the medinet habu temple

One of the most impressive temples in Egypt, Medinet Habu is both a temple complex and a complex of temples, for the great estate encompasses the main temple of Ramesses III and several smaller structures from earlier and later periods. The main temple itself is the best preserved of all the mortuary temples of Thebes.

The temple’s outer walls depict historically important battle and victory scenes, showing pharaoh Ramesses III and his army triumphing against the Libyans and Sea Peoples who attacked Egypt during the king’s reign. These themes are continued within the temple’s first court with scenes of soldiers counting hands and phalli of the enemy dead, showing the grisly realities of war. This court was flanked on the northern side by large engaged statues of the divine king as Osiris and, on the south, a columned portico with the ‘window of appearances’ in which the king stood or sat during formal ceremonies and festivities.
The large Osiride statues of the second court were ruthlessly destroyed in the early Christian era by the Copts, who converted the area into a Christian church, though many of the original relief scenes that were painted over at this time have in fact survived in fairly good condition. These scenes depict various rituals connected with the ithyphallic fertility god Min and, on the rear wall of the portico, a procession of the king’s numerous sons and daughters.

Photographs 6 to 10 show some fine examples of wall decorations—often with God Amun handing over power and life to a pharaoh in form of the scepter and the ankh(☥).