Templo Haptsjeput. Deir El-Bahari. Egipto
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Trail stats
- Distance
- 1.5 mi
- Elevation gain
- 476 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Easy
- Elevation loss
- 476 ft
- Max elevation
- 607 ft
- TrailRank
- 47
- Min elevation
- 424 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- one hour one minute
- Coordinates
- 395
- Uploaded
- May 27, 2022
- Recorded
- February 2020
near Al ‘Asāsīf, New Valley (Egypt)
Viewed 198 times, downloaded 5 times
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Itinerary description
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Haptsjeput Temple. Deir El Bahari. Egypt
The Temple of Hatshepsut, in ancient Egyptian Djeser-Djeseru or the wonder of wonders, is a magnificent construction of ancient Egypt erected in honor of Amon-Ra, god of the Sun. It takes its name from the Pharaoh-Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th dynasty who had it built after being crowned queen-pharaoh. The history of the temple is linked to this brave and ambitious woman who went over everyone to achieve what she considered hers.
Hatshepsut's temple is located in the Deir el Bahari complex, on the west bank of the Nile River next to the Egyptian city of Luxor, near the Valley of the Kings. It is the most important of the funerary complex together with the temple of Tutmosis III and that of Mentuhotep Nebhepetre, this much older pharaoh, from the XI dynasty.
It was built in the XVIII dynasty (in the reign of Hatshepsut 1490 – 1469 BC), between the years 7 and 21 of her reign. It was designed by the architect Senemut under the command of Queen Hatshepsut.
Hatshepsut is born from the union of Pharaoh Tutmosis I and Queen Ahmose as the youngest of four siblings of whom only she manages to reach adulthood. When Thutmose I dies she is the natural heir to the kingdom that her father has conquered. The struggle for power breaks out, with those who support the coronation of Tutmosis II, a son of Tutmosis with a secondary wife, prevailing. Hatshepsut, due to her status as a woman, is relegated to the role of queen and to being married to her half brother.
From the union of both two girls are born but no boy, which again produces power struggles after the sudden death of Tutmosis II. Again, those who support the appointment of a man prevail, crowning a son of Thutmose II with a concubine as king. The new pharaoh, still a child, becomes Thutmose III. Due to her young age, Hatshepsut takes over the regency of Egypt and from that position of power she maneuvers to get rid of those who have twice relegated her and places her followers in positions of strength. With everything on her side, she proclaims herself pharaoh of the Two Lands and firstborn of Amun under the name of Maatkara Hatshepsut.
During the seventh year of his mandate in the fifteenth century BC, he ordered the construction of a temple to Amon-Ra next to the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari, on the west bank of the Nile River in the city of Thebes. The temple is built next to the temple of Mentuhotep II.
Upon his death, after 22 years of reign, Thutmose III regained the throne of Egypt and the temple of Hatshepsut suffered a series of intentional mutilations, perhaps by the new pharaoh hurt by his long regency, or by clerics of Osiris, displaced to the strengthen the cult of Amon-Ra.
With the cult of the Egyptian gods gone, the temple fell into oblivion until, at the end of the 18th century AD, a conquest expedition led by Napoleon Bonaparte brought its remains to light. Subsequent studies and a complete, and somewhat controversial, reconstruction in the 20th century AD bring to our days one of the most impressive temples of ancient Egypt.
Hatshepsut's temple is unique in its style. It stands out for its large terraces and for being partially embedded in the mountain. It is dedicated to Amon-Ra, although like most Egyptian funerary temples it has rooms dedicated to Hathor and Anubis.
It consisted of a 36 meter wide causeway surrounded by sphinxes that led from the entrance to the large courtyard, which was accessed through 2 stepped terraces, built on the side of the mountain and joined by ramps. The terraces are supported by load-bearing walls and are separated by colonnades or porticoes.
After the entrance there is access to the first terrace, a large patio surrounded by low and long walls with a double closing portico. Decorated with reliefs depicting barges built to transport the obelisks from Aswan to the great temple of Amun at Karnak and scenes of hunting and fishing. On this first terrace there were 2 T-shaped ponds containing ornamental plants. In the portico there were 2 Osiríacas figures of which currently only one remains.
An ascending ramp, with the lion that protects the name of the queen, gives access to the second level, with a portico formed by 2 rows of 22 square pillars with scenes of the birth, education and coronation of the queen and a commercial expedition by sea to the country of Punt along with the procession back to the temple of Amun. These famous reliefs were already restored by Sethy I. There is also another unfinished porch to the right with 15 columns and 4 niches.
In the angle between both porticoes is the Anubis chapel with a vestibule and 3 sanctuaries, decorated with scenes of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut making offerings to Anubis, Amun, Ra-Horajty, etc.
On the far left is the rock-cut Hathor Chapel, made up of 2 hypostyle halls. One of the rooms consists of Hathoric columns and the other of fluted columns. The temple is decorated with scenes of festivals in honor of Hathor and offerings by the queen to the gods, as well as celestial decorations.
The third and last terrace contained 22 columns preceded by Osiriac pillars that were destroyed by Thutmose III when he assumed full power after Hatshepsut's death. On this level, on the south side, to the left of the terrace, is the chapel of Thutmose I and the queen's offering chamber, carved into the rock. On the opposite side, to the north, are the rooms dedicated to Ra-Horajti, with a vestibule with a raised niche and an inner courtyard with a solar altar, and those of Amón and Amonet.
The last room of the temple, the sanctuary, consists of 3 rooms with niches to place cult objects, the first of which was intended to house the sacred boat. In this there are decorations of the queen, Thutmose III and Neferura making offerings to Thutmose I and II and to Queen Ahmes Nefertari. The third room was excavated by Ptolemy VIII Evérgetes II and is dedicated to the worship of deified officials such as Amenhotep (Son of Hapu) and Imhotep.
The funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari, partly deviates from the schemes of the Egyptian temple of the New Kingdom. Indeed, the resemblance that we can find between its floor plan and that of Mentuhotep's temple, which flanks it, is too precise to be accidental. The same structure of the terraces, the same porches.
We can only make guesses. Mentuhotep reunited the Two Lands after the period of weakening of the central power, this was the company carried out by him, the one that took his memory to posterity. We have already seen how his funerary complex can perhaps be interpreted as the externalization of Theban supremacy over the rest of the country. Now, it is curious to observe how, despite the fact that Hatshepsut came to the throne when Egypt had already expelled the Hyksos many years ago, precisely in an inscription, she is proud of having reorganized the country.
In 1979 it was declared a World Heritage Site. In 1997 it is the scene of the Luxor massacre, in which 62 people died, many tourists, at the hands of Islamic extremists.
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471 ft
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