North of these chapels stand the remains of a stone gate built by Nectanebo I (Dynasty 30) as part of a mudbrick wall that has since disappeared. Behind it, to the north, a small chapel was built in Dynasty 18. It is the oldest monument still standing in the Madinat Habu compound. Begun in the reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmes III, it was defaced by Amenhetep IV/ Akhenaten, then restored by Horemheb, Sety I, and of course, by Rameses III, who decorated its outer walls. Additions were also made in Graeco-Roman times. The temple lies atop even earlier structures. Traces have been found of a building from the Middle Kingdom that may have been dedicated to four male and four female deities, the Ogdoad, associated with Egyptian creation myths and the god Amen. For many centuries, from the Middle Kingdom to GraecoRoman times, the site of the temple was called the Mound of Djeme, and was the scene of religious services that included processions of sacred barks made every ten days to bring the statue of Amen from Luxor Temple to Madinat Habu. In antiquity, this procession entered the small temple from the east, through a portico and columned hall leading to a central bark shrine. Today, one usually enters through a side door in the southern wall into a corridor between the bark shrine on the right (east) and a series of six small chambers on the left (west). These chambers are decorated with scenes of Thutmes III taking part in rituals and purification ceremonies. A huge black granite statue of Thutmes III and Amen, both seated, was found beneath the floor of the central room. The statue is now undergoing restoration by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, who are also cleaning and recording the texts and scenes on the temple walls.

Scenes on the outer walls of the bark shrine deal with the founding of the temple. They are well done and well preserved. On the north side, Thutmes III and the goddess Sefkhet-’abwy “stretch the cord,” laying out the temple’s plan on the ground, marking its foundation trenches with limestone chips, and digging those trenches with a hoe. In the Late Period and again in Graeco-Roman times, the temple was significantly enlarged: forecourts, porticos, walls, and pylons were added to the east in front of the original Dynasty 18 structure. Two slender columns, 13.4 meters (44 feet) tall, with paint still preserved on their elaborate capitals, grace the entrance of this new addition that was built by Ptolemy VIII. The painted cornice of the front pylon is especially well done. A small sacred lake lies north of the Dynasty 18 temple. To its west, a Nilometer is marked by a doorway bearing the name of Nectanebo II (Dynasty 30). Until the 1970s, when the Antiquities Department rebuilt the walls around the perimeter of Madinat Habu, village women would come here on Friday mornings and walk seven times around the sacred lake, reciting prayers in hopes of becoming pregnant or avoiding illness. The women perhaps were also responsible for gouges cut into the outer walls of the memorial temple. These were made to gather bits of stone, which were then ground and drunk in potions to cure illness or ensure the birth of a male child.

From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a