Médinet Habou

Médinet Habou , (Démotique: Tjamet or Djamet , Copte: Djeme or Djemi ) is a city close to Thèbes in Egypt, on western bank of the the Nile, opposite the modern city of Louxor and its old temple dedicated to Amon-Min. Today, one especially knows it for the Temple of the million years of the Pharaon Ramsès {{III}} which was built near an older sanctuary dedicated to Amon of Djemé; it is this temple which gave its name to the site.

Temple of Ramsès

The principal enclosure

The temple, length one hundred fifty meters, is of a common plan, near of the funerary temple to its predecessor, Ramsès {{II}}. Indeed Ramsès sought to restore the size of Egypt of its famous ancestor. As of its accession with the throne he then undertook to build his temple jubilaire which will remain one of vastest of the necropolis of Thèbes.

Preserved rather well it is surrounded by believed a ground brick enclosure, which was perhaps strengthened and which encloses the whole of the monuments of the site. Sign times, (Ramsès had to push back as of the year five of its reign an invasion of the country), the king decided to guarantee the safety of his foundation jubilaire by a powerful enclosure including/understanding only two accesses to the west and the east.

The entry of origin is done by a large door in the east, the Migdol, which was conceived on the model of the strengthened doors of the Syrian fortresses and which one has many representations on the reliefs describing the military campaigns of the large Pharaons conquerors like Thoutmôsis {{III}}, Séthi {{Ier}} or Ramsès. In the west of the enclosure, symmetrically with the migdol, a second access probably in the same form was but of which there remains only the first sitted ones.

The enclosure included/understood several sections which sheltered many monuments as well as a true city intended for the personnel of the temple and palate of the king who was next to the principal temple.

In the axis of the gate of entry one finds:

In the south, funerary vaults of Amenardis {{Anger}}, of Chepenoupet {{II}} and of Nitocris {{Anger}}, all three adoratrices of Amon
In north the temple of Amon de Djemé (see low).

The temple of the million years

The temple of Ramsès {{III}} adopts a definite plan and which will be the prototype of the large temples of the later periods: two large pylons separating two courses with the peristyles, preceding the zone by the sanctuary.

The first entry, carries monumental framed of the two imposing moles of large the pylon, gives in an open court bordered of two gantries. The first in north east made up of enclosed pilasters of massive statues of Ramsès {{III}} represented in osiriaque position but vêtu of the royal and capped loincloth of a solar crown. The second in the south east made up of columns papyriforme to open capitals and form the royal gantry. Indeed the wall includes/understands a “window of the appearances”, as two doors giving on a royal palace which is outside the temple. It was to be used by the sovereign and the court at the time of the ceremonies which proceeded here each year at the time of the “Beautiful Festival of the Valley”, one of the principal festivals of Thèbes. Of no thinks that this palate, within sight of its rather reduced dimensions, was only one ritual palate without another destiny to play the part of palate for the royal Ka. Of this fact it would never have been used…

At all events it is composed of a hall hypostyle, being used as waiting room, giving on a courtroom, smaller, with two columns framing a podium on which the throne of the king was to be. Behind this room were the royal apartments with an anteroom, a room and a bathroom. The east of the hall one reached a driving corridor with a series of additional apartments in which one wanted to see the harem of the king. To the west of the hall a door gave on a gantry which bordered a decorated garden of a basin, and giving on various administrative buildings. This palate is preserved on its first sat and was altered with the current of the reign of Ramsès {{III}}.

The second pylon carries out in one second court Péristyle in which were formerly royal colossi. The whole of these courses preserved its cover what durably protected the frescos and reliefs from the temple. Thus one can admire ceilings with major blue constellated with stars, religious and military scenes on the walls which kept an extraordinary freshness. In the same way the majority of the columns preserved their pigments what enables us to have a rather precise idea of the aspect of a temple in antiquity. Each wall, each column, each ceiling, each cornice, each Hiéroglyphe, all was painted bright colors.

This second court gave through a gantry to a third entry, this time without pylon, which led to the Hypostyle - which lost its ceiling. Indeed in the year -27, the whole of the area was victim of a seism which affected the majority of the monuments of Thèbes. Médinet Habou did not escape from it and the hypostyle room crumbled. It today is reduced to first sat columns which remain however imposing and is surrounded by a series of vaults which were restored and which, they, preserved their painted decorations. The sanctuary has him also suffered from the vicissitudes of the history and if one can recognize his site in the axis of the first hypostyle one, the Naos with him disappeared.

History of the temple

The temple of Ramsès {{III}} became the dynastic temple par excellence. Following the example Ramesséum, the king made there appear his descent and it is probable that the temple was used with the funerary worship of the successors as Ramsès.

With the anarchy which will follow the end of, the temple and its strengthened enclosure was used as refuge to the people of Thèbes in fight with excursions of nomads coming from the Western desert and which plundered the area at the time of and S. At that time we can imagine that the large temples of million years of the sovereigns ramessides formed fortresses whose Médinet Habou was without any doubt most imposing.

With the Low time, the temple continued to function and the tombs of the divine adoratrices of Amon were arranged in the enclosure of the temple following the example found royal tombs with Tanis. The divine adoratrices were royal girls who devoted themselves to the priesthood of the Amon god and occupied the responsibility of represent the king with Thèbes. They chose to establish their burial closest to the sanctuary of Djemé which at that time remained one of the holy places of the area.

Thereafter with the monarchs gréco-Romans the site was little by little transformed downtown whose principal enclosure occupied the center. It is name even of Djemé or Djemaï that the Greeks by deformation named the Thébaï city, which will give Thèbes thereafter, homonym of Thèbes Greek.

The city remained concentrated around the site and during the period copte, a church, which was withdrawn since, was installed in the second court of the temple of Ramsès {{III}}. The engravers coptes also deteriorated Egyptian engravings and the drawings on the columns, and one could still see at the beginning of the 20th century the columns with Corinthian capitals which supported the roof of the Christian church.

At the end of antiquity, and with the Arab invasion, the site little by little was given up and covered by monticules with debris.

Temple of Amon

Just beside the temple of Ramsès {{III}}, in the north of the axis of the migdol, one finds the temple of Amon. This temple had been set up during by Hatchepsout and Thoutmôsis {{III}}.

It since underwent many modifications, in particular under, and S, and of course the period gréco-Roman, and curiously it reached us in very a good state of conservation as a whole even if it is the object currently restoration campaign and excavations in particular on the level of the naos.

This small temple, initially peripteral, was the object of a devotion particular by the people of Thèbes. Indeed the legend reports that at the conclusion of the creation of the world, the eight paramount gods of Hermopolis withdrew themselves in Djemé and rest since under the hillock which forms the foundations of the temple. Among these eight gods one finds Amon and Amonette to which the site was dedicated.

Hatchepsout and Thoutmôsis {{III}} built a small temple on this site, undoubtedly by altering an old preexistent building.

The naos composed of three vaults communicating enters, is preceded by a room of the boat which was formerly surrounded by gantries but whose frontage was walled at the later times.

On the pillars of the gantries one can still see the king, generally Thoutmôsis {{III}}, but also his son Amenhotep {{II}} and his small son Thoutmôsis {{IV}}, making offerings with various divinities of the Egyptian Pantheon, of which of course Amon which occupies the principal place of the worship of the temple.

This sanctuary formed one of the principal stages of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley during which the god Amon left his Temple of Louxor and after having sailed towards the occident on the Large Crowned Boat of Amon, Ousirhat, visited each temple of western bank. It completed its pilgrimage with Médinet Habou and from there turned over on bank is. These festivities were the subject of great ceremonies to which the king and his wife as people assisted.

The temple undergoes depredations at the time of the Period amarnienne like much of sanctuaries of Thèbes. Its character crowned there was without any doubt for something and one can still see hammered spaces facing the royal figure, phantoms of the old divine representations which were restored at the period ramesside.

It is without any doubt the proximity of this holy place which governed the choice of the site of the temple of the million years of Ramsès {{III}}, following the example Divines Adoratrices of the Low time which installed their tomb and their funerary vault just opposite the sanctuary. It is precisely at that time under that the temple accepted its first extension towards the east. The Pharaons kouchites decorated it indeed processional colonnade following the example temples of Louxor and Karnak, and a small pylon which led then to an unloading dock.

Achôris, Pharaon of, added a vault in the north of the temple, and with the following dynasties, new additions always towards the east prolonged the temple of a new court and large a pylon of access which today form the main entrance of the temple.

Temple of Have and Horemheb

Just in the north of the temple of Ramsès, the temple of is Have and of Horemheb, in a deplorable state of conservation, destroyed by time and the successive invasions. These monuments were built on the site chooses by Toutânkhamon to build its own funerary temple. There remain about it today only the foundations and its plan is not easily locatable with the naked eye. It is necessary to take height to be able to distinguish it and the ballades in the montgolfiers proposed to the tourists on western bank are the best means of discovering these vestiges, like many other temples now disappeared.

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