Country:Egypt
City, State/Province/Region:Al Uqsur Province
Location:25° 43' 11" N - 32° 36' 2" E
Project Date(s):July 4th, 2004
Release Date(s):January 9th, 2006
Time Range:2573 BCE - 29 BCE
Era:First Intermediate Period, XVIII Dynasty, XIX Dynasty, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom
Culture:Egyptian
Site Authority:Supreme Council of Antiquities
Blog:Ancient Thebes
Heritage Listing:UNESCO World Heritage Site

Site Description:

Ancient Thebes is located along the Nile River, occupying both the east and west banks within the bounds of modern Luxor, and is located 725km (450mi) south of present-day Cairo. The site was relatively small until the First Intermediate Period under rulership of the New Kingdom, during which a line of powerful governors in the XVIII (18th) and XIX (19th) Dynasties made Thebes an important administrative center. The Ramesseum, commissioned by Pharaoh Ramesses II during the 13th century BC, is widely considered to be one of the grandest surviving architectural expressions of the New Kingdom's imperial might.

History:

Named Thebes by Ptolemaic-period Greeks, the city first appeared in Egyptian written records in 2573 BC as Niwt-rst (\"The Southern City\"). It is referenced in the Hebrew Bible as \"No-Amon\" (\"city of Amon\"), and remains an iconic example of the apex of Egyptian civilization as it was the imperial capitol during Egypt\'s most splendid eras. The city housed the temples and monuments of its most famous kings, including Tutankhamen and Ramesses II, whose greatest edifice was his own mortuary temple: the Ramesseum.

The Ramesseum is one of the world\'s most important surviving examples of an ancient Egyptian temple. This mortuary temple was built by and for Ramesses II, ruler of the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt from 1279 -1212 BC, and lies on the site of the ruined temple of Seti I. The Ramesseum\'s 20 years of construction began shortly after Ramesses II ascended to the throne. The main temple is one in a number of building sites clustered in the Necropolis, or \"city of the dead,\" on the west bank of the Nile river at Thebes, capital of the New Kingdom Egyptian Empire. Aside from royal tombs and mortuary temples, evidence of structures once housing priests, soldiers, craftsmen, and laborers can also be found in the west bank complex.

The temple\'s complex is organized along an east-west axis, forming an architectural procession. The monumental first pylon, the first courtyard, the second pylon, the second courtyard, the hypostyle hall, and the sacred inner sanctuary unfold along this east-west path. The temple complex boasts many architectural wonders. The monumental stone entranceway, or pylon, which exhibits elaborate Egyptian carvings, is one of the oldest known pylons to date. The magnificent hypostyle hall, which consisted of a dense grid of columns and was used extensively in Egypt to build large spaces in temples and palaces where people could gather, has a remarkable thirty-four out of the original forty-eight columns intact. These columns provide material evidence of the glorified stories of Ramesses\' omnipotent leadership as well as his relations to the god Amen. The base of the gigantic statue, or colossus, of Ramesses weighed more than 1,000 tons and was admired in the inner court by the public on festival days. Its fragments lie scattered amongst the site and the world\'s museums, struggling to survive centuries of natural erosion as well as looting and vandalism.

These magnificent temple remains serve as a measure of Egypt\'s prosperity at that time. Following Ramesses\' reign, weak rulers, dynastic decay, and earthquakes contributed to the decline of the empire. Thebes itself was sacked and all but destroyed by the Romans in 29 BC; a mere nine years later the city was described as a group of \"scattered villages\" by a Greek traveler. Yet the texts and paintings of the Theban temples and monuments as a whole are a valuable archaeological source of information concerning the people and cultures of neighboring Nubia, Punt, Lybia, Syria, the Hittite empire, and the Aegean civilizations. The Thebes area, which includes not only the Ramesseum necropolis but also Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, and Karnak, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 because of its \"outstanding value to humanity.\"

Project Narrative:

The Ramesseum has been under study by the France\'s CNRS archaeological mission in Egypt since the 1980s. In 2000, INSIGHT began to apply digital techniques in an effort to speed documentation. From 2000-2003, a large number of objects and larger features were captured by the INSIGHT team working with the archaeologists at the site. In August 2004 another set of goals was laid out in order to achieve an accurate sampling of the Ramesseum\'s ground plan for use in publication and conservation of the monument, to relate the 3D scan data acquired to permanent surveyor markers embedded in the mudbrick walls at the perimeter of the Ramesseum, and to document the central area of the Ramesseum (the stone temple) with enough precision to be used in epigraphy--the study of inscriptions on the walls and columns of the stone temple. Two sets of scan data were acquired on site in August 2004, correlated via survey data taken concurrently. Comprehensive HDD coverage for the entire Ramesseum area (including the extensive mud-brick vaults and walls) was acquired along with detailed close-range 3D scans within the stone temple itself (particularly the Hypostyle Hall). Photography, panoramic photography, video and GPS waymarks were also recorded on site. The project was funded by KFF, INSIGHT, and Egyptian Antiquities Information Service (EAIS) as a joint effort among the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), INSIGHT, Ploughman Craven Associates (PCA), and EAIS.

Preservation:

Like most of Egypt\'s great treasures, Thebes and the site of the Ramesseum have been looted for centuries. Located within the boundaries of the heritage site is the village of Gurnah, which poses threats to the site; it is believed that impoverished villagers are looting ancient materials and the village\'s waste water is destroying parts of the site. Relocation of the villagers was considered in 1998, and shortly thereafter 1300 families from Gurnah were forcefully moved to a nearby village. Aside from the destruction caused by present-day inhabitants and past looters, Ramesses II built his \"Ramesseum\" too close to the banks of the Nile, and over the centuries annual floods have ravaged the temple complex. For example, only one colonnade in the first courtyard remains standing, while further from the river, in the Hypostyle Hall, 34 of 48 columns remain. The site is also threatened by overgrown vegetation and nearby agricultural development that continues to raise the water table.

References:

"Thebes, Egypt." AA: Reference. Absolute Astronomy. 24 January 2006 .

ICOMOS. "Nominations on the World Heritage List." Advisory Body Evaluation. 10 April 1979. UNESCO World Heritage Center. 24 January 2006 .

UNESCO. "Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis (Egypt)." State of Conservation Report. 1998. World Heritage Committee. 24 January 2006 .

"Thebes (Egypt)." MSN Encarta. Microsoft Network. 24 January 2006 .

Andrews, M. "The Ramesseum on the West Bank at Luxor, Egypt." Touregypt.net. 24 January 2006

"Thebes, City of Ancient Egypt." The Columbian Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth ed. 2005. Columbia University Press. 24 January 2006 .

"Thebes (Egypt)." MSN Encarta. Microsoft Network. 24 January 2006 .

Quibell, J.E. The Ramessem: Egyptian Research Account, 1896. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1898.

James, T.G.H. Ramesses II. Vercelli, Italy: Friedman/Fairfax, 2002.

"Temple of Ramese II." Egyptian Monuments. EgyptSites. 15 May 2006

External Links:

Wikipedia - Thebes, Egypt
Wikipedia - Ramesseum
NOVA - Ancient Thebes
INSIGHT - Colossus of Ramesses