The Mortuary Temple of Rameses II – The Rameseum

by Jean Smith, the President of the Egyptian Society of South Africa in Cape Town.

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Fallen colossus and pillars

The name Rameseum was given to the Mortuary temple of Rameses II (ca.1279-1212BCE) by Jean-Francois Champollion, the man who in the mid 1800’s decoded Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was designed and built for Rameses II (the Great) by two architects/ foremen named Penre and Amenemone; no effort was spared by these men to make ‘The House of Millions of Years of User-Maat-Re’ the best of all his many monuments. Unfortunately time has not been kind to it and while it’s in a ruinous condition today, there are a number of features making it interesting. The complex consists of two pylons and courts, a hypostyle hall, various sanctuaries and a number of storage magazines.

Osiris Columns

The first great pylon still stands and its inner walls are decorated with scenes from the great battle at Kadesh where Rameses II met the Hittites in ca. Year 5 of his reign. In the great court behind the first pylon and in front of the ruined second pylon there used to stand a gigantic free standing statue of the Pharaoh, the biggest free standing statue ever erected in Egypt; this lies in huge pieces in the court; it was flanked by a smaller statue of his mother, Queen Tuya.

The second pylon is badly damaged but on the remaining wall the battle of Kadesh is again depicted.

From here a portico leads to the hypostyle hall; the portico had a number of pillars with statues of the king as Osiris with arms crossed in front of his chest and set in front of some of them. Other colossal statues of the king were erected here as well although only the head of one remains on the ground; the other head is in the British Museum.

Papyriform Column

The hypostyle hall is similar to that to be seen in Karnak temple, but this is on a much smaller scale. The foty-eight columns that support the roof are in the papyriform style and as with Karnak, the hall was lit by clerestory windows high up close to the ceiling. Looking up to what remains of the roof, one can see the still vivid colours used in decorating the tops of the columns as well as the stone ‘beams.’

Depictions of the Battle of Kadesh

More military scenes are inscribed on these walls and again they show battles with the old enemy, the Hittites, but here Rameses’s sons are shown side by side with their father in the midst of battle. Behind the hypostyle hall is the so-called ‘astronomical room’ – this is because on the ceiling are depicted the constellations and the divisions or decans of the night sky. Also in this pillared hall is a depiction of Amun, with his wife Mut standing behind him; he is shown handing to Rameses a curved sword and a palm branch, insignias of rule. On another wall, Rameses is depicted seated under the sacred ished tree before the god Amun who in the presence of the scribal god Thoth (Djehuti) writes Rameses’s name on the leaves of the tree; this was symbolic of the Pharaoh’s eternal reign.

Rameses and Amun

Beyond was the sanctuary of the god Amun, now destroyed. However, it’s believed that this sanctuary was flanked by two chapels; that of the cult of the king as well as the cult of Ra the sun god. Other buildings that remain on this site are many store rooms and administrative buildings; some interesting because of the building techniques used; although of mudbrick, some had vaulted ceilings and stone lintels and door jambs.

But it’s the massive fallen statue that is the most incredible. An earthquake in about 27BCE is believed to have been the reason for it’s toppling over and in doing so it crushed some of the wall of the second pylon. This massive statue still lies there and even in about 5 pieces it’s still an incredible sight. It was carved from a single piece of granite that weighed over 900 tons and was originally 18m high; the ear alone is 1.2m long and the index finger is over 1m. Just bringing the granite from the Aswan quarries was a superlative feat; statues on this scale were never repeated in Egypt. The titanic statue of this king was the subject of the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley entitled ‘Ozymandias’ – this name being the Hellenic version of part of Rameses throne name ‘User-Maat-Re.’

This temple is not much visited and, like the Deir el Medina Ptolemaic temple is, aside from its historical value, a nice place to get away for a while from the mass of tourists at the other more popular sites.

To find out how you can visit these fascinating sites, please contact us on +27 11 678 4777 or +27 11 478 2884 or email us on: info@egyptandbeyond.co.za.

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