Medinet Habu

Ramesses III built his mortuary temple in the twelfth century BC inside a fortified enclosure with a gatehouse modelled on a Syrian fortress, and the whole complex survived better than almost any other on the west bank because a Coptic town later occupied it and buried the lower walls. The result is a temple with much of its original colour still on the columns and ceilings, and with relief carving cut so deeply into the outer walls that the shadows read clearly at any hour. Those outer reliefs record his campaigns against the Sea Peoples in enormous detail, including naval battle scenes and long lines of prisoners. The enclosure also holds earlier chapels of the God's Wives of Amun and the remains of the Coptic settlement.

History

The mortuary temple of Ramesses III (about 1186-1155 BC), the largest and best-preserved building at Medinet Habu, is best known for its reliefs of the coming and defeat of the Sea Peoples. The first European to describe it was Vivant Denon, in 1799-1801, Champollion worked here in 1829 and a Prussian expedition under Karl Richard Lepsius in 1844-1845; between 1859 and 1899 the Egyptian Department of Antiquities cleared the main temple for tourism, pulling down many Greco-Roman buildings, among them a large Byzantine church in the second court, without records. When the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute began work in 1924, the complex was still largely covered by mounds 3 to 6 metres high, the remains of the former Coptic town of Habu, and its Epigraphic Survey has recorded the reliefs and inscriptions almost continuously ever since (Wikipedia, Medinet Habu).

The main sights

• Deeply cut battle reliefs - the Sea Peoples campaigns on the outer walls.
• Surviving paint - colour on columns and ceilings in the inner halls.
• The fortified gatehouse - a migdol tower modelled on Syrian forts.
• Chapels of the God's Wives - earlier structures inside the enclosure.

When to go

October to April. Late afternoon light on the western walls is exceptional and the site is quieter then, since most groups come in the morning. Two to three hours.

Before you go

It is a large site with a lot of walking and limited shade. Groups arrive in waves and fill the first courts. The Coptic town that preserved the walls was cleared, which is a loss of its own. Some inner rooms are dark and a torch helps.

Nearby

The Valley of the Queens is west; Deir el-Medina and the Ramesseum lie north.

Key facts