MEDINET ABOU, THEBES. 
These ruins are situated on the western bank of the Nile, in the plain which everywhere 
within the precincts of ancient Thebes exhibits indications of that vast city. Around 
the Temple of Medinet Abou ai’e extensive mounds and the walls of a large Christian 
town, which existed there when part of the ancient Temple had been converted into 
a Christian church; but this, too, has passed away, and the remains of their hovels 
are now encumbering and almost concealing the ruins of Medinet Abou. “ This,” says 
Wilkinson, “ is undoubtedly the ruins of one of the four temples mentioned by Diodorus, 
the others being those of Ivarnak, Luxor, and the Memnonium, or first Remeseum.” 
The portico seen in front is of a comparatively late date, and built out of the 
ruins of ancient structures: it serves as the entrance to a small temple erected by a 
Pharaoh of a later period. The taller tower-like building on the left of the portico 
is part of the palace of Remeses IV., of which the square openings are the windows 
of small chambers, decorated with elegant sculptures of domestic subjects, that illustrate 
the habits and manners of the ancient Egyptians. It is behind this building that the 
ruins of the large Temple are found, in the second court of which are the later remains 
of a Christian church. The brick walls and mounds seen to surround the Temple 
are the ruins of the houses of the Christian population, which once enlivened this 
spot: now all is desolate. The situation of Medinet Abou at the base of the Libyan 
chain is fine, and behind it rises the loftiest point of the range which lies between 
the town and the valley of Biban el Molook. 
The plain behind the city and the monticule on the right formed part of the vast 
necropolis of the great city, and it is seen to be everywhere pierced or excavated for 
tombs and sepulchral chambers. Many are interesting, and some magnificent. 
Wilkinson has given a detailed account of this Temple and its sculptures, tracing, 
with much research, its progress under the Pharaohs, but leaving it very difficult 
to condense his information within the limit of our text. 
The founder of the principal part of the building was the monarch who raised 
the great obelisk at Karnak; Thothmes II. continued or altered the sculptures; and 
Thotlnnes III. completed the architectural details of the sanctuary and peristyle. To 
these were afterwards added the hieroglyphics of Remeses III. on the outside of the 
building, to connect, by similarity of external appearance, the palace-temple of his 
predecessors with that which he had erected in its vicinity. Some restorations were 
afterward^ made by Ptolemy Physcon: who, in addition to the sculptui’es of the two 
doorways, repaired the columns which support the roof of the peristyle. Hakoris, 
second king, of the twenty-ninth dynasty, had previously erected the wings on either 
side; and, with the above-mentioned monarchs, he completes the number of eleven 
who have added repairs or sculptures to this building. 
