The Temple of Amenhotep III and the colossi Of Memnon
The Temple of Amenhotep III and the colossi Of Memnon
The memorial temple of Amenhetep III, known in Arabic as
"Kawm al- Haitan," the "Mound of the Walls," was the largest
temple ever built in Egypt. When completed, it included a
massive array of pylons, chambers, walls, and statues that
covered an area of over 385,000 pylon westward to its rear
square meters (4,200,000 square feet). The temple's main axis
stretches nearly a kilometer from its first pylon westward to its
rear wall. It was 550 meters wide, extending from near the
Rameseum southward to the temple of Madinat Habu and
Malqata, Amenhetep III's vast palace.
Unfortunately, the temple was built largely of mud brick and lay
in the Nile floodplain where it was subject to the annual
inundation. When it was abandoned and regular maintenance
ceased,its brick walls dissolved and the stones were taken away and
used by later kings in the construction of their own memorial
temples. As a result, little of the huge complex is visible. Indeed,
for most visitors, the two huge statues of Amenhetep III, known
as the Colossi of Memnon, stand in isolation, and most visitors
have no idea that the statues were but a small part of a gigantic
temple complex. spectacular: each is cut The statues are truly
from a single block of stone that stood over 20 meters (65 feet)
tall and weighed a 1,000 tons.
When their crowns were still intact
and their bases fully exposed, they
stood even taller.
They were carved in beautiful
orthoquartzite, one of the hardest
stones known and extremely
difficult to carve, brought by boat
from quarries near Heliopolis,
seven hundred kilometers (420
miles) to the north or from a
quarry to the south-no one is yet
sure. The choice of stone,
Egyptologists believe,
