Editing Colossi of Memnon (section)

== Floods ==
Amenhotep III had positioned the mortuary temple in front of the floodplain of the Nile in an effort to fill a lake in front of the Colossi. Furthermore, this lake acted as a water retention reservoir and prevented the temple from flooding completely during high inundations. Hourig Sourouzian felt that Amenhotep III did not plan for the site to flood altogether as the surrounding wall for the mortuary temple behind the Colossi was constructed primarily of mud brick.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kozloff |first=Arielle P. |title=Amenhotep III: Egypt's radiant pharaoh |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-01196-0 |location=New York}}</ref>

With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little remains today of Amenhotep's temple. It stood on the edge of the Nile [[floodplain]], and successive annual inundations gnawed away at its foundations – a 1840s lithograph by [[David Roberts (painter)|David Roberts]] shows the Colossi surrounded by water – and it was not unknown for later rulers to dismantle, purloin, and reuse portions of their predecessors' monuments.