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Thebes: some 'mortuary temples' of New Kingdom kings

Old and Middle Kingdom pyramids were the largest part of a royal cult complex; similarly, a king's tomb in the Valley of the Kings was a reliquary in a larger religious unit. In the New Kingdom the tomb of a king and its temple complex were separated. The tomb where the body of the king was laid to rest was cut into the rock in the Valley of the Kings. For each tomb there stood at the edge of the fields a temple where the king was worshipped during his life and into eternity. The best preserved are the temples of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari), Sety I (Qurneh), Ramesses II (Ramesseum) and Ramesses III (Medinet Habu). Petrie excavated at the Ramesseum and six destroyed temples in the series (published in Petrie 1897); the latter are reconstructed on Digital Egypt for Universities.

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