Restoring Ramesseum Temple
Egypt, Local, 4/22/2004

The Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) is working out a plan to restore the Ramesseum temple on the west bank in Luxor.

The temple, however, has been subject since 1959 to a registration process.

The SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawass said that a team from the Louvre Museum has been cooperating with SCA experts in registering all elements of the temple, even the inscriptions on the walls.

Registration includes photography, architectural surveying and sketching.

Such a huge archive is preserved on special cards available at the Antiquities Registration Center.

The cleansing operation conducted at the temple revealed certain elements, such as the foundation of the sanctuary, which helped complete the chart of the temple.

Excavations maintained at the southern side of the temple over the past few years uncovered remains of mud-brick structures representing the kitchen, a bakery and administrative rooms which were all restored.

Architectural and archaeological studies as well as others related to the soil and subterranean water will be conducted to save the Ramesseum, which is in bad condition owing to several earthquakes that hit the country centuries ago.

The two towers of the first chapel will be dismantled and reinstalled following restoration as the stone bloc itself is in very bad condition.

The SCA also intends to reassemble and install the 1000 ton-colossus of Ramsis ll sitting on his throne, which is the largest piece of stone ever carved by the ancient Egyptians in rose granite.

As explained by Abdul Hamid Maaruf, Director of the Registration Centre, the Ramesseum is one of the huge funerary temples established by Ramsis II (1292-1235 BC).

Its grandeur and gigantic structure reveals that its purpose was to show the status of Ramsis II.

The temple is surrounded by a huge mud-brick wall, 270 meters long and 175 meters wide, but most of the area within is occupied by storehouses and secondary structures.

The temple consists of several parts.

The interior of the first pylon bears inscriptions and drawings of the Qadesh battles in which the Pharaoh defeated the Hitittes.

The pylon is followed by the first court, which is pulled down.

It used to consist of two rows of columns in the southern part.

The north part of the court lad a row of columns that end with the god Osiris.

To the left of the second pylon there are remains of the 17-metre high colossus of Ramsis.

The temple is flanked from three sides by passages and storehouses of dome ceilings that were used for storing grains, leather, beer and oil that belonged to the temple priests and employees.

Previous Stories:
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  Reopening, restoring Kalabsha Island temples   (4/15/2004)
  Shura Council of Ptolemaic rule discovered in Fayyoum   (4/8/2004)

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