Medinet Habu

The Mortuary Temple of Rameses III seeks to generally survey this magnificent architectural construction from the 20th Dynasty, generally considered the last major building project of the New Kingdom that has withstood the test of time and man, and today able to exhibit the great potential of historical and architectural wonder the structure represents. The Table of Contents reads: An Introduction; Poem to the Temple of Medinet Habu; The Tomb of Rameses III; Places of the name of Rameses III; Medinet Habu: A History; The Temple of Medinet Habu: Another Look, with Conclusions and References, that seeks to attempt a number of things with this important 'Mansion of Millions of Years.' Beyond introducing the temple to visitors, students and even specialists, a Poem praises the temple for its magnificence and defying time. In addition, because of the significance of the tomb of Rameses III, a graphic description, written when the temple was first cleared in the late 1888s, is reproduced because it highlights all the salient features that then survived the ravages of time and man. More particularly, and just as the both tomb and temple have undergone changes, features observed over a century ago and may have disappeared with the influx of throngs of people who go there these days. Much more important, however, this work seeks to identify (some of the) places where the name of Rameses III has been preserved , whether in his temple and tomb, on civic structures, in museums and private collections, wherever, to reflect on how significant a ruler this, the last of the emperors of Egypt really was. Even more, the book seeks to put the temple in a historical context that also praises the excavators who rescued this magnificent piece of divinely inspired architecture, from a time when ancient man believed in the attributes and actions of a divine being, whom they made every effort to please because their destiny in the afterlife depended on how well, while on earth, they treated their fellow man and the gods, and how they stood before their god. Photographs, many in color, and Illustration provide the graphic view of important features of the temple that would familiarize the visitor and help in facilitating the functions of a Guide Book. 3