8th November 2013
30c
30c
Montu Temple – Armant (Hermonthis) - West Bank
Today I re-visited Arment in an attempt to find the ancient cemetery of the Buchis Bulls. Again, no one seems to know where it was and I suspect it no longer exists even as a ruin. While there, I re-visited the Montu temple to find that the archaeologists were working there. Although it was Friday and a day off for everyone and the site was empty save for the guardians. I spoke to the site Inspectorate/Manager but it was impossible to get permission to look around while the site was being worked on. It might have been different if this was not the case. My pictures were taken from the public roads around the walled site.
The town of Armant was very busy today. I did though; enjoy a nice cup of tea in a local café overlooking the walled site of the Montu temple. It is a great way to see, watch and feel the hum of everyday life here. As usual everyone was being very friendly. When I stopped on the motorbike to take pictures, I very quickly attracted a crowd of young men; the girls were never seen, they would be with their mothers in the background just looking and sometimes smiling.
Its great to have the time to watch the local life go past and the people going about their business, it ceases to amaze me how happy they all look with their big smiles.
The modern town of Armant (ancient Egyptian names: Iuny, Iunu, Iunu-shema, Iunu-Montu), the Greek Hermonthis and Coptic Ermont, is located about 12 miles south of Luxor on the West Bank.
Armant is the ancient Greek settlement of Hermonthis, but the history of the city much predates that. It thrived during the Middle Kingdom and was enlarged during the 18th Dynasty with the construction of huge temples (now gone). Cleopatra VII made it the capital of the surrounding nome, and we know that the city continued to do well into the beginnings of the Christian era.
Construction of the temple started during the 11th Dynasty by Mentuhotep II. In the late period the temple was destroyed but Nectanebe I started to built a new one and was continued by the Ptolemies. Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XV Caesarion built a Birth house and sacred lake.
Today, nothing is left of Cleopatra's Temple, as it was used for materials to build a 19th century sugar refinery. The Temple dedicated to the god Montu still exists. Here, Montu is represented by the Buchis bull, which were buried in sacred vaults of the Bucheum near the Temple of Montu.
In ancient times, Armant was part of the Palladium of Thebes, which was sacred land placed under the protection of Montu. This is an area consisting of Hermonthis, North Karnak, Medamud and Tod.