Ramesseum was the name given during the nineteenth century to the funerary temple that Ramses II had built on the west bank of the Nile. His ” Castle of million years” was built by the architect Pentre on such a vast scale, according to Diodorus of Sicily, that it surpassed all other temples at the time. Unfortunately, nowadays very little remains of that splendor: the Osiris pillars still remain on the facade of the hypostyle hall and so does a fallen statue of Ramses II seated on his throne reminiscent of a defeated giant. It once measured 17 meters and weighed over one thousand tons. Diodorus of Sicily got the Pharaoh’s first name, User-Maat-Ra wrong, and wrote that the statue represented Ozymandias.
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