In front of the pylon Rameses set up colossi and a pair of obelisks (one of which was taken to Paris in 1831 and re-erected in the Place de la Concorde).
In the astral-theological system he is the planet Mars, while in ecclesiastical art the great lion-headed colossi serving as guardians to the temples and palaces seem to be a symbol of Nergal, just as the bull-headed colossi are probably intended to typify Ninib.
On the west bank of the huge colossi of Memnon marked the entrance of his funerary temple, a magnificent building which was afterwards destroyed, and the great lake of Birket Habu was dug and embanked in front of his brick palace at the extreme south.
The temple of Amenophis III., to which the colossi of "Memnon" were attached, was again far forward of the line.
The colossi known to the Greeks by the name of the Homeric hero Memnon, which look over the western plain of Thebes, represent this king and were placed before the entrance of his funerary temple, the rest of which has disappeared.
