Sunday, November 6, 2016

The Mortuary Temple of Ramses II, known as The Ramesseum ( Location & Historical Notes ) .. Part ( 1 )

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 .





Part ( 2 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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