MEDINET HABU, The modern Arabic name of a ruined Coptic village. built in early Christian times. on the west bank of the Nile in ;timid latitude 25° 50' N. It stolid around and upon the ruins of a group of temple buildings in the western (punter of ancient Thebes. These ruins include a small temple built by Queen Ilatasu and Ding Thothines Ill.. with additions by several later monarchs, and a large temple built after the model of the Ramosseum (q.v.) by The larger temple orig inally stood within all surrounded by a WmIn of considerable traces yet remain. The main entrance to the inelosure is through a gateway in a massive pavilion built in itnita thin of a Syrian fortress and enntaining several chambers whose walls are beautifully decorated with reliefs. Within the inelosure a great pylon gate face. the pavilion. and gives en trance to a colonnaded court 115 feet in length and abont the same in A sueond pylon gate forms the entronee to a second colonnaded (mart (123 feet long and 138 feet broad) which in Christian times was eonverted into it church, At the upper end of this court is a terrace from which a door to the hypostyle hall. sup
ported by twenty-four columns. To the. rear of the hall are two smaller halls and a number of (diarubers, most of which are in a ruinous condi tion.
Close to the temple of Rameses III. lie the buildings of the smaller temple. Between two pylons—the outer built by Ptolemy X.. the inner by Taharka—is a small chapel (32 feet long), built by Nectaneho. The inner pylon forms the entrance to a court, at the upper end of which is the temple built in the Eighteenth Dynasty by llatasu and Thothmes Ill. It consists of a cham ber surrounded by a colonnaded portico, and adorned with reliefs and inscriptions. To the rear lie six smaller chambers. in one of which is a shrine for a divine image. Consult: De scription de l'Egypte (Paris, 1809-29) ; Wilkin son, Topography of Thebes (London, 1835) ; Geschich le .des alien ..legypteas (Berlin, 1878). See also THEBES.