The Temple of Medinet Habu

The Temple of Medinet Habu

The city of Luxor hosts a large number of marvelous ancient Egyptian monuments. Tourists visiting Egypt usually miss many amazing historical sites. At the top of this list, there is the remarkable temple of Madinet Habu that is simply the best-preserved ancient Egyptian temple in the land of the Nile.

The Temple of Madinet Habu is located in the West Bank of the City of Luxor. It is situated only one kilometer to the South from the mortuary Temple of Ramses II, the Ramesseum.

This section of Luxor was actually called Madinet Habu in reference to the Christian town that was established behind the fortified walls of the temple

Ramses III constructed his mortuary temple in that place that was later called Madinet Habu. He was the most famous king of the 20^th dynasty in ancient Egypt and he ruled the country in the period from 1183 until 1152 BC.

It is believed that Ramses III has constructed this mortuary temple at the end of his ruling period around the middle of the 12^th century BC and it was constructed for the worship of the god Amun.

The Temple of Ramses III in Madinet Habu was considered one of the largest mortuary temples that were constructed in the reign of the New Kingdom. The surface area of the temple is actually huge with the length being 320 meters from East to West and the width being 200 meters from North to South.

The walls surrounding the Temple of Madinet Habu are quite impressive and they were inspired by the fortified towers that were erected in Asia Minor.

The guests would surely admire the huge impressive first pylon of the Temple of Ramses III in Madinet Habu. The pylon has some marvelous scenes of the massacres Ramses III committed against his enemies in the presence of the god Amun-Ra.

At the Southern quay afterwards, there are some fabulous bas reliefs of buffaloes walking in the military march.  It is worth mentioning that the sidewalls of the temple have wonderful bas reliefs with a surface area of more than 7000 square meters.

The scenes in the Western section of the walls are quite remarkable as they display the naval battle when Ramses III was able to defeat the sea people, as the ancient Egyptian used to call the residences of the islands of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Temple of Madinet Habu has three hypostyle halls with many side chambers and they all lead at the end to the shrine of the god Amun.

The guests, afterwards, enter the second open courtyard that is called the court of the feasts. This was where the feasts of the procession of the sacred barks used to be carried out.

When the guests finish their touring of the Temple of Madinet Habu, they start exploring the royal palaces of the Ramses III as he created this royal residence for him and his noble family to view the feasts carried out in the temples.