Medinet Habu

Ramses III was a person one should not cross. He had been a general and after building an Egyptian navy up and defeating the Phoenicians, he decided that this type of power was so intoxicating that he should really take over as Pharaoh. So that is what he did. With great strength and enlisting the power of the Gods (Sekmet, the lion headed goddess of war was his favorite) he set about building a temple that was just massive. This temple was quite intact and subsequently we could walk through pylons, courtyards and multiple smaller side rooms. To give an example of his cunning, he had carved on one section of wall one of his battle victory scenes where the phoenician captives are led before the pharaoh with their hands out in supplication for mercy. Rather than killing them outright, he decided to just chop off both their hands as this would lead to the soldiers being unable to fight and their home country would either have to care for them (very expensive) or kill them. There was one scene where the hands are being counted by the scribes. Obviously the concept of peace and diplomacy in his time was different to how I would have done it. Still this temple is often ignored by the tourists and subsequently it was very quiet for us to wander around.