Medinet Habu

Fora long time Medinet Habu, was nothing morethan a very rich quarry from which largesquared blocks of stone could beobtained. In the Christian era a village grew up here which the Coptscalled Djeme and which occupied a largepart of the zone where the templeused to be. In fact this new use of the area preserved many remains which might otherwise have been lost. Theexcavations brought to light traces of a whole city which extended around thePharaoh's palace, but only a single househas been uncovered   in   recognizable form, that of aninspector of the necropolis.

Thecomplex at Medinet Habu consistedof the temple of Ramses III in front ofwhich stood the lit­tle temple of Tutmose I and the chapels of the deities who wor­shippedAmon. The beautiful South Gate, known asthe Royal Pavilion, which is set between a pair of towers and above whichthere are two rows of longitudinalwindows is of imposing almostmilitaristic appearance. Even thebas-reliefs on the walls of theto­wers underline the «war-like» character of this building showingas they do the sacrifice of prisoners, thePharaoh bringing enemy captives before the god Amon,etc...

Thetemple of Ramses III is stylis­tically one ofthe most perfect buildings which Egyptianarchitec­ture has left us.Beyond the pylon which is 63 metershigh and deco­rated with war scenes, one enters a first courtyard one side of which is taken up with a gallery having Osirian pillars. Beyond other py­lonsand other courtyards one eventually arrives at the last hypostyle hall which is dominated by agroup of statues depicting Ramses III withthe god Thot. Not all the decoration in the temple of Medinet Habu is militaristic. For exampleon one of the architraves the goddess Nekhbet, depicted as a vulture, protectsUpper Egypt and, symbolically, the wholetem­ple