the temple palace. The complex was surrounded by various storerooms, granaries, workshops, and other ancillary buildings, some built as late as Roman times.
A temple of Seti I, of which nothing is now left but the foundations, once stood to the right of the hypostyle hall. It consisted of a peristyle court with two chapel shrines. The entire complex was surrounded by mudbrick walls which started at the gigantic southeast pylon.
A cache of
The site was in use before Ramesses had the first stone put in place: beneath the hypostyle hall, modern archaeologists have found a shaft tomb from the Middle Kingdom, yielding a rich hoard of religious and funerary artefacts.
Remains
Unlike the massive stone temples that Ramesses ordered carved from the face of the
This is all standard fare for a temple of its kind built at that time. Leaving aside the escalation of scale – whereby each successive New Kingdom pharaoh strove to outdo his predecessors in volume and scope – the Ramesseum is largely cast in the same mould as the ruined temple of Amenhotep III that stood behind the "Colossi of Memnon" a kilometre or so away, and Ramesses III's Medinet Habu which closely followed the plan of the Ramesseum. Instead, the significance that the Ramesseum enjoys today owes more to the time and manner of its rediscovery by Europeans.[citation needed]
The Ramesseum king list is a minor list of kings which still remain in situ on the few remains of the second pylon.
Storage
The storerooms surround the temple on three sides, forming three groups, with the oldest behind the temple.
Each
Excavation and studies
The origins of modern
The next visitor of note was
It was against the backdrop of intense excitement surrounding the statue's arrival, and having heard wondrous tales of other, less transportable treasures still in the desert, that the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley penned his sonnet "Ozymandias". In particular, one massive fallen statue at the Ramesseum is now inextricably linked with Shelley, because of the cartouche on its shoulder bearing Ramesses's throne name, User-maat-re Setep-en-re, the first part of which Diodorus transliterated into Greek as "Ozymandias". While Shelley's "vast and trunkless legs of stone" owe more to poetic license than to archaeology, the "half sunk... shattered visage" lying on the sand is an accurate description of part of the wrecked statue. The hands, and the feet, lie nearby. Were it still standing, the Ozymandias colossus would tower 19 m (62 ft) above the ground,[3] rivalling the Colossi of Memnon and the statues of Ramesses carved into the mountain at Abu Simbel.
A joint French-Egyptian team has been exploring and restoring the Ramesseum and its environs since 1991. Among their discoveries during excavations include kitchens, bakeries and supply rooms for the temple to the south, and a school where boys were taught to be scribes to the southeast. Some of the challenges in preserving the area have been the control of modern Egyptian farmers using the area for farming and encroaching on the ruins.[11]
Gallery
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Earliest photos, 1854 by John Beasley Greene
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Temple of Ramesses II, Luxor
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Hypostyle hall
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The Younger Memnon in the British Museum digitally restored to its base in the Ramesseum
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Pylon of Ramesseum
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Relief in the Ramesseum
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Ramesseum and surroundings
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Potsherd showing a monkey scratching a girl's nose. 20th Dynasty. From the so-called Artists' School at Ramesseum, Thebes, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
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Panoramic view from Theban Hills.
See also
- Ramesseum magician's box
- List of largest monoliths in the world
References
- ^ Guy Lecuyot. "The Ramesseum (Egypt), Recent Archaeological Research". Archéologies d'Orient et d'Occident. Archived from the original on 2007-06-06. Retrieved 2007-03-07.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ania Skliar, Grosse kulturen der welt-Ägypten, 2005
- ^ ISBN 1-86064-465-1.
- ISBN 978-0-500-05096-5
- ^ Steven Stanek (31 March 2008). "Giant Statue of Ancient Egypt Queen Found". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on April 2, 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
- ^ "The Younger Memnon". The British Museum website. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
- ^ Wilkinson, Richard H. (2000). The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 183
- ^ El-Derby & Elyamani 2016, p. 301.
- ^ Woodman & Bloom 2003, Ancient Egypt, the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean.
- ^ El-Derby & Elyamani 2016, pp. 301–302.
- S2CID 162204994.
Sources
- El-Derby, Abdou A.O.D.; Elyamani, Ahmed (2016-02-29). "The Adobe Barrel Vaulted Structures In Ancient Egypt: A Study Of Two Case Studies For Conservation Purposes". Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry. 16 (1): 295–315. .
- Woodman, Francis; Bloom, Jonathan M. (2003). "Arch". Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-884446-05-4.
External links
- University College London: Plan of the Ramesseum site
- Ramesseum Digital Media Archive (photos, laser scans, panoramas), data from an Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities/CyArk research partnership
- The Younger Memnon (British Museum)
- Ozymandias (Shelley)
- Ramesseum picture gallery at Remains.se
- 1830 drawing by Charles Franklin Head, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.