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The Monuments

Pharaoh

Why do Pharaohs build such gargantuan monuments?

  • On a basic level, Pharaoh needed their name to be remembered; their daily items for life, including food, clothing and servants; their mummy to be undisturbed
  • All this was necessary for a restful and complete Afterlife
  • A Tomb would contain the items, or representations of the needed items, for their daily life and should have ensured their mummy was unmolested but their name needed to be remembered
  • Therefore, erecting Temples, Obelisks, Shrines and additions to Temples would help Pharaoh be thought of positively by the Gods during Pharaoh’s lifetime and entrench Pharaoh’s name in history

 

The Insurance Policy

Pharaoh’s insurance policy was the Mortuary Temple which would be built for the sole purpose of venerating the deceased Pharaoh and for the depositing of food and objects for Pharaoh’s use in the Afterlife to ensure Pharaoh intervened with the Deities on behalf of Egypt.

 

Plagiarism?

Although many Pharaoh’s built original works, some simply erased the Cartouche of other Pharaoh’s and inserted their own to make it appear that they had contributed more to a Temple, for example, than they actually had.

The Builders: Hatshepsut

  • Red Chapel, Karnak Temple, Thebes
  • Restored Precinct of Mut, Karnak Temple, Thebes
  • Twinned Obelisks, Karnak Temple entranceway, Thebes
  • 2 Obelisks to celebrate her reign – one broke and remains in the Quarry
  • Temple of Pakhet, Beni Hasan
  • Mortuary Temple, Deir el-Bahri, Thebes

The Builders: Seti I

  • Temple of Amun at Karnak Temple, Thebes
  • Hypostyle Hall and Military Campaign Reliefs on North Exterior Wall, Karnak Temple, Thebes
  • Mortuary Temple, Abydos
  • The Osirian, Abydos
  • Mortuary Temple at Qurna, Thebes
  • Temple at Elephantine
  • Temple at Buhen
  • Desert Temple, North Edfu
  • Obelisks and Statues at Heliopolis
  • Tomb in Valley of the Kings

The Builders: Ramses II

  • Mansions of Eternity, Abu Simbel
  • Mortuary Temple Ramesseum
  • Capital City Pi-Ramesses
  • Additions to the Karnak Temple, Thebes
  • Obelisks and Statues at Heliopolis
  • Tomb in Valley of the Kings
  • Completed his father’s Mortuary Temple at Abydos
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