Position 68 - Looking South Over The Theban Plain And The Temples Of Medinet Habu From The Cemetery Of Abd El-kurna

We have looked out over this splendid prospect before, when we climbed up here to visit the tomb of Sen-nofer. As you will remember, we are facing almost due south (a little west), on our left are Karnak, the river and the western plain, of which we have the southern extension before us (Maps 8 and 9). Behind us are Der el-Bahri, and that long reach of the river on its northward journey, which we saw from the heights over the terraced temple (Position 73).

In the distance on the left we see the eastern cliffs dropping to the river, which is not visible, though it flows along at the foot of the heights, there where the point descends to the plain. Those heights are about fifteen miles away, and they bound on the south the Theban plain on the other side of the river. The stretch of fields between those distant cliffs and these on which we now stand is one of the most fertile districts in Egypt, as it is certainly one of the most beautiful.

The little white house directly before us, with five windows in the front, and flanked by a group of trees, is the home of Mr. Newberry, who has carried on excavations in the Theban cemetery for years, and occupies this house every winter. In the summer, when the excessive heat does not permit the continuance of such work, it is unoccupied and left in charge of a servant.

The excavating archaeologist, however, does not always have as comfortable quarters as we see here, or as we found at Der el-Bahri; he must frequently live in a tent, or in a hastily constructed hut of sun-dried brick, material which can be found on almost any ancient site; or what is best of all, he moves into one of these tomb chapels here, which form a high, dry, clean and comfortable lodging if properly furnished. Some of the tombs here are known by the names of the great Egyptologists who have lived in them while working at Thebes.

In so doing, the Egyptologist simply follows the example of the natives, who occupy these tomb chambers in large numbers, and many a fine inscription or important painting has been destroyed because a native has lived in the chamber himself with his family, or kept his buffalo cow and his chickens there. Thus the chamber where some high-born Egyptian gentlemen had expected to lodge for all eternity is now the shelter of his degenerate descendants, or has even become their cattle shed. This is, of course, no longer allowed in a chamber where any inscriptions of value can still be recovered.

Over the shoulder of the next hill you see the massive towers of Medinet Habu. The main building there is the latest in this line of western temples, as it is also the southern end of the line. You will remember that we have just visited the north end at Kurna. This temple before us was built by Ramses III, at the beginning of the 20th Dynasty, early in the 12th century B. C.

It is the last great building of the old native Pharaohs, and marks the final effort of a decadent people to withstand the inevitable decline into which they have fallen; a hopeless struggle, after which they sank lower and lower to the end. On the right of the group you discern the great pylons of the main temple, bathed in sunshine—two of them, each divided as usual into two towers, the interval between the towers looking like a notch in the top of each pylon. That is the great temple of Ramses III.

On the left of the group, but not at the extreme left, you see a square tower standing alone, with two windows on each side. That tower is one of a pair, the other being so in the shadow that you can hardly make it out, which formed the monumental entrance to a great palace of Ramses III, which stood before his temple. The palace was built of sun-dried brick and has perished, but the entrance towers, being of stone, have survived, and to-day form the only specimen of such architecture which we have in Egypt. They are usually called the Pavilion.

On the left of the Pavilion you observe some indistinct buildings forming the extreme left of the whole group; these are the ruins of a small temple of the 18th Dynasty, which was begun nearly four hundred years before the large temple of Ramses III.

We shall now stand on the front wall of brick, of which the Pavilion formed the entrance, and looking almost due north, toward our present point of view, we shall inspect the great first pylon of Ramses III's temple. This next standpoint and our field of vision from it are given on Map 9 by the red lines numbered 77, which start in the lower left-hand corner of the map and extend north. The particular portions of the temple we are to see are shown by these red lines 77 on Plan 15.