MEDINAT HABU, THE MORTUARY TEMPLE OF RAMSES III
Grandiose and gracefully proportioned, set apart from the
majority the other West bank buildings, Medinat Habu is second in size only to
the Great Temple at Karnak. Ramses III admired and imitated his ancestor Ramses
II’s style of building and like him was an aggressively successful military leader.
Statues of the lion headed Sekhmet, fierce goddess of revenge. The first pylon
and inner court graphically depict the pharaoh’s victories over the Libyans and
Phoenicians. The complex was added by later rulers and the decoration of the
second court- dedicated of the second court- dedicated to religious matters and
later made into a church – creates a very different mood. Remnants of its
original mud brick enclosure wall are interspersed with the ruins of Jeme, the
Coptic town inhabited for centuries and abandoned around 800 AD.
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