In ancient Egypt the Ramesseum was one of the greatest mortuary temples, but, unfortunately, only few of its fragments survived until nowadays. The temple was surrounded by residential quarters, palaces for Pharaoh and the nobility, where they used to stop when visiting the Ramesseum.
About the size of the temple one can judge by two huge statues of Pharaoh Ramesses II the Great, of which only some fragments remained. One of the statues, made of black syenite, was the Pharaoh sitting on the throne of 17 meters high. Of it now only the giant head remained, placed near the temple`s entrance, as well as fingers and feet, lying in front of the first pylon. The other statue was a bit smaller, and its fragment (upper part of the body) is near the columns of Osiris at the first pylon.
The temple had a lot of the statues of Pharaoh in the position of Osiris, with his arms crossed, some of which survived until today. On the wall there were many bas reliefs depicting various scenes of the life of Ramesses II: receiving gifts from foreign kings, fighting on the chariot with enemies, in the circle of gods.
