This temple of Nineteenth-Dynasty date was constructed within the enclosure of the temple of Thoth, which was the main cult site of this god in all of Egypt. It faced east, forming a ninety-degree angle with the main procession road (dromos) of that main temple.
This large side-temple was discovered in 1901, when local labourers discovered a four-metre-tall statue of pharaoh Merneptah at the site.1 Excavation works soon revealed a large couple of pylon-towers at the entrance, with a hypostyle hall behind it, further west of which must have been the inner sanctum of the temple. Cartouches were discovered of king Merneptah, but also of his father Ramses II "the Great", as well as his successor Seti II, giving an estimate of the construction period of the temple. On a stela masoned into one of the pylons, Merneptah described the temple as a 'splendid house for the God [Amun] within the forecourt of Thoth', adding that 'its pylons reach heaven' and that the gardens of the temple were planted with flowers, papyrus, and plants carrying fruits.2 Contemporary storage magazines were discovered within the north part of the small enclosure of the side-temple, which was located within the bigger enclosure of Thoth.3
The temple fell out of use when cult activities ceased in the fourth or fifth century CE, and large parts were soon covered by trash and the desert sands, saving much of the structure a fate in the Late Antique lime kilns. Today, the pylons and part of the hypostyle hall remain standing.
Bibliography
Effendi Chabân, M., 'Fouilles à Achmounéîn', Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte 8 (1907) 211-223.
Roeder, G. 1954. 'Zwei hieroglyphische Inschriften aus Hermopolis (Ober-Ägypten)’, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte 52 (1954) 315-442.
Spencer, A.J. e.a. 1989. Excavations at El-Ashmunein II: The Temple Area (London 1989).