Queen Hatshepsut
Temple, also known as the Temple of Deir el Bahari
(XVIII Dyn)
The mortuary temple
of Queen Hatshepsut is one of the most
dramatically situated in the world. The queen's
architect, Senenmut, designed it and set it at the
head of a valley overshadowed by the Peak of the
Thebes, the "Lover of Silence," where lived the
goddess who presided over the necropolis. A tree lined
avenue of sphinxes led up to the temple, and ramps led
from terrace to terrace.
The porticoes on
the lowest terrace are out of proportion and coloring
with the rest of the building. They were restored in
1906 to protect the celebrated reliefs depicting the
transport of obelisks by barge to Karnak and the
miraculous birth of Queen Hatshepsut. Reliefs on the
south side of the middle terrace show the queen's
expedition by way of the Red Sea to Punt, the land of
incense. Along the front of the upper terrace, a line
of large, gently smiling Osirid statues of the queen
looked out over the valley.
In the shade of
the colonnade behind, brightly painted reliefs
decorated the walls. Throughout the temple, statues
and sphinxes of the queen proliferated. Many of them
have been reconstructed, with patience and ingenuity,
from the thousands of smashed fragments found by the
excavators; some are now in the Cairo Museum, and
others the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
