KEY EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS
Ensuring a legacy
From temples to tombs, bigger was definitely better in the eyes of the pharaohs and their gods
Words: Rhiannon Davies
The Giza Necropolis
Constructed as tombs for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the pyramids of Giza are one of the defining images of ancient Egypt. Khufu’s pyramid (known as the Great Pyramid) is the biggest and oldest of the three, originally stretching 147 metres into the air.
The three pyramids have been extensively looted, with thieves even stripping the outer layers of limestone. This has knocked several metres off the Great Pyramid’s height.
Karnak
This temple complex in the city of Thebes is famously home to the temple of Amun, a god who was almost universally honoured by pharaohs. Scores of Egyptian rulers expanded the temple, with Sety I and Ramesses II building and decorating the Great Hypostyle Hall – the inscribed pillars of which are shown above.
Ramesseum
Built by Ramesses II, this mortuary temple was meant to be a staggering site at Thebes. Featuring a 17-metre-tall statue of Ramesses, the temple’s walls were carved with his military achievements. However, time hasn’t been kind to the temple and much of it has crumbled, with remnants littering the ground.
Temple of Hatshepsut
Queen Hatshepsut was determined to make her reign seem as impressive as possible, and the intricately decorated mortuary temple she commissioned at Deir el-Bahri certainly helped her achieve this.
It was styled after Mentuhotep II’s mortuary temple – a smaller complex that’s located right next door. Although parts of the building were defaced by her successor, Thutmose III, it certainly remained an imposing site.
Abu Simbel
This image shows two of the four 20-metre-tall statues of Ramesses II that frame the main temple of Abu Simbel, which is dedicated to the deified king and the gods Ra-Horakhty, Amun-Ra and Ptah. Hewn from a sandstone cliff, the imposing temples were lost until 1813.
Saqqara
This huge necropolis in Memphis is the resting place of high-ranking Egyptians stretching back to the days before the nation became one united land.
However, Saqqara is most famous for the Step Pyramid (pictured), commissioned by Djoser and built from blocks of stone.
DID YOU KNOW?
ON THE MOVE
In 1968, construction of the Aswan High Dam saw the temples at Abu Simbel dismantled and relocated to a desert plateau 64 metres (about 200ft) above and 180 metres (600ft) west of their original site to save them from being flooded.