luxor

The Giant Colossi of Pharaoh Amenhotep III Facing the Rising Sun!

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As the Greek geographer, Strabo might mean these giant volumes were singing or speaking, or, as Tacitus says, like the “sound of a human voice,” or as Pausanias evokes, the sound of “a string of a cithara or lyre that breaks.” In any case, Memnon greets each morning, at sunrise, the appearance of Eos (Dawn), his mother.

Colossi-of-Memnon-Egypt-Tours-Portal-1

The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, standing in front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Theban Necropolis. Via Wik.

Now, let’s delve into the captivating tale of these two enormous statues with sincere gratitude to Marie Grillot and the late beloved Marc Chartier.🙏💖🙏💖

It was at the time when Memnon sang…

These two colossi of Amenhotep III stood in front of the 1st pylon
of his temple of millions of years, the Amenophium, on the west bank of Thebes.
“The Colossus of Memnon” is the one in the north (on the right); it was the only one to sing in antiquity
Photochrome “The Colossi of Memnon”, Photoglob Zurich, circa 1897

via égyptophile

What is called “The Colossi of Memnon” are more “rightly” two monumental stone statues (between 17 and 20 m high) representing Amenhotep III, seated on his throne, facing the rising sun. They stood on the forecourt of his temple of millions of years, the “Amenophium”, on either side of the door of the first pylon. Masterfully designed by the great architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu, it was, in the middle of the 18th dynasty, the richest and largest cult complex on the West Bank.

“Nebmaâtrê” personally describes: “He made it as a monument for his father Amon, Master of the Thrones of the Two Lands. A splendid temple was made for him on the west bank of Thebes, a fortress of eternity forever, of beautiful white sandstone. Entirely covered with gold, its pavement is adorned with silver, all its doors are of electrum, built very wide, and great and perfect forever” …

Statue of Amenhotep, son of Hapu, architect of the temple of millions of years of Amenhotep III, the Amenophium, on the west bank of Thebes Luxor Museum – JE 44862

But… “sic transit gloria mundi”… Having fallen into decline and then abandonment around the 20th dynasty, its splendour has gone… Its walls and pylons of raw bricks have crumbled while its stones were reused for other buildings. The processional avenue and the surrounding fence have disappeared, the columns have collapsed, the statues have been mutilated, hammered, thrown to the ground or recovered by successors… In 27 BC, a terrible earthquake painfully weakened it, and the impact of the Nile floods was devastating. The pillaging of the 19th century, the rise of the water table and the fire of 1996 dealt it the final blows of grace…

The plain of Thebes during the flooding of the Nile, 1900, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Inv. 2015-029
© Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne

Its glorious past survived only through the presence of these two badly damaged statues for centuries. Only the northern one (on the right) will be—and must be—identified as THE “Colossus of Memnon.”

In antiquity, it was the most degraded of the two, the most cracked, and it is, in a certain way, this “sad state” that will earn it a celebrity will transcend borders… Eclipsing Amenhotep III, the sun pharaoh, the “Memnon” singing in the early morning will become a myth, a divinity!

The Colossus of Memnon, 1857, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Private collection

Indeed, the Greek geographer Strabo (64 BC—between 21 and 25 AD) notes that, according to a local legend, the statue begins to “sing” at sunrise. He also certifies having heard the phenomenon himself without being able to specify the cause. The sound is like “a noise similar to that produced by a small sharp blow.”

Other testimonies of this phenomenon, very often “immortalized” by graffiti on the monument, will multiply, as diverse as the human imagination can be inventive but concordant on the same observation: the colossus “speaks” or “sings.” Tacitus speaks of the “sound of a human voice,” and Pausanias evokes the sound of “a string of a cithara or lyre that breaks.” Memnon greets each morning, at sunrise, the appearance of Eos (Dawn), his mother.

Graffiti on one of the legs of the “colossus of Memnon” (the northern one, on the right). He was the only one to sing in antiquity.
These two colossi of Amenhotep III stood in front of the 1st pylon
of his temple of millions of years, the Amenophium, on the west bank of Thebes.

Some scholars of the Egyptian Campaign will take note of these various testimonies, privileging reason over fabrication to thwart certain stratagems and the “charlatanism of the priests” intended to feed popular credulity. “It must be noted, in general, that the statue of Memnon has been spoken, with more emphasis, the further away one has moved from the primitive institution of the cult rendered to it. Whatever the nature of the sound coming from the shattered colossus, one cannot doubt that it is the result of a pious fraud. One could indulge here in a host of conjectures, all equally probable, on the mechanism that the priests of Egypt used to produce it…” (Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois, Édouard de Villiers du Terrage).

Thebes. The Colossi called “of Memnon”, a drawing by Dominique Vivant Denon
published in “Journey in Lower and Upper Egypt”, Paris, 1802

In the name of an “objective” science, insensitive to the impulses of popular beliefs, Jean-Antoine Letronne, member of the Committee of Historical and Scientific Works, devoted an entire study to the “vocal statue of Memnon”…

As for Baron Taylor, he wrote in 1839 with a certain clarity that “all that is mysterious in the sounds of the statue of Memnon could well have been only a simple effect of the action of the sun on the stone”…

The Colossi of Memnon, at Thebes, during the Inundation, 19th century
(The Colossi of Memnon, at Thebes, during the Inundation, 19th century), lithograph by David Roberts

In 1840, in the chapter of his “General Overview of Egypt” devoted to minerals, Antoine Barthélémy Clot-Bey provided the following geological explanation: “The agatiferous siliceous breccia of Syene is a stone which is also of great interest. The statue of Memnon, so famous in antiquity, was carved from this type of breccia to the composition of which it doubtless owed the marvellous property which it enjoyed, of making harmonious sounds at sunrise”… This interpretation seems plausible, even if the provenance of the stone remains uncertain… According to Jean-François Champollion, they were “each formed from a single block of breccia sandstone, transported from the quarries of the Upper Thebaid (editor’s note: southern part of the Thebaid), and placed on immense bases of the same material”… But, according to Kent Weeks, the two statues “were sculpted in a beautiful orthoquartzite, a tough stone and very difficult to engrave, brought by boat from the nearby quarries of Heliopolis 700 km to the north (editor’s note: namely Gebel el-Ahmar), or from a quarry in the south – there is no certainty on this matter. Egyptologists believe this stone was chosen because of its red colour, associated with solar worship”.

Colossi of Memnon, 1840, Charles Gleyre
Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne.

At the very beginning of the 3rd century, the colossus fell silent. We owe its silence to Septimius Severus, who “before the end of his journey in Egypt in the autumn of 200, wished to see the memorable Memnon and, to restore its dignity, decreed its restoration”. Several courses of blocks gave shape to the torso on which the head was placed… but “From then on, it must be believed that the ‘song’ of the son of the Dawn was never heard again. Nevertheless, his mythical fame crossed the centuries” specifies Christian Leblanc in “Le Bel Occident”…

From this long and incredible story and the various interpretations it has given rise to, there is one note on which we can only agree: the colossus who sang… has made a lot of people talk about him while associating his “twin” with his fame…

These two colossi of Amenhotep III stood in front of the 1st pylon
of his temple of millions of years, the Amenophium, on the west bank of Thebes.
“The Colossus of Memnon” is the one in the north (on the right); it was the only one to sing in antiquity.

Since 1998, a multidisciplinary European-Egyptian team has been working in Kom el-Hettan on “The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III temple conservation project”. Led by the extraordinary Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, it deploys its expertise, know-how and energy to restore this temple’s dignity and grandeur. The different sectors of the Amenophium are identified, the pavements reappear, the bases of the columns are cleared, dozens of Sekhmet emerge from the ground, and the royal statues are reassembled…

Thus, It is pleasant to think that if Memnon were to feel the desire to sing again, it could only be a hymn of recognition for his rebirth!

Marie Grillot & Marc Chartier

Sources:

Jean Baptiste Prosper Jollois, Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, René Edouard Devilliers du Terrage, Description générale de Thèbes : contenant une exposition détaillée de l’état actuel de ses ruines, et suivie de recherches critiques sur l’histoire et sur l’étendue de cette première capitale de l’Égypte, 1813 Jean-François Champollion, Lettres écrites d’Égypte et de Nubie en 1828 et 1829, (16e lettre), Paris, 1833 Jean Antoine Letronne, La statue vocale de Memnon considérée dans ses rapports avec l’Égypte et la Grèce – étude historique faisant suite aux recherches pour servir à l’histoire de l’Égypte pendant la domination des Grecs et des Romains, Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 1833 https://books.google.fr/books?id=k26BIIn7C5UC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false Baron Taylor, Louis Reybaud, Syria, Egypt, Palestine and Judea considered under their historical and archaeological aspect…, Paris, 1838 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1040108x.image Antoine Barthélémy Clot-Bey, General overview of Egypt, Fortin Masson et Cie Libraires Editeurs, Paris, 1840 http://www.lacabalesta.it/biblioteca/ClotBey/AperGenEgypte/clotbey1_02.html#nat_01 Jean-Antoine Lettrone, Collection of Greek and Latin inscriptions of Egypt, Royal Printing Office, 1842
André and Étienne Bernand, Greek and Latin inscriptions of the Colossus of Memnon, IFAO, Cairo, 1960
André Bernand, The singing statues of Amenhotep III, Clio, 2001 https://www.clio.fr/BIBLIOTHEQUE/pdf/pdf_les_statues_chantantes_damenophis_iii.pdf Amenophis III, the sun pharaoh, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1993
Kent Weeks, Illustrated Guide Luxor, tombs, temples and museums, White Star Publishers, 2005
Galand David, The song of the statue: the myth of Memnon in the 19th century, Loxias 22, 2008 http://revel.unice.fr/loxias/index.html?id=2439. Christian Leblanc, Angelo Sesana, The Beautiful West of Thebes Imentet Neferet, From the Pharaonic era to modern times – A history revealed by toponymy, L’Harmattan, 2022
The colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III temple conservation project – Hourig Sourouzian, articles available on Academia https://independent.academia.edu/HourigSourouzian

The Mystery of Ramses I’s Mummy.

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Originally called Pa-ra-mes-su, Ramesses I, was of non-royal birth, born into a noble military family from the Nile Delta region, perhaps near the former Hyksos capital of Avaris. He was the son of a troop commander called Seti. His uncle Khaemwaset, an army officer, married Tamwadjesy, the matron of Tutankhamun’s Harem of Amun, a relative of Huy, the viceroy of Kush, a vital state post. This shows the high status of Ramesses’ family. Ramesses I found favour with Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the tumultuous Eighteenth Dynasty, who appointed the former as his vizier. Ramesses also served as the High Priest of Set – as such, he would have played an important role in restoring the old religion following the Amarna heresy of a generation earlier, under Akhenaten.

Ramses I making an offering before Osiris. Amsterdam. Alland Pierson Museum (Wikipedia)

I once published an article about this amazing Pharaoh (Here), and now we are reading a supplement on this fascinating story.

Here, we will read Marie Grillot‘s excellent description of the mysteries surrounding the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses I.

The image at the top, Egyptian Antiquities: Pharaoh Ramses I (1320-1310 BC), represents burning incense and pouring water at a ceremony. Volume of Ramses I, Valley of the Kings, Egypt (Meisterdrucke)

The tomb of Ramses I and the questions about his mummy…

via égyptophile

Pharaoh is welcomed into the afterlife by Anubis and Horus
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings – KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

At the beginning of October 1817, Giovanni Battista Belzoni, working on behalf of the British consul Henry Salt, commissioned a team of around twenty fellahs to carry out surveys in the Valley of the Kings. On October 11, while they were at work in the southeastern wadi, their research was crowned by an extraordinary discovery. Belzoni thus relates it in “Journey to Egypt and Nubia”: “Around midday, I was told that the entrance to the tomb discovered the day before had been widened enough for us to enter… I was the first to enter the opening, which had just been made to see if the way was passable. After having traversed a passage thirty-two feet long and eight wide, I descended a staircase of thirty-eight feet and arrived in a room quite large and decorated with beautiful paintings.

Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

The key to reading the hieroglyphs was unknown; its “owner” – Ramesses I – would only be identified a few years later.

With an area of barely 148 m2, this tomb – referenced KV 16 – is one of the smallest in the necropolis. Its architectural plan is simple and rectilinear, with a stepped entrance followed by a sloping corridor that leads to a second staircase directly serving the burial chamber.

Signage panel with plan of the tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

“It is clear that the plan owes much to the tomb of Horemheb (KV 57). This appears particularly in the decorative style, using blue-grey as a background for the scenes and texts. Some think that the same artists were at the origin of these two tombs,” specifies Kent Weeks.

The scenes for which “we have renounced all relief” (Erik Hornung) reveal a high pictorial quality and seduce with their chromatic richness of luminous harmony. The hieroglyphs are of extraordinary finesse, and the king’s cartouches are set against a white background. The lower part of the vignettes is, all around, bordered by two thick bands of colour: the first yellow bordered with black, the second red ocher. Then, the rest of the wall, down to the ground, is painted black. As for the upper part bordering the ceiling, which has not been painted, is composed of a frieze of Khekerous resting on a strip of alternating coloured rectangles.

A priest standing before Osiris prepares to receive Ramses I, led by Horus, Atum and Neith
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

“The entrance to the sepulchral chamber is guarded by two figures of the goddess Maat, who welcome the deceased; the king is represented in the presence of the Memphite gods, Ptah and Nefertoum, and the deities of Abydos represented by the pillar-djed of ‘Osiris and the knot of lsis. On the side walls, several scenes from the Book of Doors evoke the Sun’s nocturnal journey. The back wall combines an Osirian scene on the right and a solar scene on the left. Far left, the king is shown in a position of jubilation, surrounded by the Souls of Pé and the Souls of Nekhen, the mythical ancestors of royalty.

Ramses I facing the god Nefertum
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

The room has three small “annexe” rooms. The one dug into the southwest wall has a very beautiful scene representing Osiris standing between a divinity with the head of a ram and the serpent goddess Nesret, “the fiery breath” (it is, in fact, the Uræus ).

At the height, we note the presence of four small niches intended to accommodate the “magic bricks. “

One of the niches intended to accommodate the “magic bricks.”
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

Most of the room is occupied by an imposing red granite sarcophagus. Although damaged during looting, its domed lid is still there. “The sarcophagus was hastily finished, as evidenced by its decoration. Indeed, it is painted yellow, the texts and figures not having had time to be incised. In addition, the representations of the two goddesses, sisters and protectors of their dead brother Osiris are quite clumsily made. As is customary, Isis is at the foot, and Nephthys is at the head of the sarcophagus. The two goddesses stand on the hieroglyphic sign “Noub”, which represents gold”, explains Thierry Benderitter (osirisnet).

The imposing red granite sarcophagus
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty
Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt

As Ali Reda Mohamed, the site inspector, told us, this tomb, which had been closed since 2008 for restoration by an Egyptian team, was reopened to the public on January 2, 2021.

Upon Khaled el-Enani’s inauguration, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities detailed the work carried out: “The floors we” e restored, and the walls were cleaned of bird and bat droppings… The existing inscriptions were also restored and cleaned, and the soot was removed… The sarcophagus also benefited from the care of the restorers, and the lighting system was improved”…

A member of the Egyptian restoration team cleaning the sarcophagus
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings – KV 16 – 19th dynasty
discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
reopened to the public after restoration on January 2, 2021 – photo Ali Reda Mohamed

When Pa-Ramessou, a high dignitary and seasoned soldier, was chosen by Horemheb to succeed him, he was already around fifty years old. Around 1306-1307 BC, he became Pharaoh under Ramses I. Thus, this 19th dynasty, initiated by his predecessor, was marked by “the arrival to power of a family from the Delta (Ramses I, Séthy I)” and then marked “the transition to the Ramesside Empire”.

Pa-Ramessou is particularly known for two identical black granite statues representing him “as a scribe, ” discovered by Georges Legrain near the 10th pylon of Karnak on October 25, 1913 (Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 44863 – JE 44864).

One of the two granite statues representing Pa-Ramessou as a scribe – future Ramses I
discoveries near the 10th pylon of Karnak, October 25, 1913, by Georges Legrain
Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 44863

According to Manetho, his reign was short: 1 year and four months. This simple observation could explain the modest size of his tomb and its unfinished state.

If, in his account, Belzoni points out that the sarcophagus contained two mummies, these were not the remains of the sovereign…

Indeed, after the looting that occurred in the necropolis, his mummy, like that of Ramses II, would first have passed through the tomb of Sethy I before joining the “hiding place of the royal mummies” (DB 320), where it was placed in the tomb and sheltered by the high priests of Amun during the 21st dynasty. This collective tomb was discovered in Deir el-Bahari by the Abd el-Rassoul family in 1871. The Antiquities Service only became aware of it in July 1881 and then transported all the mummies to the Boulaq Museum.

“Rediscovery”, in July 1881, by the Antiquities Service, of the Cache of the Royal Mummies (DB 320)
discovered in 1871 by the Abd el-Rassoul Brothers near Deir el-Bahari

In “The Find of Deir-el-Bahari”, Gaston Maspero thus evokes the successive “displacements” which are “recorded” on the coffins of the sovereigns before their final reburial in DB 320: “The three mummies of the 19th dynasty had a common destiny. The coffins of Seti I and Ramses II bear three identical inscriptions or almost, and which date back to three different periods; what remains of the coffin of Ramses I bears the remains of a hieratic text similar to the second inscription of the text of Seti I”.

What really happened to Ramses I’s mummy? How can we imagine that after these “post-mortem” wanderings, he has not yet found rest? How could it have been sold to an American, then passed through a museum in Ontario before being exhibited at the Michael Carlos Museum in Atlanta?

In 1909, in his “General Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities from the Cairo Museum – Coffins of Royal Hiding Places”, Georges Daressy thus presents, under the ref. CG 61018, the: “Fragment of coffin in the name of Ramses I. Sycamore wood – The original coffin of Ramses I having been destroyed, his mummy had been placed in another coffin of the XXIst dynasty; but this second coffin was it – even broken during the multiple transports of the royal mummies and only two fragments have come down to us: the lid and the head of the vat. The question then arises as to whether the mummy resting inside was indeed that of the sovereign?

On the other hand, in the 1900s, in order to overcome its financial problems, the Cairo Museum did not hesitate to get rid of a number of antiquities; it actually had its own auction room, but from there, it separated from a royal mummy…

The exact scenario still remains an enigma…

Still, in an article dated March 6, 2004, on the Atlanta mummy entitled “Rameses I Mummy Returned to Cairo”, the magazine “World Archeology” reports that: “After three years of intensive investigation into the royal mummy, including X-rays, CAT Scan, radiocarbon dating, computer imaging and other techniques, researchers are 95% certain that this is the mummy of Ramesses I. Arms crossed on the chest indicates that the mummy is indeed royal because this specific position was only reserved for royal characters”…

In 2003, through Zahi Hawass, it was finally returned to Egypt… Since March 9, 2004, it has been exhibited at the Louqsor Museum in the room dedicated to the glory of ancient Thebes… On its cartel, however, a doubt remains: “It is a royal mummy from the end of the 18th dynasty – beginning of the 19th. It may be that of Ramses I, founder of the 19th dynasty”…

Mummy attributed to Ramses I exhibited since March 2004 at the Louqsor Museum
in the hall to the glory of ancient Thebes

Marie Grillot

Sources:
Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Journey to Egypt and Nubia, Pygmalion, 1979
Kent Weeks, Illustrated Guide to Luxor, Tombs, Temples and Museums, White Star Publishers 2005
Kent Weeks, The Valley of the Kings, The Tombs and Funerary Temples of Western Thebes, Gründ, Paris, 2001.
Alberto Siliotti, The Valley of the Kings, guide to the best sites, Gründ, 1996
Nicholas Reeves, Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings, Thames and Hudson, 1997
Claude Obsomer, Ramses II, Pygmalion, 2012
Pierre Tallet, Frédéric Payraudeau, Chloé Ragazzolli, Claire Somaglino, Pharaonic Egypt, history, society, culture, Armand Colin, 2019
Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, reliefs and paintings, Second Edition, Volume II, p. 534-535, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1994
Theban mapping project                  https://thebanmappingproject.com/tombs/kv-16-rameses-i Ramses I – KV 16 – Thierry Benderitter, osirisnet.net           https://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/pharaons/ramses1/ramses1_01.htm             Georges Legrain, At the Harmhabi pylon in Karnak (Xth pylon), ASAE 14, 1914, p. 13-44 https://archive.org/details/annalesduservice14egypuoft/page/12/mode/2up           Gaston Maspero, The Find of Deir-el-Bahari. Twenty photographs, by M. E. Brugsch, French printing house F. Mourès & Cie, Cairo, 1881            https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8626666s/f1.item?fbclid=IwAR2kq2S6I6J4p5Sgs1J__8cR1XKUhIsnOFeTohkBxXme-lg1UEr9NZs4hSs#     

Elisabeth David, Gaston Maspero, The Gentleman Egyptologist, Elisabeth David, Pygmalion, 1999
World Archeology, Rameses I Mummy Returned to Cairo, March 6, 2004,        https://www.world-archaeology.com/world/africa/egypt/rameses-i-mummy-returned-to-cairo/    Luc Gabolde, Royal mummies in search of identity, Egypt, Africa & Orient, 2005      https://hal.science/hal-01895058/document            

Cairo Museum No. 61001-61044, Coffins from the royal hiding places, Cairo Print. from the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1909
https://archive.org/details/DaressyCercueils1909

Publié il y a 17th February 2021 par Marie Grillot

Libellés: Belzoni DB 320 JE 44863 KV 16 momie musée de l’Ontario Musée de Louqsor Pa-Ramessou Ramsès I Ramsès Ier Vallée des Rois