Another really cool is at Medinet Habu. This amazing building
was the mortuary temple of the pharaoh Ramesses III and stands
on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor.
The first pylon at Medinet Habu has some impressive carvings
on it. Here Ramesses III is shown 'Smiting Asiatics'. This popular
theme in temple art shows the king with club raised ready to
bring it down on his unfortunate enemies. Sven saw a similar
scene at Philae.
Another od Sven's discoveries at Medinet Habu were the two
impressive statues of the lion headed goddess Sekhmet which flank
the main entrance to the temple. Sven is not sure if these statues
were originally in this position, but is sure that they look
really great.
There must have been hundreds of these made. Sven has seen them
at places ranging from Karnak to Edinburgh.
Sven also noticed how deep the hieroglyphs were carved in
places. Ramesses III wanted to make sure that no later kings
could come along and take credit for his temple, and for this
reason he had his royal name, or Cartouche, carved deep into
the stone making them almost impossible to erase. As you can
see here the carvings are easily big enough to make a comfortable
ostrich seat.
There are actually two temples at Medinet Habu. Just to one
side of Ramesses IIIs there is a smaller 18th Dynasty one. Sven
couldn't explore here as it is closed for restoration but he
has marked it down as a place he definitely wants to visit next
time.
