Ancient name: "The House of Millions of Years of Usermaatre Setepenre"
The memorial temple of Ramesses II, with the fallen colossus behind Shelley's "Ozymandias".
Where
The edge of the farmland in western Thebes, between Deir el-Bahari and Medinet Habu
When
Built in the reign of Ramesses II (c. 1279–1213 BC)
Built by
Ramesses II, for his own cult and for Amun
Famous for
The fallen granite colossus; the battle of Kadesh on the pylons; its storerooms
Who built what
Each New Kingdom king built a memorial temple on the west bank, where his cult would go on after his death; the Egyptians called them "houses of millions of years". Ramesses II's follows the standard plan: two pylons and courts, a hypostyle hall and the inner rooms, surrounded by rows of vaulted mud-brick storerooms and workshops that show how much the temple owned and handed out.
His victory, as he told it, at Kadesh against the Hittites (c. 1274 BC) is carved on the pylons. In the second court lie the pieces of a seated colossus of the king in granite, which once stood about 19 m high.
What survives
The temple is ruined but much of the hypostyle hall stands. Diodorus of Sicily, writing in the 1st century BC, described this temple as the "tomb of Osymandyas", from Ramesses's name wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, and the fallen colossus inspired Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" (1818).
A huge granite bust of the king from the temple, the "Younger Memnon", was taken to London by Giovanni Belzoni in 1816–18 and is in the British Museum.
A memorial temple followed the same plan as a cult temple, from pylon to sanctuary.
Inscriptions
2 short, well-known texts from Ramesseum, each with its transliteration (the Egyptian sounds in Latin letters) and a translation. Tap Sign by sign to see what each sign is and how it is read. Royal names are drawn in their cartouches.
Usermaatre Setepenre: "Ozymandias"
Transliteration
wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ stp-n-rꜥ
Translation
“Usermaatre Setepenre ("Strong is the Maat of Ra, chosen of Ra")”
Where: On the shoulder of the fallen colossus and throughout the temple.
The first part, wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ (something like "User-maat-re"), was heard by Greek visitors as Osymandyas. The adze working a block of wood writes stp "chosen".
Sign by sign
Reading: The standard reading (Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar (3rd ed., 1957), Excursus A on the royal titulary); the Wikipedia articles "Ramesses II" and "Ozymandias".
Ramesses
Transliteration
rꜥ-ms-sw
Translation
“Ramesses ("Ra is the one who bore him")”
Where: Beside the throne name everywhere in the temple.
His birth name; in full it reads rꜥ-ms-sw mrj-jmn, "Ramesses, beloved of Amun".
Simplified: Shown without mrj-jmn, "beloved of Amun", which follows the name in his cartouche.
Sign by sign
Reading: The standard reading (Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar (3rd ed., 1957), Excursus A on the royal titulary).
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History, book I, 47
Dates follow Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000); before 664 BC they are approximate. Readings are the standard ones in the sources named under each inscription; translations are Teddy Rook Book's own. The hieroglyphs are drawn in the site's font, TRB Hieroglyphs, so their shapes are simplified; where an inscription's arrangement or signs can't be shown faithfully, the card says so.