Farther south, between the now quite destroyed temples of Tuthmosis III. and IV., lies the temple of Ramses (II.) Miamun, the most beautiful, probably, in Egypt, as to architectural design and proportions, though behind that of Karnak in grandeur and various interest. The back part of the temple, as also the halls of the hypostole, have disappeared, and their original plan could only be ascertained by long and continued excavations carefully superintended by Erbkam. Round about this destroyed part of the temples, the spacious brick saloons are visible, which are all covered by regularly well built cylindrical vaults, and belong to the period of the erection of the temple. For this is unmistakeably proved by the stamps, which were imprinted on each brick in the royal factory, and contain the cartouches of King Ramses. That this temple had already attracted great attention in antiquity, is evident from the particular description which Diodorus Siculus gives of it after Hecatæus, under the name of the Tomb of Osymandyas. Immediately to the right of the temple, one of the few industrious Fellahs has planted a little kitchen garden, which gives us some change at our table, and was therefore spared, as it should be, with respect, in our excavations, which threatened to extend thither, at the entreaty of the friendly brown gardener, although it covers the foundation of a small temple not previously seen, the entrance of which I found in the first court of the Ramses temple. The most southern and best preserved of the temple palaces, lies amid the ruined houses of Medînet Habu, a Koptic city, now quite deserted, but once not inconsiderable. It was founded by Ramses III. the first king of the twentieth dynasty, the wealthy Rhampsinitus of Herodotus,[96] in the thirteenth century B.C., and it celebrates on its walls the tremendous wars of this king by land and sea, which might vie with those of the great Ramses. Within the second court a great church was founded by the Kopts, the monolithic columns of which still lie scattered around. The back places are mostly buried in rubbish. But of very peculiar interest is the far-projected pylon-like fore-building of the temple, which contained, in four stories, one above another, the private rooms of the king. On its wall, the prince is represented in the midst of his family; however, he caresses his daughters, known as princesses by their side-locks, plays draughts with them, and receives fruits and flowers from them. With this building closes the great series of palace-temples, known by the particular designation of Memnonia. They embrace the actual prime of the New Empire, for after Ramses III. the outward might, as well as the inward greatness of the empire declined. Of this period only, and that immediately following, do we find the tombs of the kings in the rock valleys of the mountains.