Ramesses III

Ramesses III consciously drew on earlier royal models, especially Ramesses II, in his monuments and aspects of his titulary. Their names and reigns should still be distinguished.

Medinet Habu is his, and it is the most completely preserved mortuary temple (a temple for royal commemoration and divine worship, active during a king’s life and after death) in Egypt — still roofed in parts, still carrying paint on protected surfaces, and carrying the fullest surviving Egyptian account of the wars against the Libyans and against the coalition the texts call the Sea Peoples. Two other things from his reign matter out of proportion to their scale: the first recorded strike by workers anywhere, at Deir el-Medina in his twenty-ninth year, and a conspiracy against him in the palace whose trial records survive.

Medinet Habu preserves celebrated battle reliefs, including a naval encounter. A different kind of record, the Strike Papyrus in Turin, documents tomb workers protesting delayed food rations during his reign. Together they offer contrasting perspectives on royal power.

Medinet Habu — the mortuary temple, its fortified gateway modelled on a Syrian tower fort, the palace built against its south side, and the enclosure that later became a walled town. A small temple of his own inside what became the Great Court at Karnak. KV11 in the Valley of the Kings. And tombs for several of his sons in the Valley of the Queens.

Medinet Habu, and give it the time. Go through the migdol gate, then look at the outer north wall from the outside before you go in — that is where the Sea Peoples reliefs are, cut so deeply into the sandstone that the shadows do the drawing for you. Inside, look up in the covered parts: the colour on the underside of the architraves is original. His tomb KV11 is in the valley, and his sons are in the Valley of the Queens.