#21336 Counting the Body Parts in Medinet Habu, Egypt

The building blocks of Medinet Habu seem to be the petrified insecurities of Ramesses III. Not only was he competing with the memory of his more powerful, more virile, and almost-certainly-better-looking namesake (Ramesses II), he was also pharaoh during a period of successive foreign invasions, and increasing internal strife. Which explains why his bloated mortuary temple complex feels like it’s fortified, and is decorated with an excess of exuberantly brutal battle scenes. Even the carvings themselves are an act of war: some have been hammered into the walls with such ferocity, that you can actually fit your arm inside! But be careful where you reach, because whenever Ramesses III wasn’t slaying his enemies, it would appear he was counting their severed penises! Thankfully they weren’t spoils of war, but a way of calculating how much to pay his mercenaries. Today’s visitors must hope that counting systems have moved on since then.