The mortuary temple of Merenptah
(Merneptah), Ramesses II's
thirteenth son and successor,
was mostly destroyed long ago, but recently has been restored to a large degree
and is one of the newest of the sites on the West
Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes)
available for
sightseeing. The restoration work was completed by the Swiss Institute of
Archaeology in collaboration with Egypt's Supreme Council of
 Antiquities
(SCA). In addition, a modern museum has been built near the temple complex in
order to display items unearthed during the excavations.
Left: Merenptah's Mortuary temple before restoration
During these excavations and restorations, the archaeological team made a
number of discoveries, including blocks from a monumental gateway, fragments of
a colossal limestone sphinx and parts of nine jackal-headed sphinxes. We are
told by the project director, Horst Jaritz, that some of these objects were
stunning. For example, he notes the find of astonishingly well preserved
polychrome reliefs of Amenhotep
III, which may be the finest examples known from
Egyptian history.
The New Museum
The structure, which reused considerable material (including statuary) from
other monuments (including those of Hatshepsut and
Akhenaten), especially those
of Amenhotep III mortuary temple, was excavated by Petrie. However, it should be
noted that Amenhotep III's mortuary temple was almost completely destroyed prior
to Merenptah's quarrying of its stone. Petrie discovered the famous Israel Stele
here in 1896. However, this stele too was originally made for Amenhotep III. But
it was Merenptah, a 19th Dynasty
King, that had the text recarved on its reverse side to describe his
victories over the Libyans and other foreign people, including the earliest
known historical reference to Israel.
Plan of the Mortuary Temple of Merenptah
 Interestingly,
the original destruction of Merenptah's temple complex resulted from the same
forces that took Amenhotep III's structure. Built not far away from the more
ancient temple of Amenhotep III, a Nile flood first swept away the two pylons
leading into the temple, along with the first hypostyle hall, its side chambers,
the second hypostyle hall and even the cult chapels. Soon the rest of the
building also collapsed. This was not unlike the destruction of Amenhotep III's
complex, though the earlier king's mortuary temple was built so close to the
flood plan that a flood was not required for its demise.
Right: an Osiride Statue of Merenptah
The temple, though much smaller than his fathers (just over half as large),
nevertheless copies much of the Ramesseum's design. It is basically the same,
only scaled down in size. Like his father's monument, this mortuary temple
featured a forecourt with columns along its sides, and a palace adjoining the
southern wall. Also, the second court featured Osiride pillars at least on its
inner side, and may have also had Osiride statues of the king. After the second
court was a twelve columned hypostyle hall, in turn followed by an eight
columned and then an inner sanctuary with related chapels. Here was also found a
court with a large sun altar.
There we mudbrick buildings along the sides of the temple including a complex
of storage annexes to the north where a "treasury" was found. A small
sacred lake lay to the south within an extension of the complex. The complex as
a whole was then surrounded by a mudbrick enclosure wall.
References:
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