Halls of fame with troubled history

They were built for the eternity. In order of the sovereigns they should tell about their great feats even they did or they were only idolized. They should be stonemade testemonies of the rulers fame. They were called houses „of a million of years“ The mortuary temples of the kings of the New Kingdom (ca. 1570 - 1070 BC) on the West Bank of Luxor. But what was built for the eternity often outlasted only some 100 years. Also in ancient Egyptian times there was no feeling of respect for the ancestors anymore, latest when the new kings were in need of parts of their estate. The mortuarty temples they were usurped, plundered, destroyed, converted.

Most of the in former times about 30 mortuarty temples were found like on a string of pearls on the boarder between the desert and the agricaltural area on a way about eight kilometres But not all had only one founder or owner. So Horemheb (ca. 1321 - 1293 BC) took over the temple of his ancestor Ay (ca. 1325 - 1321 BC) in Medinet Habu. Ay usurped two giant statues of his ancestor Tutankhamen (ca. 1334 -1325 BC) which later were taken over by Horemheb. The Pharaonic way of stealing temples.

Also other kings were non too gently when they looked to the hall of fames of their ancestors. A good example is Merenptah (ca. 1212 - 1202 BC). His architects and master builders used the place of worship of Amenhetep III. in the neighbourhood as a quarry. So nearly nothing of the temple of Amenhetep stood the test of time, only the Colossi of Memnon show were once was the entrance to the largest mortuary temple on the West Bank. Since short time archeologists started to dig here again, unearthed some statues.

But not only in ancient Egyptian times the temples were ransacked. Many of them as the one of Queen Hatshepsut (ca. 1498 - 1483 BC) or Medinet Habu of Rameses III. (ca. 1182 - 1151 BC) were used as monasteries when Christianity overran Egypt. Workrooms were established in the shrines what resulted in a lot of damage. However, even today you will find Coptic and Roman crosses chiseled in the stone. Lateron the sacred buildings were misappropriated sometimes as stablings or as emergency shelters during the time of the Nile flood. But all the time they were used as quarries. Blocks of limestone were burned to lime, houses were built from the mudbricks stolen from the enclosure. Unfortunately from many temples nothing stood the test of time.

It was in the 19th century. After the military campaign of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt in 1798 an Egypt-mania took place in Europe. So plunderers invaded the country. The best known may be Giovanni Battista Belzoni. He stole thousands of antiquitities, one of them was a head of a giant statue of Rameses II. from the Ramesseum. But also the inhabitants of Luxor felt the smell of money by selling statues and reliefs out of the temples of Thebes West.

Stolen was even when the modern archeologie as science and research found the way to Egypt. This was the result of the expeditions of German linguist Karl Richard Lepsius from 1842 to 1845, lateron of Frenchman Auguste Mariette, who came first in 1850 to Egypt and most important with the digging of Englishman William Flinders Petrie starting in 1880. But also Lepsius, Mariette and Petrie sent many antiquities to Berlin, Paris and London.

Not until Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 then the Egyptian government was able to control all this robbery. Officially now it is called as totally stopped. However, many times a year you will hear rumors, anywhere in the world there are some new findings on the market.

The temples, the only stonemade buldings from ancient Egyptian times, look backwords to atroubled history. To build one it was a duty for every king during the New Kingdom. The first ruler who started this tradition of this monuments was probably Amenhetep I. (ca. 1551 - 1524 BC). Many temples are destroyed, will be lost forever. But some of the houses „of a millions years“ stand the test of time until now for more than 3000 years. Even time and history left their traces they are partially in a good shape.

We will introduce you step by step to news and newly restaurated mortuary temples in West Thebes.

Pictures show from top to bottom:

- View to the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir el Bahari
- In many corners of Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Rameses III., you can still find wonderful
  preserved colours at the ceilings and Friesen
- In the mortuary temple of Merenptah the excavated pieces are presented exactly in situ
- This in mortuary temples typically wall relief you can find in the Ramesseum
- You can catch a phantastic view down to the Nile from the mountains. Very clear you discover
  the sharp border between desert and agricultural land, where the mortuary temples were built,
  like here the Ramesseum in the centre of the picture. (Text and Fotos Antje Sliwka)

Hatshepsut

Merenptah