Thursday, November 24, 2016

The Mortuary Temple Of Ramses III at Medinet Habu .. Entrance ( Migdol Gateway ) and The Outer Forecourt .. Part ( 2 )

This is, of course, the supreme object of interest at Medinet Habu, and to it most of our attention must be devoted . In approaching it, however, we have first to pass the pavilion of Ramses III,
and the small temple of Amenartais ( Amenirdis ), and it will be best to deal with them in their order, and then proceed to the great temple, leaving the 18th Dynasty building for later notice .



The temenos at Medinet Habu was enclosed, as usual in Egypt, by a wall of crude brick in this case of the great height of 59 feet . Before this, on the south-eastern face, was a crenellated stone wall 13 feet high, with a gate flanked by two porters lodges .



Passing this gate ( pavilion ), we are confronted by a remarkable building, of a kind unique in Egypt . This is the pavilion of Ramses III, known also as the High Gate . It is neither more nor less than an Egyptian version of a Syrian fortress, one of the Migdols, which the Pharaohs of the Empire had so often to storm or starve out during their campaigns in Syria .



The main building consists of two crenellated towers, with a gateway between them ; and no doubt Ramses amused himself here by representing in Egypt the kind of thing which had more than once given him enough trouble in Palestine . The pavilion sits astride the great mud-brick temenos wall, and forms the actual entrance to the sacred enclosure and the possible palace south of it .



From the style of decoration within the building, it may be supposed that Ramses himself occasionally visited it with his harem ladies ; but, on the other hand, these harem scenes may have a mortuary significance, and may represent the pleasures of home life to which his soul would return in the underworld, as the king had returned to them in life from his campaigning in foreign lands .


The external decoration, however, is of a different sort . On the two faces of the towers, Ramses ( left ) slays his enemies of Nubia and Libya before Amen-Rê, and ( right ) does the same thing before Harakhte ; the foes, in this case being the Sea-People who threatened Egypt during his reign like Tuirsha ( Tyrrhenians ), Zakru, Sherden ( Sardinians ), Shakalsha ( Sicilians ), Peleset ( Philistines ), Hittites and Amorites .



In the court between the towers we have on either hand representations of Ramses leading prisoners into the presence of Amen-Rê . Two seated black granite figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet suggest martial exploits, as Sekhmet was the goddess to whom Rê, in the ancient legend, entrusted the slaying of the rebellious children of men .



Behind the two Sekhmets, the king appears before Safkhet, Ptah, Atûm, Anhûret, and other gods . Passing on to the inner doorway, Ramses is seen ( right ) smiting down his foes, assisted in the slaughter by his pet lion a feature in which he imitated his model, Ramses II ; and ( left ) bringing prisoners before Amûn . On the rear face of the building he presents his prisoners of war to the gods .



We now ascend the south tower by a modern staircase ( now, not open to the public ), and reach a chamber which was originally separated by a ceiling and floor from the chamber above it . Floor and ceiling have now disappeared, so that the upper room is seen from the one below .



It is upon the walls of this upper room that the famous Harem Scenes are depicted . These are often spoken of as indicating a life of Oriental profligacy ; actually they are quite innocent, unless chucking a little lady under the chin has become a crime . The harem ladies are not overdressed ; but overdressing is not usually conspicuous in Egyptian festal scenes anywhere .


The ideas of Ramses as to the employment of his soul after death were not of the most spiritual type, contemplation of his martial triumphs, the sight from his windows of the capital where he had reigned in life, and, on his inner walls, the vision of the frivolities of his palace ; but if he was no better than most of his fellow-country men, he has no worse, except in having greater opportunity .


One of the curiosities of the pavilion is the set of consoles which project from the outer walls of the tower below the window, and which are carved into the representation of foreign captives lying upon their faces, and pinned down by the weight of the masonry above them . It has been suggested that the open spaces above the brackets were the living tombs of actual captives, who were built into the wall so that King Ramses might always have the comforting thought in death that his enemies were still the slaves of his soul ; but the Egyptians were not, on the whole, needlessly cruel, and what we know of the conduct of Ramses from such incidents as his behaviour to the guilty parties in the harem conspiracy does not incline us to accuse him of such pitiless vindictiveness .


The brackets more likely carried royal statues, which would thus trample continually on the necks of the Pharaoh's enemies . Pharaoh frequently had such representations of enemies on his footstool, and even on his sandals ; it pleased him, and did not hurt them .


We now pass out of the pavilion  into the sacred enclosure . On our right is the 18th Dynasty temple, to which we shall return ; on our left the small Temple of Amenartais ( or Amenirdis ) .



This great lady, whose alabaster statue we have already seen at the Cairo Museum, was daughter of Kashta, the Ethiopian ruler, and wife of Piankhy II . Her reign was about 700 B.C., but was more ecclesiastical than secular .



A four-columned hall leads us into the vaulted sanctuary, which is surrounded by an ambulatory . On the left side of the doorway Amenartais makes offerings to Anubis, and Princess Shepenôpet, daughter of Piankhy II offers to Hathor for Amenartais . On the right Amenartais is led by Thoth and Anubis, and Shepenôpet makes offering to the queen's Ka .



Three small chapels adjoin the main temple, and are dedicated to Queen Nitocris, granddaughter of Amenartais, to Shepenôpet, and to Queen Mehtienusekht . The last of these chapels had a sort of crypt, now visible, as the flooring above it has broken down .





Part ( 3 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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