The Memorial Temples at Thebes

The blog post for this week has been written by Lore Anne McNicol, an American who received her Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Boston University School of Medicine. For twenty-five years she conducted research and teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland, and the California Institute of Technology. For the next twenty years she worked at several of the National Institutes of Health, becoming Deputy Director of the National Eye Institute. She authored three books and numerous articles on vaccine development and reparative medicine. In retirement she has studied Egyptology at the University of Manchester, receiving the Certificate and Diploma. She is presently 6,000 words short of writing her Master’s thesis entitled Ubiquitous Animal, Rare Artefact: The Howard Carter Pack Donkey.  

Dr. Griffin started with a brief segment on breaking news to alert us to the “Golden Village” west of the Memorial Temple of Amenhotep Son of Hapu that has been newly-discovered by Zahi Hawass’ team. Ken’s opinion that, while the excavation is new, it is likely a continuation of a site excavated in the 1930s. This view was supported by overlays of photos of the two digs, although this will only be determined by further excavations. It appears to be a substantial site, with interesting serpentine walls and nice pottery.

Next, he gave a very clear statement of definitions: The Mortuary Temple or Memorial Temple was dedicated to the King’s cult, while a Mansion of a Million Years could in addition be a state-sponsored temple such as Karnak or that of Seti I at Abydos; in the literature the various names are often used indiscriminately. They were complexes, often including administrative and storage building as well as housing. They were largely of stone, situated on the edge of the cultivation, and had individual names such as ‘The One Which Receives Amun and Which Raises His Beauty’, which was the name for the temple of Amenhotep III (fig. 1). 

Fig. 1: The Colossi of Memnon of Amenhotep III

There were 23–24 of these temples on the Theban West Bank (fig. 2), and Dr. Griffin had time to present only the highlights of seven of these in chronological order: Montuhotep II, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Seti I, Ramesses II (the Ramesseum), and Ramesses III (Medinet Habu). As always, he had wonderful photographs to share and was a font of fascinating factoids. Swansea has a relief from the temple of Thutmose III (W1371). Ken discovered an unidentified relief, which shows a depiction of Hatshepsut’s daughter Neferure (W1376). Amenhotep III’s temple complex was possibly larger than Karnak. Some interesting facts included that Ramesses II named his horses; one was ‘Victory in Thebes’, and that Ramesses III’ temple was entered through a migdol (a squat Middle Eastern fortified tower), rather than a pylon.

Fig. 2: Memorial Temples on the West Bank of Thebes (My Luxor)

The lecture ended with the ever-popular god/goddess quiz. This blogger admits to never getting a respectable score, but continues to chip away by memorizing a previously unknown god or goddess each time. This week it was Iusaas, a Heliopolitan goddess who is the female counterpart of the male solar-creator principles embodied by Atum (fig. 3). She was sometimes depicted as a woman with a scarab beetle on her head. This blog will now thoughtfully provide helpful answers to questions that no one thought to ask of Dr. Griffin.

Fig. 3: Ramesses III before Atum, Iusaas, and Nebethetepet (Medinet Habu)

You mentioned that the Memorial Temple of Amenhotep III was partially destroyed by an earthquake. Are these well known in ancient Egypt?

They were certainly not a one off. Egypt sits in a seismically-active area. The Fayum lies in a classic ‘stretch-pull basin’ formed as tectonic plates move apart, and the 1992 earthquake centered in Dahshur killed over 500 people. There are hot springs at all the major western desert oases and the Second Cataract. Additionally, the Egyptians had a word for earthquakes, nwr-tꜣ. Many scholars interpret this word as a fuzzy concept, symbolic rather than descriptive of a real event. But it is hard to imagine anyone experiencing an earthquake deeming it conceptual, as though it were performance art. While it is true, archaeologically, that earthquake damage might be difficult to distinguish from that caused by building ‘sag’ or human agency, there are specific accounts in the historic record. (1) The Fourth Dynasty mastaba of Nefermaat at Meidum and the Pyramid temple of Sahure at Abusir. (2) The Twelfth Dynasty rock tombs at el-Bersheh and the Fraser tombs at Tehneh. (3) In 1210 BC, a powerful quake damaged the temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel (fig. 4) and much of the west bank of Thebes, including the funerary temples of Amenhotep III, Ramesses II, Montuhotep II, and Thutmose III.

Fig. 4: The facade of Abu Simbel with damaged statue

How did a non-royal individual come to have a mortuary temple?

Connections and personal genius. Amenhotep son of Hapu was a very influential noble under Amenhotep III. He entered the civil service rather late in life, but rose quickly through ability. He was an architect who supervised many building projects, both civilian and military, including the king’s mortuary temple, the Colossi of Memnon, and the portico of the temple of Karnak. Next, he was appointed steward to the Princess Sitamun. On his death the king raised a stela allowing him to have a mortuary temple near the king’s own. It said in part, “On this day the King was in the ka-chapel of the hereditary prince, count, king’s-scribe, Amenhotep. There were brought in: the governor of the city and vizier, Amenhotep; the overseer of the treasury, Meriptah; and the king’s scribes of the army. The king said to them LPH: Hear the command which is given, to furnish the ka-chapel of the heredity prince, the royal scribe, Amenhotep, called Huy, Son of Hapu, whose excellence is extolled in order to perpetuate his ka-chapel with slaves, male and female, forever; son to son; heir to heir; in order that none trespass upon it forever.” After his death Amenhotep son of Hapu was worshiped as a god and venerated as a healer, just as Imhotep before him (fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Plaster cast of a relief from Karnak depicting Ptolemy III offering to Imhotep and Ptah (EC1959)

When Montuhotep II built his Memorial Temple there were no other buildings in the bay area of Deir el-Bahari. Why did he place his off-center?

Archaeologists have scratched their heads over this one for a century or two, given the ancient Egyptians’ known admiration for symmetry. Perhaps the best answer is that provided by Edouard Naville, “If we consider to ourselves the floor of the valley as it probably was when the site was chosen, we must realize that a considerable shoulder of rock and debris stood forward where Hatshepsut’s temple was afterwards built.” (Naville 1910, p. 13). Building to the west would permit considerably better access for the work. This is illustrated in Fig. 6; imagine that rock spur between the temples continued down a considerable way, but was later cleared by Hatshepsut’s builders.

Fig. 6: Perspective Drawing of Two Temples at Deir el-Bahari (Naville 1910, pl. I)

Why did Ay and Horemheb share a mortuary temple when they were not related to one another?

The usual answer; usurpation. Ay began the construction and finished the inner temple and the inner courtyard. His successor Horemheb took it over, erased Ay’s name, and constructed the rest (fig. 7). This included three pyloned courts, with a small palace in the third, a large peristyle court in front of the temple, and a series of magazines to the left of the temple.

Fig. 7: Plan of the Temple of Ay and Horemheb (Tour Egypt)

 

Were the structures on Thoth Hill Memorial Temples?

Montuhotep III (Sankhkare), a king of the Eleventh Dynasty, built the small mudbrick temple atop Thoth Hill. Adjacent to this was a smaller rectangular structure that most likely was his Sed-festival temple. He is an obscure but interesting figure, known for his expedition to Punt, which returned with a huge store of incense, perfumes, and frankincense resin. He built twelve wells along the trail from Coptos to the Red Sea, in order to establish a regular route. His true Memorial temple was started to the south of Deir el-Bahari, close to that of his father. Its layout involved a causeway leading up to a temple platform. These were never finished, but he was buried in a tomb chamber cut into the rock face behind the temple. Beneath the Middle Kingdom buildings on Thoth Hill lies an Archaic Period (c. 3,200 BC) stone temple (fig. 8), dated by its pottery remains. It comprises a walled enclosure, with what appears to be a pylon entrance and a temple with a single-roomed sanctuary. Nothing is known of its purpose.

Fig. 8: Thoth Hill Archaic Period Temple Plan

Next week we can look forward to Lecture 5 in this series, the elite’s counterpart to the royal memorial temples, “Houses of Eternity”: The Tombs of the Nobles (Deir el-Medina, Sheikh abd-el Qurna, Asasif, South Asasif)!

Bibliography:

Karakhanyan, Arkadi, Ara Avagyan, Mikayel Gevorgyan, Hourig Sourouzian, and Carmen Lopez Roa 2014. Evidence of a strong earthquake in the period between 1200 and 900 BC identified in the temple of Amenhotep III and in other temples of the ancient Thebes. In Capriotti Vittozzi, Giuseppina (ed.), Egyptian curses 1: Proceedings of the Egyptological Day held at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Rome, 3rd December 2012, in the International Conference “Reading catastrophes: methodological approaches and historical interpretation. Earthquakes, floods, famines, epidemics between Egypt and Palestine, 3^rd–1st millennium BC. Rome, 3^rd–4th December 2012, CNR - Sapienza University of Rome”, 43–62. Rome: CNR Edizioni.

Naville, Édouard 1910. The XIth Dynasty temple at Deir el-Bahari. Part II. Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund 30. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.

Robichon, Clément and Alexandre Varille 1936. Le temple du scribe royal Amenhotep, fils de Hapou, I. Fouilles de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale 11. Cairo: l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale.

Ullmann, Martina 2002. Die Häuser der Millionen von Jahren: eine Untersuchung zu Königskult und Tempeltypologie in Ägypten. Ägypten und Altes Testament 51. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

———. 2016. The temples of millions of years at Western Thebes. In Wilkinson, Richard H. and Kent R. Weeks (eds), The Oxford handbook of the Valley of the Kings, 417–432. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vörös, Győző 1998. Temple on the pyramid of Thebes: Hungarian excavations on Thoth Hill at the temple of Pharaoh Montuhotep Sankhkara 1995–1998. Budapest: Százszorszép Kiadó és Nyomda. 

Wilkinson, Richard H. 2000. The complete temples of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson.