The temple of Hatshepsut is the best-preserved of the three complexes. Called by the people Djeser-djeseru, "sacred of sacreds", Hatshepsut’s terraced and rock-cut temple is one of the most impressive monuments of the west bank.

Situated directly against the rock face of Deir el-Bahri’s great rock bay, the temple not only echoed the lines of the surrounding cliffs in its design, but it seems a natural extension of the rock faces.

The temple was little more than a ruin when first excavated in 1891, but it has led to a great deal of successful reconstruction. Construction of the temple of Hatshepsut took fifteen years, between the 7th and the 22nd years of her reign. . . .The site chosen by Hatshepsut for her temple was the product of precise strategic calculations: it was situated not only in a valley considered sacred for over 500 years to the principal feminine goddess connected with the funeral world, but also on the axis of the temple of Amun of Karnak, and finally, it stood at a distance of only a few hundred meters in a straight line from the tomb that the queen had ordered excavated for herself in the Valley of the Kings on the other side of the mountain. The approach to the temple was along a 121-foot wide, causeway, sphinx-lined, that led from the valley to the pylons. These pylons have now disappeared.

The name Deir el-Bahri derives from the former monastery built during the Coptic era. This temple was built by Queen Hatshepsut, stepmother of pharaoh Thutmose III, who became regent for the adolescent Thutmose III when Thutmose II, her brother died. As the first known female monarch, she ruled for about two decades, thus delaying the kingship of Thutmose III. It is not known how she died or was superseded. Many of her portraits were destroyed after her death, no doubt on orders from Thutmose III. In the surviving portraits she appears as a male pharaoh with royal headdress and kilt and sometimes even the false beard. Some inscriptions refer to her as male.

The plan consists of three colonnaded terraces, with two ramps. The horizontals and verticals echo the cliffs behind the temple. The second ramp leads to the upper terrace, which is at present closed to the public. This portico has columns decorated with Osirian statues of the queen. Many of these statues in the round were destroyed by Thutmose III.

Punt collonade

Two rows of square columns support this porch. Reliefs on the walls illustrate a naval expedition to Punt, an exotic place, probably what is now Ethiopia or northern Somalia. Texts engraved on the walls describe the voyage, the gifts offered to the king and queen of Punt, the products exported from there, including cinnamon, trees, ebony, ivory, gold, aromatic wood, incense and myrrh, and various animals. The obese queen receives the Egyptian embassy; depiction of such corpulence is rare in Egyptian art.

The second or intermediate portico is flanked by two chapels, the south one dedicated

to Hathor and the north dedicated to Anubis.

The Chapel of Hathor

The Chapel of Hathor, at the southwest end of the Mortuary Temple once had its own access ramp; the most sacred part of the Chapel is excavated into the rock. Some square piers and round columns are topped with Hathor capitals--with features of the goddess with cow's ears. Note the Osirian statue just visible on the top level ( left image, at the top center). The left and center images are of the outer vestibule. Several painted bas reliefs decorate the walls of the Chapel; the image on the right depicts the Queen's soldiers on parade in honor of the goddess Hathor.

The Lower Chapel of Anubis

The columns of the Anubis Chapel are fluted, unlike the plain piers used in the rest of this temple.This room at the far north end of the second colonnade has twelve of these grooved columns with an astronomical ceiling. Wall paintings decorate the walls.

The upper terrace had an entrance portico decorated with Osiride statues of the female king, that is, statues of Hatshepsut sculpted to appear as the god Osiris, before each pillar, though most of these statues have been destroyed. The portico opened to a columned court flanked on the left with a chapel dedicated to the royal cult, and on the right by a chapel of the solar cult, with open court and altar.

Eighteen cult niches, nine on each side, flank the rock sanctuary of Amun, which was the focus of the entire complex. During the Amarna period, many of the images of Amun were destroyed

Karnak Temples  

Luxor Museum 

The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut   

The Tomb of Amenhotep II 

The valley of the Queens