The richness and beauty of the temple
The temple of Ramses II, which was erected early in
that king's reign, lies a short distance to the north-west of that of Seti I .
It
is very much ruined, and only the lower parts of the walls and the bases of the
pillars remain, the remaining walls rising only to 6 or 7 feet in height ; but
the destruction is mainly comparatively modern, as the French Expedition of
Napoleon found the building in fairly good preservation ; but even from this
remnant one may learn how costly and beautiful was the original building, and
was evidently constructed with greater care and more sumptuous materials than
some of the later buildings of that monarch . An inscription on the exterior of
the south wall of the temple expresses the pride of Ramses in his
accomplishment : " Lo, His Majesty [ Life, Prosperity, Health ! ], was '
Son-Whom-He-Loves ', the champion of his father Unnofre [ Osiris ], by making
for him a beautiful, august temple, established for eternity, of fine limestone
of Ayan " .
A great double pylon of excellent work ; portals of
granite, the doors thereto of copper, wrought with figures in real electrum ; a
great sanctuary seat of alabaster, mounted in granite, his excellent seat of
the beginning ; and other costly features, " a meskhen chamber ( the birth-chamber of Osiris ) for his divine ennead, his
august father who rests therein, and Re when he has reached heaven " . One
of the doorway is described as being of black granite, with doors mounted with
copper and inlaid with electrum ; another as being of pink granite, with doors
of beaten bronze .
He then goes on to describe the abundant endowment of
the temple, and the filling of its treasury and stocking of its pleasance, he
also states how " he established for the god permanent daily offerings . ...
He filled the temple with everything ; it was overflowing with food and
provisions, bulls, calves, oxen, geese, bread, wine, fruit ; it was filled with
slaves, doubly supplied with fields, made numerous with herds ; the granaries
were filled to overflowing, the grain-heaps approached heaven . ... The
treasury was filled with every costly stone, silver, gold in blocks ; the
magazine was filled with everything from the tribute of all countries . He
planted many gardens set with every kind of tree, all sweet and fragrant woods,
and the plants of the Land of Punt " .
One sees, then, in these ruins, the remains of a
temple of exceptional richness and beauty . The few remaining reliefs upon the
walls display a delicacy of workmanship far removed above that shown in most of
the temples of this period ; and the visitor will find it worth his while to
devote some time to an examination of the ruins . The modern gate of the temple
has been affixed to the doorway leading into the Second Court ; and the
Forecourt lies half buried in rubbish outside the protected area .
Almost all of this splendour has now vanished ; but
the scanty remains still abiding show that the king was justified in his pride
. The walls were of fine-granite limestone, the pillars of sandstone, the
door-frames of granite, red, black, and grey, and the shrine was of alabaster .
Moreover some, at least, of the relief-work is much above the usual standard of
the reign . The finer work, in low relief, brilliantly coloured, occurs in the
rear rooms of the temple ; the coarser relief en creux in the outer court and vestibule, with the rooms
opening from it . The fragment of another king-list, similar to that in the
Seti I temple, came from this temple to the British Museum, where it now is .
On the external west wall, were represented the
episodes of the battle of Kadesh, one of the big and important events during
the reign of Ramses II . It remains only the low part . This battle took place
in the fifth year of the reign of Ramses II, between the forces of the Egyptian
Empire under Ramses II and the Hittites under Muwatalli II for the control of
the region that spread between the two countries .
The Second Court
The present entrance to the temple is through a
doorway leading into what was originally the Second Court . The First Court,
almost entirely ruined and buried, lies outside of this to the north, and may
still be partly traced . The entrance portal is of pink granite, and is
probably one of the doorways with doors of beaten bronze referred to in the
inscription of Ramses, on which one sees the king offering to Osiris, while
Thoth and Safkhet record his jubilee .
Around three sides of this court ran a covered
gallery, the loggia roof of which was supported by rectangular pillars, having
on their outer sides colossal figures of the king in the form of Osiris (
Osirid colossi ) . At the fourth or northern side these figures were continued,
but here they stood upon a raised platform, and, together with a second row of
square pillars, served to support the roof of a kind of vestibule . At the
inner, or southern side of the court, a triple range of steps rises to a
terrace, along whose face runs a row of these Osirid pillars, blocked by a row
of plain rectangular pillars, the whole forming a raised vestibule .
The somewhat coarse reliefs en creux in the Second Court are of considerable interest . At
the east end of the north wall we see (1) a number of priests carrying flowers,
and leading towards the temple a bull, fattened for sacrifice and bedecked with
flowers, an oryx, and a gazelle . Coming from the temple to meet these
sacrificial gifts there is (2) a procession headed by men clapping their hands,
singing, blowing trumpets, and carrying festal banners . Behind them there is a
chariot, the horses of which are held by a groom, while another holds the reins
. Then follow a group of nobles, behind whom are soldiers with feathers in
their hair who play upon castanets . Other soldiers, carrying shields, spears,
and axes, follow ; and more standard-bearers are then seen ; while finally
there are negroes, one of whom has a tom-tom slung behind him, and Asiatics
clad in long robes .
The scenes along the east wall show (3) a number of
priests leading to the temple fatted bulls and a calf, while others carry
offerings of geese, pigeons, bread, fruit, &c. . Farther along this wall
one sees only the lower part of reliefs, representing persons carrying
offerings ; but towards the end (4) the masonry is less ruined, and one sees
the temple servants bearing dishes of food on their heads, the procession being
led by one who carries on his shoulders a statuette of the king, preceded by a
Ritual-Priest burning incense before it . The scribe of the temple, with pen
and writing-tablet in hand, and a priest displaying his baton of office,
receive the offerings .
Turning to the other side of the court, the west wall
is just high enough to allow of the lower reliefs being seen . Butchers (5) are
shown slaughtering and cutting up the sacrificial bulls ; and (6) servants are
seen running forward with the joints of meat, each of which has been purified
by the Libation-Priest, who carries the vase of holy water, and presents the
offerings to the scribe whose business it is to record them . Bulls, antelopes,
and geese (7) are brought to the temple, and (8) are received by a scribe who
writes their number upon a tablet, a priest who burns incense, another who
extends his hand, and a Ritual-Priest who holds the baton of his office .
The Vestibule
One now ascends the low steps to the raised Vestibule,
with remains of sixteen square pillars .
On the east wall of the Vestibule (9) are depicted
nine captive of the southern tribes are represented, their names written in
ovals, above each of which rise the head and shoulders of a typical negro .
With the exception of Wawat, or Lower Nubia, these tribes are all located above
the Second Cataract .
On the west wall (10) a similar scene shows nine
captive Asiatic tribes .
From this Vestibule four small chambers lead off . In
the Room of Hathor there is a scene in which the king is shown holding out the
baton towards a now damaged barque containing a statue of the cow of Hathor
suckling a small figure of the Pharaoh .
In the Room of Ramses II the king, seated in a sacred
barque which rests upon a sledge, is drawn along by six figures, representing
the spirits of Eileithyia-polis or Nekheb ( El Kab ) and the spirits of Pe, a
city in the Delta .
The Room of the Union is too much damaged to be of
interest .
In the Room of Seti one may distinguish the lower part
of a barque which contained a figure of Seti I .
These four rooms, then, which are dedicated to the
father of Ramses II, to himself, to the Union, and to Hathor, the goddess of
birth and of maternity, are evidently intended to demonstrate the fact of the
succession of Ramses II to the divine rights of his father ; and they are thus
a fitting introduction to the scenes in the inner chambers, where he stands in
the presence of the gods .
The First Octostyle Hall
One passes now through a much ruined grey-granite
doorway into the first Octostyle Hall, the roof of the hall which was formerly
supported by eight square pillars of sandstone . Only the lower parts of the
walls remain, and here one sees a line of kneeling figures of Hapi ( the
Nile-god ), each bearing a tray of offerings . A narrow staircase, once ascending
to the roof, leads from the east side and at its southern end of this hall .
While on the west side there is a chamber ( Room of Anhur, the local god of
Abydos ) in which only the lower part of the reliefs can be seen .
The Second Octostyle Hall
A doorway in the main axis of the building leads from
the first to the Second Octostyle Hall, also eight square pillars, but now
badly ruined, from which three chambers lead on either side . The three on the
eastern side being dedicated to Osiris . They are called the Room of Linen, of
Ornaments, and of Offerings, respectively, from the character of their original
reliefs ; but they are too much damaged now to be of any great interest . In
the Room of Linen a relief represents a number of priests carrying necklaces
and a casket containing fine linen . The king walks behind them, pouring out a
libation . The Rooms of Ornaments and of Offerings are much ruined .
The three chambers on the western side are of Thoth,
Min, and the cycle of Horus gods . The Room of Thoth a relief shows the king,
wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, offering a pot of incense to a seated figure
of Osiris . In the Room of Min the king is seen pouring libations and burning
incense before the sacred barques, while on the west wall he worships the god
Min ; but these scenes are much damaged .
In the Room of the Cycle of Horus Gods one sees the
king, wearing the crown of Lower Egypt, dancing before the gods, and holding in
each hand a symbol composed of three vases . On the opposite wall he is given
life by a damaged figure of Horus .
Two once splendid, but now much ruined, chambers lead
respectively from the third chamber on either side of the hall . In each of
these chambers a series of recesses around the walls have once contained
statues of the various gods . In the west room the first recess in the south
wall (11) is less ruined than are the others ; and here one sees the king
making the mystical sign of holding up the little finger before a figure of
Osiris standing in front of a winged ded-symbol, which is
thought to be a conventionalised representation of the backbone of Osiris . The
room on the east side of the sanctuary has upon its west wall a relief (12)
showing three deities, of which the first is nameless, the second is the
goddess Heket ( Heqet ) of Abydos, and the third is the god Anubis of the
necropolis . The room on the west side of the sanctuary has at its south end a
shelf on which offerings were placed . On the west wall (13) three goddesses
are shown : the first is nameless, the second is the scorpion goddess Selket (
Selqet ), and the third is Hathor of Dendera .
The Sanctuary
The Sanctuary is so much ruined that it is difficult
now to picture it in its original magnificence . The great pink-granite doorway
has now fallen, but originally it is said to have been fitted with splendid
doors of beaten bronze . The walls of the chamber were made entirely of
alabaster, resting on a foundation of sandstone, and were covered with reliefs
and inscriptions, of which only a few traces are now left . At the end of the
chamber there was a now much broken group of five seated figures sculptured in
grey granite . These represented Seti I, a Queen, Osiris, Ramses II, and
another god or personage whose name is lost ; and in this group the purpose of
the temple is shown . Osiris, who embodied the personalities of the dead
Pharaohs of Egypt, was here worshipped as the king's ancestor, having the same
spiritual relation to Ramses as had his father Seti I in actual fact . In one
of the rooms of the temple a list of kings was found, and was carried out of
the country many years ago. One sees, then, that, like the temple of Seti I,
this also was a shrine of the dead monarchs, whose virtues and divine rights
were inherited by Ramses II .
Part ( 5 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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