Tag Archives: Temple of Hatshepsut

Unlike most of the Ancient Egyptian temples I’ve shown you so far, there’s something a bit different here at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s few female pharaohs. Here you’ll find many of the reliefs painted, and the paint doesn’t even look 3,400+ years old. Indeed, they don’t look a day over 3,000 (just kidding). So, today I’m going to present images of these impressive painted reliefs. Below is our old friend Horus, whom we’ve seen many times in this series, as well as a plethora of images depicting the Egyptian goddess Uraeus (“Rearing Cobra):

Above Uraeus you’ll discover a rich blue ceiling containing many gold stars:

Don’t pin me down on this next one, but I believe this may be a depiction of Egyptian goddess Hathor, whom we’ve met before:

And once again we have Horus in his half-falcon/half-human form:

This next bird is not Horus. You’ll notice it looks more like a vulture than a falcon, and that’s precisely what it is. Behold the Egyptian goddess Nekhbet, protector of Upper Egypt:

I shall leave you today with one more painted relief from the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Our driver dropped the three of us off at the parking lot for our next stop this fine, 1 March 2025 day, and Mohamad led us through the ever-present souvenir vendor gauntlet toward our next Ancient Egypt archeological site — the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. The image below is courtesy of Wikipedia. I borrowed it for this article to give you a sense of this temple’s immense size from an aerial perspective:

I know what you’re probably thinking right about now: 1) That’s impressive! 2) Hatshepsut must’ve been a really important king to warrant this mortuary temple! Well, it is indeed impressive. The mortuary’s design is very unique among others we’ve seen, and the detail is extraordinary. This is some truly classic Ancient Egyptian architecture! Where you would go wrong, however, is on that second thought. This pharoah wasn’t a king. Hatshepsut, the sixth ruler of Ancient Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, was the second confirmed queen regnant (female “king”) to rule Egypt, the first being Sobekneferu from Ancient Egypt’s Twelth Dynasty some 350 years earlier. We’ll head on over the mortuary momentarily, but first I want to show you what you’ll see in the surrounding hillsides. There are many other temples and mortuaries around here in what is but a small part of the entire Theban Necropolis:

The closer you get to the main attraction, the more impressive some of these temples appear:

But the main attraction is coming into view. Here is the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut:

In the photograph I borrowed from Wikipedia, the second from the top in today’s article, you’ll notice what appears to be a second platform with rubble above it. You also might wonder, in a land known for earthquakes, just how stable is that sheer cliff above Hatshepsut? You would do well to wonder, for that rubble belongs to two other Deir el-Bahari temples — Thutmose III and Mentuhotep II — and they were destroyed by an earthquake and resulting cliff collapse during the beginning of the Twenty-First Dynasty. Not a whole lot remains of either structure:

As you approach Hatshepsut’s temple, you’ll notice a series of bearded figures. Why bearded figures for a queen? Because she felt the need to establish her authority as ruler in a historically male-dominated role.

Next week we take a look at some Hatshepsut interior decorations. And this week’s Fun Photo Friday will feature Hatshepsut favorites.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)