Dr. Campbell Price

That's how it's called if you visit Egypt today.

For more recent times, it was called the Memnonium because it was associated with Memnon, which is actually a name given to the colossi of Memnon, which are associated with Amenhotep III.

But in ancient times, it was known as a mansion of millions of years.

So this is a little hobby horse of mine.

I don't like referring to these as funerary temples or mortuary temples because this overemphasizes death.

It's not about death.

It's not about mourning the king.

It's about the king becoming united with the gods.

And so Ramesses II's temple really is vast.

And it's one of the first, if not the first, that has the outer pylon gateway made of stone.

Previous temples had them made of mud brick and they simply haven't survived.

But now I know that there's colleagues in Egypt are working on the restoration of the pylon so it should be more visitable and more visible.

in future, it really was an impressive structure and it was the direct inspiration for one of Ramses' successors, Ramses III.

So basically his temple, what's now called Medinet Habu, is not a carbon copy but an homage to the mansion of millions of years of Ramses II called the Ramesseum today.

No, this is an important point.

It's

willfully consciously at a distance from the tomb and that's from the valley of the kings the valley of the kings is the cemetery that's where the the royal sepulchers are which is you know over a kilometer away but the the temple is for people to visit to leave offerings and to celebrate the eternal

Cult of the king, the union of the king with various gods.

Indeed!

The younger Memnon, yes.