DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0468
THEBES.
The memorial chapels belonging to these tombs were built in the plain between the
mountains and the Nile. The temple of Kurnah is a cenotaph erected by Seti I. to the
memory of his father, Rameses I. ; the tombs of both are in the Valley of the Kings, and that
of Seti, generally known as Belzoni's from the name of its discoverer, is the most famous of all
these tombs, not only for its length (which measures four hundred and seventy feet from the
entrance to the fallen rock which now blocks up the end), but for the beauty and extent of its
wall sculptures, now unhappily greatly defaced by exposure and vandalism. The alabaster
sarcophagus which Belzoni found here is now in the Soane Museum ; but Seti's body was
discovered among the mummies in the pit at Deyr El-Bahry, and is in the Bulak Museum, side
by side with the other great Theban monarchs. The next temple was famous in classical times
as the "Tomb of Ozymandias" or "of Memnon," but it is really the memorial chapel erected
by Rameses the Great to his own glory, and therefore with better reason called the Rameseum.
Of this splendid monument, which once had the full array of temple ornament—its two noble
gateways, its open court surrounded by a cloister supported by caryatid columns, leading to a
hall of many columns, where the heavy stone roofing slabs lent a religious shade to the covered
sanctuary beyond—little remains. The lofty gateways are half destroyed, most of the Osiride
cloister has disappeared ; but the long central vista of tall calyx-topped columns, and the side
aisles of lower lotus bud capitals, representing the well-proportioned and well-spaced " hall of
assembly," are enough to show that the Rameseum must have been one of the most perfect
of all the monuments of Egypt. As we stand in the shadow of the mighty columns, on which
the successors of the Pharaohs have here and there painted the figure of a Christian saint, we
begin to realise the majesty of the Theban sanctuary and the magnificence of the king who
could rear such a temple to his praise. There on the pylons are the spectacles of his triumphs ;
above all the supreme scene where, deserted by his body-guard and surrounded by the enemy,
Rameses throws himself alone into the thick of the fray, with his single arm deals death
around him, kills with his own hand the chief of the Khetas, crushes the flying foe under his
chariot wheels ; and, when his officers crowd before him with servile felicitations, denounces
them for their cowardice, as the proud inscription runs: " The princes and captains did
not join hands with me in fight; by myself have I done battle; I have put to flight thou-
sands of nations, and I was all alone!" The great conqueror was never wearied of
recalling this deed of prowess; we see it twice in the Rameseum, again at Luxor, at
Karnak, at Abu-Simbel ; and close beside the sculptured record of his courage, on the
second pylon of the Rameseum, lie the shattered fragments of the statue of Rameses him-
self, " the most gigantic figure that the Egyptians ever carved out of a single block of
granite." This huge colossus once measured fifty-seven feet in height and weighed nearly
twelve hundred tons ; but now it lies strewn upon the earth, broken, by what superhuman
power we cannot guess, into a hundred pieces (see page 435). Shelley's fine description of
the face, quoted beneath the cut, is almost as imaginative as his interpretation of the hiero-
glyphic inscription.
The memorial chapels belonging to these tombs were built in the plain between the
mountains and the Nile. The temple of Kurnah is a cenotaph erected by Seti I. to the
memory of his father, Rameses I. ; the tombs of both are in the Valley of the Kings, and that
of Seti, generally known as Belzoni's from the name of its discoverer, is the most famous of all
these tombs, not only for its length (which measures four hundred and seventy feet from the
entrance to the fallen rock which now blocks up the end), but for the beauty and extent of its
wall sculptures, now unhappily greatly defaced by exposure and vandalism. The alabaster
sarcophagus which Belzoni found here is now in the Soane Museum ; but Seti's body was
discovered among the mummies in the pit at Deyr El-Bahry, and is in the Bulak Museum, side
by side with the other great Theban monarchs. The next temple was famous in classical times
as the "Tomb of Ozymandias" or "of Memnon," but it is really the memorial chapel erected
by Rameses the Great to his own glory, and therefore with better reason called the Rameseum.
Of this splendid monument, which once had the full array of temple ornament—its two noble
gateways, its open court surrounded by a cloister supported by caryatid columns, leading to a
hall of many columns, where the heavy stone roofing slabs lent a religious shade to the covered
sanctuary beyond—little remains. The lofty gateways are half destroyed, most of the Osiride
cloister has disappeared ; but the long central vista of tall calyx-topped columns, and the side
aisles of lower lotus bud capitals, representing the well-proportioned and well-spaced " hall of
assembly," are enough to show that the Rameseum must have been one of the most perfect
of all the monuments of Egypt. As we stand in the shadow of the mighty columns, on which
the successors of the Pharaohs have here and there painted the figure of a Christian saint, we
begin to realise the majesty of the Theban sanctuary and the magnificence of the king who
could rear such a temple to his praise. There on the pylons are the spectacles of his triumphs ;
above all the supreme scene where, deserted by his body-guard and surrounded by the enemy,
Rameses throws himself alone into the thick of the fray, with his single arm deals death
around him, kills with his own hand the chief of the Khetas, crushes the flying foe under his
chariot wheels ; and, when his officers crowd before him with servile felicitations, denounces
them for their cowardice, as the proud inscription runs: " The princes and captains did
not join hands with me in fight; by myself have I done battle; I have put to flight thou-
sands of nations, and I was all alone!" The great conqueror was never wearied of
recalling this deed of prowess; we see it twice in the Rameseum, again at Luxor, at
Karnak, at Abu-Simbel ; and close beside the sculptured record of his courage, on the
second pylon of the Rameseum, lie the shattered fragments of the statue of Rameses him-
self, " the most gigantic figure that the Egyptians ever carved out of a single block of
granite." This huge colossus once measured fifty-seven feet in height and weighed nearly
twelve hundred tons ; but now it lies strewn upon the earth, broken, by what superhuman
power we cannot guess, into a hundred pieces (see page 435). Shelley's fine description of
the face, quoted beneath the cut, is almost as imaginative as his interpretation of the hiero-
glyphic inscription.