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Secondary sourcePhotographc. 1875

Ramesseum Colossi in Ruins

Pascal Sébah · c. 1875

An 1875 photograph of the broken colossal statues at the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple built by Ramesses II at Luxor.

Shows the ruined remains of the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple Ramesses II built to secure his memory after death.

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Sepia photograph of the ruined Ramesseum temple at Luxor, Egypt. Four fallen-headed colossal seated statues stand before a sandstone gateway with carved hieroglyphs on its lintel. A broken statue lies in the foreground, and a small figure sits near the base of the statues. Desert and a column are visible on the left.
Pascal Sébah, Ramesseum colossi in ruins, c. 1875. Wellcome Collection, London.

About this source

What it is

This photograph, taken around 1875 by Pascal Sébah, shows the ruined Ramesseum temple at Luxor, Egypt. Four seated colossal statues, now headless or broken, stand before a sandstone gateway carved with hieroglyphs. A broken statue lies in the foreground. The photograph is held by the Wellcome Collection.

Why it matters

The Ramesseum was built as a mortuary temple for Ramesses II, meant to honor him after death and last forever. Its ruined state, visible in this 1870s photograph, shows how even the grandest monuments of a pharaoh can decay over thousands of years, while still telling us about his ambitions and the scale of his building projects.

Look closer

  • What clues in the photograph suggest the statues were once much more complete?
  • Why might Ramesses II have built such a large temple for himself?
  • What does the ruined state of the temple tell you about the passage of time since ancient Egypt?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ramses II (Ramses the Great) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Two clay cuneiform tablets on a clear acrylic stand against a red background. The larger tablet is broken into several fragments, covered in dense wedge-shaped writing. A smaller tablet fragment sits at lower right, also inscribed.Document

Primary source

Egyptian–Hittite Peace Treaty

c. 1258 BCE

Sepia photograph of the facade of the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt, with four seated colossal statues of Ramesses II carved into the rock. A small standing man at lower left shows scale. A doorway lies between the middle statues, and hieroglyphs are carved across the upper wall.Photograph

Secondary source

Abu Simbel Temple Colossi

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Facade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel carved into a sandstone cliff under a clear blue sky. Four seated colossal statues of a pharaoh flank the central doorway, with a sand-covered walkway leading up to the entrance.Artifact

Primary source

Abu Simbel

Ramesses II · c. 1273 BCE

Sepia photograph of the Abu Simbel temple facade in Egypt. A colossal seated stone statue of a pharaoh with a striped headdress dominates the right. Beside it stands a statue of a falcon-headed god wearing a sun disk. Relief carvings and hieroglyphs cover the wall, and a small seated man at the bottom gives scale. Caption reads Abou Simbel, Gd Temple, Le dieu Soleil Ra et Rhamses II, P. Sébah.Photograph

Secondary source

Facade Detail of Abu Simbel Showing Ramesses II and Ra

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Black-and-white drawing in profile of an elderly Egyptian man wearing a tall, patterned royal headdress with a cobra emblem and a pleated collar necklace with a scarab pendant. Signed WLM 1917 at lower right.Painting

Secondary source

Figure of Ancient Egyptian, Ramesses II

1917

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