Medamud

The temple of God Montu in Medamud

Montu was a falcon-headed deity whose roots date back to the Old Kingdom. During Dynasty XI the god achieved the status of patron of the Theban kings and went associated with war. individual temples to the north and south of Thebes were gave to Montu during the Middle Kingdom and supplied to by pharaohs of later dynasties.

The temple of Medamud is very close to Luxor, about 8 kilometres to the north and was once linked to the Temple of Montu at Karnak by a canal. The site of the show temple is knew to have been layered on remains from the Middle Kingdom or perchance earlier, by kings of the Graeco-Roman Period. The later buildings were sacred to Montu, Rattawy and Harpocrates.

The entrance to the temple has an unusual triple portal with kiosks constructed by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II. In the southeastern kiosk the screen walls were decorated with reliefs of singers and musicians, and the god, Bes, dancing.

Behind the kiosks, a large forecourt with an altar was decorated by Antonius Pius and its little columns are the most essential remains of the monument.

In the essential part of the temple the hypostyle hall is now a bankrupt, but a granite doorway depicting Amenhotep II before Montu-re has been saved among the later remains of columns. Little now rests of the sanctuary, which had a passage around it leading off to small chambers.

Behind the essential part of the temple was a great East Court which was a precinct of the sacred bull, the incarnation of the god. On the rests of the exterior south wall is a relief of Trajan worshipping the sacred bull which marks a situation where oracles were saved.

Within the temple enclosure was a sacred lake, a well and granaries, now gone. A small temple of Ptolemy III Euergetes I once subbed the southwest corner and sphinxes lined a prosodion way lead from the main temple down to the quay.

To the east of the temple precinct was a cemetery. A block field on the southern incline of the temple is worth investigating as it contains many worrying fragmentary backups.

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·        Khamet
·        Nebyet
·        Maya
·        Khamsin
·        Maia
·        Akhet
·        Necho I (672-664 BC)
·        Khamudi
·        Mayer Papyri