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The Mortuary Temple of Ramesses II - the Ramesseum
 The
mortuary temple of Ramesses the Great is known as the Ramesseum.
In addition to its interesting reliefs, courts and halls, the
Ramesseum is also the home of the great fallen statue that inspired
Shelley's Ozymandias. The temple is surrounded by huge
storage rooms that once held grain and oil.
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from
an antique land
Who said: Two vast and
trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near
them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd
visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer
of cold command
Tell that its sculptor
well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd
on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them
and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these
words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias,
king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty,
and despair!"
Nothing beside remains:
round the decay
Of that colossal wreck,
boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands
stretch far away.
Shelley
The Colossus that inspired Shelley's poem
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