Medinet Habu (; ; ; ) is an archaeological locality situated near the foot of the Theban Hills on the West Bank of the River Nile opposite the modern city of Luxor, Egypt. Although other structures are located within the area and important discoveries have also been made at these sites, the location is today associated almost synonymously with the largest and best preserved site, the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III. It was an important New Kingdom period temple structure in the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt. Aside from its size and architectural and artistic importance, the mortuary temple is probably best known as the source of inscribed reliefs depicting the advent and defeat of the "sea peoples" during the reign of Ramesses III (c. 1186–1155 BC), including the Battle of the Delta. Some of the building materials were re-used from earlier monuments including the destroyed mortuary temple of Tausret (c. 1191–1189 BC) the last known ruler and the final pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt.McClain, J. Brett, and W. Raymond Johnson, "A Fragment from the Reign of Tausret Reused at Medinet Habu", Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, pp. 177-186, 2013 The Greco-Roman period temple to Isis, Deir el-Shelwit, lies 4 kilometers to the south and re-used inscribed blocks from Medinet Habu were found there.Christiane M. Zivie, "Le Temple de Deir Chelouit I–III", Cairo: IFAO, 1982–1986
The site of these temples included an inhabited human settlement since pharaonic times, which continued until the 9th century, by which time it was a Coptic center called Jeme. The last remnants of the former town were cleared during the excavations at the end of the 19th century.An Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature - Medinet HabuCromwell, Jennifer, "The Archival History of Coptic Documents from Jeme Held in the British Library", Current Research in Egyptology 2006: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Symposium. University of Oxford, pp. 54-65, 2006
Located adjacent to Medinet Habu, north of the outer wall, lies the poorly preserved memorial Temple of Ay (c. 1323–1319 BC) and Horemheb (c. 1300 BC). The temple was originally built by Ay and later usurped by Horemheb who removed all inscriptions and images of Ay.Kawai, Nozomu, "Ay versus horemheb: the political situation in the late eighteenth dynasty revisited", Journal of Egyptian History 3.2, pp. 261-292, 2010Schaden, O.J., "Clearance of the Tomb of Ay (WV-23)", JARCE 21, pp. 39–64, 1984 A large Quartzite statue of a Pharaoh that was usurped to represent Horemheb was excavated from the ruins of the Ay and Horemheb temple in the 1930s, and is now on display in the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC). Traces of previous cartouches on the statue confirm that the statue was originally of Tutankhamun, which was overwritten by cartouches of Ay and later Horemheb when the later pharaohs repurposed the statue for the temple.
Just to the northwest of Medinet Habu the Oriental Institute of Chicago, now called ISAC, excavated a large late Roman period cemetery. Most of the graves had been plundered but a number of artifacts, including 66 mummy tags inscribed in Greek were recovered.Wilfong, Terry G., "Mummy Labels from the Oriental Institute's Exavations at Medinet Habu", The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 32.3/4, pp. 157-181, 1995
Etymology
The origins of the name Medinet Habu are unknown. The earliest attestations are the ones of European cartographers of the 17th–18th centuries who mention it as "Habu", "Medineh el Habou" and "Medinet Habu", with variants "Medinet Abu" and "Medinet Tabu".
The proposed etymologies include derivation from Coptic name for Luxor () or from a name of high official of the 18th dynasty who was later deified known as Amenhotep, son of Hapu, (), but neither of them is considered plausible, as they do not explain the final long -u. The folk etymology attributes the name to a mythical king named Habu.Carsten Peust, "Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten", 2010
The old Arabic name of the place, Gabal Shama, () comes from Djami (), which in turn is derived from Ancient Egyptian ḏꜣmwt, of unclear etymology. The Bohairic Coptic form Tchami () comes from Demotic Tḏmꜣʾ, which is preceded by a feminine article, as also seen in Sahidic . Whether Thebes () should be a phonetic rendering of the Egyptian name is disputed.
In Greek the area was known as Memnonia () or Kastron Memnonionos () and was associated with Memnon. This name survives in Colossi of Memnon.
Archaeology
The first European to describe the temple in modern literature was Vivant Denon, who visited it in 1799–1801. Vivant Denon, "Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt", vol. II, London, 1803 Jean-François Champollion spent a fortnight and a half at the site, as (Médinet-Habou), in 1829 as part of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition. Jean-François Champollion "Lettres écrites d'Égypte et de Nubie en 1828 et 1829 by Jean-François Champollion", 1868 John Gardner Wilkinson during 12 years in Egypt recording inscriptions and paintings spent a long period at Thebes.Wilkinson, J. G., "Topography of Thebes, and General View of Egypt", London: John Murray, 1835John Gardner Wilkinson, "Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians, including their private life, government, laws, art, manufactures, religions, and early history", plate 76, London, 1837 A Prussian expedition led by Karl Richard Lepsius worked in Thebes, mainly at Medinet Habu, from November 1844 until April 1845. Carl Richard Lepsius, "Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien nach den zeichnungen der von Seiner Majestaet dem koenige von Preussen Friedrich Wilhelm IV", III, Berlin, 1849Karl Richard Lepsius, "Briefe aus Aegypten, Aethiopien und der Halbinsel des Sinai geschrieben in den Jahren 1842–1845 während der auf Befehl Sr. Majestät des Königs Friedrich Wilhelm IV von Preußen ausgeführten wissenschaftlichen Expedition", Berlin: Verlag von Wilhelm Hertz (Bessersche Buchhandlung), 1852 - Translated into English as "Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia and the Peninsula of Sinai", London: Richard Bentley, 1852
Work, under the direction of Georges Daressy, Marius Bonnefoy, and Charles Gabet, on the temple took place sporadically between 1859 and 1899, under the auspices of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities to prepare it for tourism. During these decades the main temple was cleared, and a large number of the Greco-Roman period buildings, including a substantial Byzantine Church in the second court, were destroyed without notes or records being taken.G. Daressy, "Notice explicative des ruines de Médinet Habou", Cairo: Imprimerie Nationale, 1897G. Daressy, "Inscriptions de la chapelle d’Amenirtis à Médinet-Habou", RT 23, pp. 4–18, 1901 Georges Émile Jules Daressy, "Plaquettes émaillées de Medinet-Habou, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte, vol. XI, 1911
Theodore M. Davis excavated at Medinet Habu in 1913 focusing primarily on the "Palace" of Rameses III along the southern side of the mortuary temple. Theodore M. Davis, "The Late Theodore M. Davis's Excavation at Thebes in 1912-13. II. Excavations at Medinet Habu", The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Volume 11, 1916Borchardt, Ludwig, "Amerikanische Ausgrabungen in Medinet Habu im Jahre 1913", Klio, vol. 15, no. 15, pp. 179-183, 1918
The further excavation, recording and conservation of the temple has been facilitated in chief part by the Architectural and Epigraphic Surveys of the University of Chicago Oriental Institute, almost continuously since 1924. The Architectural Survey, led by Uvo Hölscher, worked for five seasons until 1932. At the start the complex was "covered for the most part with mounds of rubbish ranging in height from 3 to 6 meters, the remains of houses from the former Coptic town of Habu". At the start of work they reported that the "Egyptian Antiquities Service was excavating Medinet Habu in spring 1925, clearing an area in the south of the precinct, west of the Palace" activity which is otherwise not recorded.Schmied, Julia, "Doors to the Past. Rediscovering Fragments in the New Blockyard at Medinet Habu", Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists, Archaeopress, pp.563-568, 2017 The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Epigraphic Survey under the direction of Harold Hayden Nelson also began in 1924 and the program continues to the present day, excepting a closure between 1940 and 1946 due to World War II. In 1948 Richard Anthony Parker became director of the Epigraphic Survey, followed by George Hughes, Charles Nims, Edward F. Wente, Kent Weeks, Lanny Bell, Peter Dorman, and W. Raymond Johnson in succeeding years. The survey has worked on the long process of photographing, recording, and publishing all reliefs and inscriptions at Medinet Habu.EPIGRAPHIC SURVEY - W. Raymond Johnson - Oriental Institute Annual Report 2013-2014, pp. 47-66, 2014EPIGRAPHIC SURVEY - J. BRETT McCLAIN - Oriental Institute Annual Report 2022-2023 - pp. 27-37 - 2023 Emily Teeter, "Chicago on the Nile: A Century of Work by the Epigraphic Survey of the University of Chicago", ISAC Museum Publications 2, Chicago: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 2024
Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III
The temple, some long, is of orthodox design, and closely resembles the nearby mortuary temple of Ramesses II (the Ramesseum). The full formal name of the temple was "The Temple of Usermare-Meriamon (called) 'United-with-Eternity' in the estate of Amon on the West of Thebes".Nelson, Harold H., "The Identity of Amon-Re of United-with-Eternity", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 127–55, 1942 Many of the inscriptions and scenes are in similar locations and in some cases largely copied. C. F. Nims, "Ramesseum Sources of Medinet Habu Reliefs", Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes, January 12, 1977. J. H. Johnson and E. F. Wente, eds., Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 39, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, pp. 169-176, 1976 The temple precinct measures approximately . by and contains more than of decorated wall reliefs. The temple contains 48 rooms of which 8 constitute the Mortuary Suite of Rameses III. The reliefs in the Mortuary Suite were devoted to the funerary process of Rameses III as Osiride king. The remaining rooms contain reliefs showing the various acts of the living pharaoh.Lesko, Barbara Switalski, "Royal mortuary suites of the Egyptian New Kingdom", American Journal of Archaeology 73.4, pp. 453-458, 1969 Its walls are relatively well preserved and it is surrounded by a massive mudbrick inner enclosure wall. A radiocarbon sample from the wall yielded a date of 1050-1020 ± 50BC. Fishman, Bernard, Hamish Forbes, and Barbara Lawn, "University of Pennsylvania radiocarbon dates XIX", Radiocarbon 19.2, pp. 188-228, 1977 The area between the temple and inner wall originally held numerous temple outbuildings now mostly lost.
The entire south wall is inscribed with a liturgical calendar containing 1470 lines of hieroglyphs.Johannes Dümichen, "Die kalendarischen Opferfestlisten von Medinet-Habu", 1881 The Ramesseum of Ramesses II was used as a source for much of the text though that exemplar is now much damaged. The text is mainly lists of offerings to be prepared for daily, monthly, and annual feasts. Those dates are in the civil calendar (vs one of the two Egyptian religious calendars).Clagett, Marshall, "Introduction Extracts from the Calendar of the Temple at Medinet Habu in Western Thebes", Ancient Egyptian Science, Vol. II: Calendars, Clocks, and Astronomy, Memoirs, American Philosophical Society (vol. 214), Philadelphia, PA: The American Philosophical Society Press, pp. 255-267, 1995Spalinger, Anthony, "The lunar system in festival calendars: from the New Kingdom onwards", Bulletin de la Société d'Egyptologie 19, pp. 25-40, 1995 An excerpt from Ramesses Ill's Address to Amon-Re: