DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2873#0060
PYLON GATEWAY AT MEDINET-HABOO.
I3IIE Temples of Medinet-Haboo are situated on the western bank of the Nile, and probably
mark the position of the chief portion of the city of Thebes which lay on that side of the
river. This group of temples and of pylon gateways, although not so impressively grand
t as those of Karnao, are yet of sufficient interest to class amongst the most important m
Egypt.
Every age of Egyptian history is represented by one or other of these ruined piles. The
place, however, is dreadfully encumbered with heaps of shapeless ruin, and still more with perfect mountains
of the debris of deserted Arab towns under which the further portions of the great temple are absolutely
buried. One can only guess how much more of magnificence and interest might reward the efforts of a
vigorous excavating party.
We shall give, at a future time, a view of the temple-palace which first strikes the traveller as he
approaches the group from the plain. Its peculiar large square windows are novelties in Egyptian
architecture.
There are two principal divisions of the ruins of Medinet-Haboo, of which one is formed by the Temple
of Thothmes and the other by that of Barneses III. It is the former which is entered by that interesting-
Pylon Gatewajr which bears on its exterior the representations of the victories of the Ethiopian sovereign
of Egypt, Pharaoh Taharaka, over his numerous foes, amongst whom the characteristic physiognomy of the
Hebrew stamp of countenance is very conspicuous. In most places, however, the name of Taharaka has been
assiduously chiselled out by some succeeding, and probably more popular and national monarch. On another
part of this Pylon are the names of Nectanebus, Ptolemy Soter, and Ptolemy Philometor. The whole of the
Pylon itself appears to have been built of the stones of a former Temple of Rameses II. The Temple of
Thothmes, with which this gateway was connected, bears an inscription indicating its dedication as a Hall
for the religious festivals of Anion Ra. Amongst the latest records contained in it are some which bear the
name of Antoninus. One of the dedicatory inscriptions on the front pylon runs thus—"The Son of the
Sun, Ptolemy, the Ever-living, the Beloved of Isis, the Saviour God, has erected this for a monument to
his Father, the first-created One, without whom was nothing created." Amon has a similar title in an
inscription in the Temple of Ape at Karnac, but with an addition stating that he is invisible except when
it is agreeable to him to manifest himself by some outward appearance. In one part of the same range at
Medinet-Haboo are the colonnade and walls of a small hyp.ssthral temple like that on the Isle of Philaj, and
bearing inscriptions of the period of King Nectanebus.
But perhaps nothing will strike the traveller more, as he wanders through these wonderful ruins, than
the succession of pylon gateways, leading from one immense sculptured court to another. The one now
represented is, I believe, the third from the entrance. The court into which it opens has been previously
depicted and described.
I3IIE Temples of Medinet-Haboo are situated on the western bank of the Nile, and probably
mark the position of the chief portion of the city of Thebes which lay on that side of the
river. This group of temples and of pylon gateways, although not so impressively grand
t as those of Karnao, are yet of sufficient interest to class amongst the most important m
Egypt.
Every age of Egyptian history is represented by one or other of these ruined piles. The
place, however, is dreadfully encumbered with heaps of shapeless ruin, and still more with perfect mountains
of the debris of deserted Arab towns under which the further portions of the great temple are absolutely
buried. One can only guess how much more of magnificence and interest might reward the efforts of a
vigorous excavating party.
We shall give, at a future time, a view of the temple-palace which first strikes the traveller as he
approaches the group from the plain. Its peculiar large square windows are novelties in Egyptian
architecture.
There are two principal divisions of the ruins of Medinet-Haboo, of which one is formed by the Temple
of Thothmes and the other by that of Barneses III. It is the former which is entered by that interesting-
Pylon Gatewajr which bears on its exterior the representations of the victories of the Ethiopian sovereign
of Egypt, Pharaoh Taharaka, over his numerous foes, amongst whom the characteristic physiognomy of the
Hebrew stamp of countenance is very conspicuous. In most places, however, the name of Taharaka has been
assiduously chiselled out by some succeeding, and probably more popular and national monarch. On another
part of this Pylon are the names of Nectanebus, Ptolemy Soter, and Ptolemy Philometor. The whole of the
Pylon itself appears to have been built of the stones of a former Temple of Rameses II. The Temple of
Thothmes, with which this gateway was connected, bears an inscription indicating its dedication as a Hall
for the religious festivals of Anion Ra. Amongst the latest records contained in it are some which bear the
name of Antoninus. One of the dedicatory inscriptions on the front pylon runs thus—"The Son of the
Sun, Ptolemy, the Ever-living, the Beloved of Isis, the Saviour God, has erected this for a monument to
his Father, the first-created One, without whom was nothing created." Amon has a similar title in an
inscription in the Temple of Ape at Karnac, but with an addition stating that he is invisible except when
it is agreeable to him to manifest himself by some outward appearance. In one part of the same range at
Medinet-Haboo are the colonnade and walls of a small hyp.ssthral temple like that on the Isle of Philaj, and
bearing inscriptions of the period of King Nectanebus.
But perhaps nothing will strike the traveller more, as he wanders through these wonderful ruins, than
the succession of pylon gateways, leading from one immense sculptured court to another. The one now
represented is, I believe, the third from the entrance. The court into which it opens has been previously
depicted and described.