The Ramesseum is the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramses II on the Luxor West Bank, built around 1250 BCE during the 19th Dynasty at the height of his 66-year reign. The temple is famous for the colossal fallen statue of the king inside the second court, the original Ozymandias that inspired Percy Shelley’s 1818 sonnet and gave English literature one of its most quoted lines about the futility of imperial ambition. The Ramesseum sits between the Colossi of Memnon and Medinet Habu on the West Bank circuit and is included on the longer Luxor West Bank tour.
Ramses II ruled Egypt from around 1279 to 1213 BCE during the 19th Dynasty, the longest reign of any pharaoh except Pepi II. He fathered roughly 100 children, fought the Hittites to a draw at Kadesh, signed the world’s earliest known peace treaty, and built more monuments than any Egyptian king before or after. The Ramesseum was his official mortuary temple, designed to serve his cult forever and to celebrate his earthly achievements.
Construction began in year 2 of his reign and took about 20 years. The temple covered roughly 5.5 hectares behind a 67-metre-wide First Pylon. Inside stood a colossal seated statue of the pharaoh carved from a single block of red Aswan granite, weighing an estimated 1,000 tons. At 19 metres tall and roughly 18 metres deep when seated, it was the largest free-standing statue ever made in pharaonic Egypt.
Sometime in late antiquity, possibly during an earthquake, the colossus toppled forwards and shattered into the famous fragments visible today. The temple itself was already a ruin when the Greek geographer Diodorus Siculus visited around 60 BCE and recorded a fictional inscription on the king’s name: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; if anyone wishes to know what I am and where I lie, let him surpass me in some of my deeds.
Diodorus’s misreading inspired Shelley’s 1818 sonnet Ozymandias, which made the Ramesseum a literary destination 2,000 years after its completion. Excavation and conservation continue today under Egyptian and French archaeological missions.
The Fallen Colossus of Ozymandias is the temple’s most famous sight. The head, torso, and lower legs lie in the second court, broken into massive fragments that visitors can walk among. The king’s facial features are still clear on the head, and the cartouche on his shoulder is legible. The original 19-metre seated statue weighed about 1,000 tons and is the largest free-standing statue carved in pharaonic Egypt.
The First Pylon survives partially, with reliefs of Ramses II’s battle at Kadesh against the Hittites in 1274 BCE. The reliefs are smaller and less well-preserved than the Abu Simbel or Abydos versions but cover the same campaign in detailed scenes.
The Second Court has Osiride pillars on the western side. These are statues of Ramses II in the form of the god Osiris with arms crossed over his chest, holding crook and flail. Several are well-preserved despite the temple’s overall ruin.
The Hypostyle Hall once held 48 columns. Twenty-nine remain standing in three rows, with the central rows of 12 open papyrus columns rising taller than the side rows. The architrave decoration retains traces of original colour, and a section of ceiling preserves astronomical reliefs with named constellations and decans (10-day periods).
Behind the temple stand the mud-brick storerooms and granaries of the temple-town that once served the cult. The granary vaults are still visible. Excavation since the 1990s has uncovered a Middle Kingdom tomb under the temple, the New Kingdom workmen’s settlement, and a sacred lake.
Location: Luxor West Bank, between the Colossi of Memnon and Medinet Habu. About 4 km from the Nile ferry landing.
Opening hours: 06:00 to 17:00 (October to April), 06:00 to 18:00 (May to September).
Entrance fee (2026, subject to change): Approximately 180 EGP (around $4 USD) for foreign-visitor adults, 90 EGP for students with international ID. Tickets sold at the entrance gate.
Photography: Permitted throughout without flash. Tripods need a separate paid permit.
Time needed: 1 to 1.5 hours. The site is smaller than Medinet Habu but the fallen colossus and the Hypostyle Hall reward careful looking.
Getting there: Every Luxor West Bank tour passes the Ramesseum on the road between the Colossi of Memnon and Medinet Habu. Most tours include it, though some skip it to save time for the Valley of the Kings. The full Luxor day tour covers all four West Bank sites in a single day.
Accessibility: The site is largely flat but the temple ruins have uneven ground and some shallow steps. Wheelchair users can reach the fallen colossus and the Second Court but not the Hypostyle Hall back area.
Quote the poem at the colossus. Even if you do not normally do that sort of thing, the line about looking on the king’s works and despairing hits differently when you are actually standing next to the shattered statue Shelley wrote about without ever having seen.
Bring a wide-angle lens. The fallen colossus is best photographed from low angles in front of the head, with the rest of the body stretching back through the court. A 24mm or wider lens gets the full composition.
Look at the ceiling of the Hypostyle Hall. Most visitors look at the columns. The surviving roof section above the south aisle still carries astronomical reliefs, the oldest known astronomical ceiling in Egypt.
Add 15 minutes for the storerooms. Behind the main temple, the mud-brick vaults of the granaries give a rare look at the working infrastructure of a New Kingdom temple-town.
The Ramesseum is included in EDT’s deeper West Bank itineraries. The three best options:
Every EDT Luxor tour includes private transport, entrance fees, bottled water, and a licensed Egyptologist guide. The Ramesseum rewards travellers who love both Egyptology and English Romantic literature.
Standing next to the fallen Ozymandias after reading Shelley at school was unexpectedly moving. Our guide quoted the sonnet for us. Brilliant stop.
Quieter than the bigger sites and the Hypostyle Hall ceiling was a surprise. We had it almost to ourselves.
The astronomical ceiling and the storerooms make this site special. EDT included it where other tours skip it.
The Ramesseum’s colossal statue inspired Percy Shelley’s 1818 sonnet Ozymandias through a fictional inscription recorded by the Greek geographer Diodorus Siculus around 60 BCE. Ozymandias is a Greek rendering of Ramses II’s throne name User-maat-Ra.
Around 19 metres tall when seated, with an estimated weight of 1,000 tons. Carved from a single block of red Aswan granite, it was the largest free-standing statue ever made in pharaonic Egypt.
Yes, but it is a shorter visit and best treated as a complementary stop. The Ramesseum is famous for the fallen colossus and the astronomical ceiling, while Medinet Habu is famous for the painted reliefs and battle scenes. They cover different aspects of New Kingdom temple architecture.
One to 1.5 hours is enough. The site is smaller than Medinet Habu, with the fallen colossus, the Hypostyle Hall, and the back granaries as the main interest points.
The cause is debated. Most likely an earthquake in late antiquity, though deliberate Christian or Islamic iconoclasm has also been suggested. The breakage was already complete when European travellers began documenting Egypt in the late 18th century.
Egyptian antiquities regulations forbid touching ancient stonework. Visitors may walk among the fragments and approach within arm’s reach but should not climb on them or touch the carved surfaces.