Medinet Habu Temple; the “Harem Conspiracy” Revealed

Medinet Habu Temple stands amidst a broader complex area under the same name. Right next to the temple lay the remains of the Royal Palace of Ramses III. 

Ramses the III was a great warrior and a charismatic leader. He crashed Egypt’s invaders while he was being attacked from both the West and the East!

However, under his reign, the New Kingdom weakened and Egypt’s economy collapsed. While Ramses III was enjoying a luxurious life within the Palace walls, the people of Thebes were starving and workers remained unpaid for months. Hostility against the King started growing and the first workers’ strike ever recorded in history took place during his rule.

When Ramses III became unpopular to his people, one of his wives plotted his assassination, with the ambition that her son would take his place on the throne. And it was in the Palace of Medinet Habu complex that the assassination of Ramses III took place.

This incident was revealed thousands of years later, when following a scan on the mummy of Ramses III, a deep knife wound was discovered across his throat. Only then did the archaeologists realize that the King had not died from natural causes but was indeed the victim of the so called “Harem Conspiracy”…