Temples of a Million years

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The term Temple of a Million years is a translation of the Ancient Egyptian term used to refer to the mortuary temples of the pharaoh's of the New Kingdom, mainly in the Theban Necropolis area.^[1]

The aim was to preserve their memory and provide a place of worship of the divine king. They were also used a resting place for the boat of Amun at the time of the Beautiful festival of the valley during which the cult statue of the god visited the west bank of Thebes.

The first of the temples be built for Amenhotep I of the 18th dynasty. Several other 18th dynasty rulers built temples of the same purpose, the best known being the Deir el-Bahari (where Hatshepsut built beside the funerary temple of Mentuhotep II),^[2] and that of Amenhotep III, of which the Colossi of Memnon are the only major extant remains.

The later rulers of the 18th Dynasty either failed to build here at all, or in the case of Tutankhamun, Ay and Horemheb their constructions were not finished.

The 19th Dynasty ruler Seti I constructed his temple in what is now known as Gurna.^[3] Part of his Glorious temple of Seti Merenptah in the field of Amun which resides at the West of Thebes. was devoted to his father Ramesses I, whose short reign prevented him from constructing his own, it was finished by his son Ramesses II.

Ramesses II constructed his own temple (referred to as the Ramesseum, a name that was given to it by Champollion in 1829), "Temple of million years of Usermaatre Setepenre which is linked with Thebes-the-Quoted in the Field of Amun, in the West". ^[4]

Much later, in the 20th Dynasty, Ramesses III constructed his temple in Medinet Habu. ^[5]

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