Nefertari
This is a hieroglyph (the xa-sign if you want to be technical, representing the sunrise) at Medinet Habu, with my hand in it for scale. Medinet Habu is the mortuary temple of Ramesses III on the Theban West Bank. Ramesses III is better known for being named after Ramesses II (‘the Great’), and for supposedly being murdered by his own harem in an attempt to replace the crown prince with a different son (unsuccessfully). However, the hieroglyphs at his temple are also famously deep. This is because Egyptian kings had this delightful habit of either erasing their predecessors completely, or usurping their monuments for themselves. This was done by carving down until the previous king’s name was gone and a new one could be put in its place. Ramesses III got around this by carving hieroglyphs so deep that in three thousand years no one has bothered to try to replace them.
