THE RAMESSEUM part 1

THE RAMESSEUM

Historical background of the temple.

ý Ramesses II was still very young when he acceded to the throne after brief co-regency beside his father Seti 1.  Once crowned, he was to achieve projects as large as his ambitions.  He came from the north where he founded his capital Pi-Ramses, however he covered both parts of Egypt, north and south, with a multitude of monuments.  At Thebes, he undertook the construction of several monuments and devoted them to the glory of Amun, his divine father.

ý As tradition demanded, his tomb, dug into the Valley of the Kings, was one of the priority works.  It was upon his accession to the throne that began the building of the House of millions of years of Ousermaatre Setepenre that unites with Thebes-the-city in the domain of Amun, in other words, the royal worship temple of Ramesses II.  The name Ramesseum was given to by Jean-Francois Champollion in 1829.

ý  The construction began before the end of the year II of the reign of Ramesses, and was finished about twenty years later, well before the first celebration of the sovereign's sed festival.  The realization of this foundation was carried out under the authority of two foremen:  Penre who came from Coptos, and Amenemone who came from Abydos.  Both these architects were buried at West-Thebes.

 TEMPLE DESCRIPTION.

ý Like the majority of the temples erected on the west bank at Thebes, the Ramesseum stands at the limit between the cultivated.

ý ground and the desert. It consisted of two temples and a palace. Broadly oriented east-west, the temple with its brick-built outbuildings covers a surface of aoout 5 hectares.

The plan of the site includes:

ý    The main temple.

ý    The royal palace, located south of the first court.

ý    The temple or mammisi of Mout-Touy and of Nefertari, north of the large hypostyle hall of the main temple.

ý    The brick-built outbuildings or economical area of the temple.

ý    The enclosure wall and the sacred lake, (the location of the last has not been found yet)

The plan of the temple

ý The material goods or the temporal goods of the Ramesseum must have been considerable, but we don't have any inventory like the one of the estate of Kamak under Ramesses III. However, there is a lot of information about the activities which took place in the economical area of the temple. Some sources of information about its personnel are available, in particular the texts, reliefs and paintings of several civil servants's theban tombs such as that of Amenemipet TTT 1771. Amenemipet [TT.374], Amenouahsou [TT.274], Bakhet-Sekhmet LTT 384], Hori-mes [TT.C.7], Mahou [TT.257], Mes[TT 137], Nachtamon[TT.341], Nebmehyt ITT.384], Nebmehyt TTT 170], Nebsoumenou ITT. 183], Nedjemger [TT.138] the person responsible for the garden, Neferrempet[TT.133] person responsible for spinning and weaving, and Piay [TT.263].

The architectural plan of the Ramesseum shows some incontestably original features:

ý Its pylons were built with stones, although up until then pylons had been built only with mud bricks.

ý His processional alley of sphinxes.

ý And lasty, located. Within the precinct of the Ramesseum, there was a temple or mammisi with a double sanctuary, attributed to queen mother Mout- Touy and the Great Royal Wife Queen Nefertari.

The iconographic topics, in sunken relief, sum up the four important functions of the sovereign.

ý The royal(political) function is suggested by several scenes depicting the coronation rites(imposition of the crowns, handing over of the royal scepters, royal rising) and the royal renewal.

ý The priestly function is also important. Ramesses as pontiff presides over the major festivals(the Feast of Min, the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, the New Year's

Festival, glorification of the gods of lower and upper Egypt canonical sanctuaries.

The military function is shown. Some large war scenes tell of certain of the king's campaigns

ý The battle of Qadesh in year 5 is described on the western side of the first pylon and on the west side of the north jamb of the second pylon.

ý Some punitive expeditions against several Asiatic cities in year 8 represented on the west side of the north jamb of the first pylon.

ý The campaigns against the fortresses of Tounip and of Dapour on the south-east wall of the large hypostyle hall.

The familial function is very represented too, as it is showed by the large place the king allotted to his children, to his chief Queen Nefertari, and to Queen Mother Touy.