MEMNO'NIUM (Lat., from Gk. Meur6rtor). The name applied in Ptolemaic times to an Egyptian temple about miles from the Nile, near Abydos. The geographer Strata) (c.30 us.) mentions it with admiration and compares it with the celebrated Labyrinth (q.v.). In 1S.59 :\lariette, with the financial aid of the Egyptian Government. cleared away tbe sand and rubbish which covered the building and made it accessible to visitors and students. The temple, begun by Seti 1.. and completed hy his son, Rameses 11., was dedicated to the gods of Abydos and to the manes of Soli and of his predecessors on the throne of Egypt. Among the numerous reliefs that adorn its walls are some of the finest specimens of Egyptian sculpture. A wing run ning at right angles to the rear of the main building. which abuts upon a rocky hill, gives the ground plan of the structure the form of the letter L. of the two courts which gave entrance to the temple. the first with its pylon and walls is eompletely destroyed, and only a portion of the wall of the second court remains. At the upper end of this court is a portico with twelve sculptured columns; its rear wall was originally pierced by seven doors. corresponding to the seven ehapels within the temple, but six of these doors were walled up by Mimeses II., and only the central door was left open. Upon the wall is all inscription of Rameses, in ninety-five vertical describing the completion and dedication of the building. The central door gives entrance to a wide hall. its roof supported by twenty-four columns. and from the rear of this hall seven doors lead to a second 11:1 1 1 containing thirty-six eolunins arranged in three parallel rows. The last row stands upon a raised platform, and its twelve columns have been left without capitals in order to bring their tops on a level with the tops of the other Iwo rows, Both halls arc richly adorned with reliefs represent Mg Set i and ltameses paying worship to various divinities: The raised platform at the back of the second ball forms a sort of portico, and upon this open chapels devoted respectively to the deities lion's. Osirk.Ammon. Ilarmaehis. and Ptah,
and to King .maroon oecupies the centre. A door at the hack of the chapel of osiris gives access to a covered portico supported by ten columns, having on the right three additional chapels dedicated to I 1 orus, Osiris, and Isis, and on the left a small vestibule leading to three small chambers. The reliefs on the walls of the chapels represent ceremonies in honor of the respective gods. The wing, which runs to the southeast at right angles to the rear of the main structure, contains a number of chambers, but many of them are in a bad state of preservation. The most important is a long gallery known as the Gallery of Kings. On the right wall of this room are depicted King Seti 1. and his son Rn nieces adoring their royal an cestors whose cartotiches are inscribed in two long lines. The list contains the names of sev enty-six kings of Egypt, beginning with IMenes (q.v.) and ending with Seti T. (q.v.), but it is far from complete. It does not contain the names of monarchs regarded as illegitimate or unim portant, and it omits all the rulers from the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Dynasty. Copies of the list are to be found in :Meyer, Uesehiehte des alien. Aegyptcns (Berlin, 1887), and in Flinders Petrie, A History of Egypt (New York. 1897). Similar lists exist at Karnak and at Sakkaran (q.v.). Consult: Mariette. A bydos (Paris. 1869 80) ; The Monuments of Upper Egypt (London, 1877) ; Baedeker, Aegypten (4th ed., Leipzig, 1897).