Daily Photo - Mortuary Temple of Merenptah, Luxor
Egypt

Daily Photo - Mortuary Temple of Merenptah, Luxor


It has been pointed out to me that I published these photographs earlier this month with the heading "Merenptah" and no more detail to explain what is being shown. So here they are again with a bit of explanation to clarify them! I hope that the additional detail makes up for the complete lack of any information posted previously.

This is the mortuary temple of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor. It lies in the line of mortuary temples that sit in the desert on the edge of agricultural land, one of which is the nearby and better known Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Ramesses II.

Merenptah (Beloved of Ptah) was the fourth Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty and the thirteenth son of Ramesses II and succeeded him as Pharaoh. This unusal state of affairs is put down to the fact that Ramesses survived 12 of his sons, including Khaemwaset who was the official heir of Ramesses II for many years.

His mortuary temple was in a highly ruinous condition, but was excavated and restored by the Swiss Institute of Archaeology, and is now a fascinating site accompanied by a small but excellent museum.

The temple was built partly using both statuary and building components from earlier constructions - particularly the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III (now known mainly for the most its most conspicuous surviving components, the Colossi of Memnon). The mummy of Merenptah was recovered from the KV35 cache. He was succeeded by his son Seti II.

There is an excellent article by Jill Kamil from 2002 on the Al Ahram Weekly website about the excavations and restoration work at the temple, entitled "Like Father, Like Son", which was written following the official opening of the museum by President Mubarak.










- Imalqata Project Update - Everything Amenhotep
iMalqata Project  With some useful links. 2012 is turning out to be the year of Amenhotep III. In addition to our work at his jubilee palace-city at Malqata, excavations and restoration projects are going on in the king’s mortuary temple, his tomb...

- More Re Discoveries At Temple Of Amenhotep Iii
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) A good summary of the work carried out at Kom el Hittan. When it was constructed on Luxor's west bank during the 14th century BC, the mortuary temple of the 18th-Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III was the largest temple...

- About Seti I - Whose Mortuary Temple Has Been Restored And Re-opened
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/694/he1.htm The Mortuary Temple of Seti I has been restored and re-opened. This article describes Seti I and his role in Egypt's history, putting his mortuary temple into context. It touches on Seti's son Ramesses...

- The Raising Of Amenhotep Iii
The Egyptian antiquities service has re-erected 2 statues on their original site in the memorial temple of Amenhotep III at Luxor. Amenhotep III was known as "the magnificent" because he reigned at the epoch of the Egyptian empire in the middle of the...

- Discoveries At The Mortuary Temple Of Amenhotep Iii
Here we have an article of recent discoveries made by archaeologists at the site of the 18th dynasty mortuary temple of Amenhotep III ca. 1390-1352B.C.. The recent finds include a rare colossal alabaster statue of the king and a granodiorite head of a...



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