Notice : The illustration below the text
Location
This great temple, though unfortunately largely ruined, is of such
importance as to deserve a visit to itself, in which case it is most easily
approached by the pathway which leads across the cultivation from the Memnon
colossi and the landing-place on the west bank of the Nile ;
though it can also
be easily reached by those who have been visiting El-Deir El-Bahari by taking
the path across the hill of El-Sheikh Abd el-Qurna .
Historical Notes
The Ramesseum is the mortuary temple of Ramses II ( 1292-1225 B.C. ) .
Unlike most temples of the New Empire period, its history is comparatively
simple, for, though Meneptah, the son and successor of Ramses III, of the 20th
Dynasty, made some additions to the subsidiary buildings which surround the
temple on three sides, in the main it is still what it was meant to be in the
beginning, a memorial to the pride and valour of the Pharaoh who created it .
The reputation of Ramses II stands at present by no means so high as it
did even fifty years ago, for a great deal of the work which bears his name all
over Egypt, and which contributed to the overwhelming impressions of his
greatness, has been proved to be the work of other Pharaohs which he converted
to the service of his own vainglory by the simple process of chiselling his
cartouche upon it ; yet even so, though other names have risen in proportion as
his has sunk, the name of Ramses still remains the most universally known in
the land, and has sufficient legitimate glory attaching to it .
The Greeks knew our temple either as the Memnonium, or as the Tomb of
Osymandias . The former title was derived from the association of the colossus
at the temple with the legendary Ethiopian hero Memnon, son of Tithonus and Eos,
an association which may have been transferred from the local Memnon of the two
colossi of Amenhotep III, not far away . The latter seems to have arisen from a
corruption of User-maet-rê, the probable
pronunciation of which as Usimarê may conceivably have led
to such a corruption .
Anyhow, by the first century B.C. we find Diodorus comfortably settled
in his belief that the temple was the work of Osymandias, and also in the
association of the name of Memnon with the colossal statue, though in this case
the tradition has come to him in a curiously mangled form, coupled with the
name of an imaginary sculptor of Syênê ( Aswân ) .
' Of the first sepulchers ', says Diodorus, ( wherein they say the women
of Jupiter were buried ), that of king Osymandias was ten furlongs in circuit ;
at the entrance of which, they say, was a portico of various-coloured marble,
in length two hundred feet, and in height forty five cubits ; thence going
forward, you come into a four-square stone gallery, every square being four
hundred feet, supported, instead of pillars, with beasts, each of one entire
stone, sixteen cubits, carved after the antique manner ...
At the entrance stand three statues, each of one entire stone, the
workmanship of Memnon of Sienitas . One of these, made in a sitting posture, is
the greatest in all Egypt, the measure of his foot exceeding seven cubits .
This piece is not onle commendable for its greatness, but admirable for its cut
and workmanship, and the excellency of the stone . In so great a work there is
not to be discerned the least flaw, or any other blemish . Upon it there is
this inscription : ' I am Osymandias, king of kings ; if any would know how
great I am, and where I lie, let him excel me in any of my works ' .
From his description, it is apparent that, though
Diodorus does not seem to have seen the Ramesseum or the colossus himself, he
had been told of both by a picturesque, though somewhat inaccurate person who
undoubtedly had seen them, but brought a vigorous imagination to the describing
of what he had seen .
Within the brick girdle-wall, which at present is covered by an
embankment consisting of the earth excavated from the site, the great building
measures roughly 900 feet by 550 ; but the greater portion of this large area
was covered by subsidiary buildings, store-chambers and the like, and the
actual temple measured almost 600 feet by 220 . Even this reduced measurement
means a very large building ; the area of the Ramesseum is over 130.000 square
feet, or considerably more than the area of any cathedral in the world, except
St. Peter's, Rome .
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