Mortuary temple of queen Hatshepsut

The location of the temple

The mortuary temple of queen Hatshepsut lies on the western bank of Luxor, on a mountain’s cliff on the other side of king’s valley and close to noble’s valley, the importance of this location was revealed around 500 years before Hatshepsut’s reign, when king mentuhotep the second constructed there his mortuary temple and later on queen Hatshepsut followed his path, because of political and religious reasons; according to religious reason, according to the ancient mythology, it was the place of goddess Hathor, the goddess of maternity. At the same time, it was quietly used politically by queen Hatshepsut to legitimize her political position.

Each king in ancient Egypt always had a prophecy to legitimize his ascending the throne. And queen Hatshepsut claimed that her birth was holy by the goddess god Amon-Ra the main god of Luxor, which was embodied in the image of her father, King Thutmose the first. At the same time, her mother was goddess Hathor, so she chose this location to build her mortuary temple by the third year of her reign; the temple was built in 11 years.

Who is Hatshepsut

Queen Hatshepsut was the fifth ruler of the 18th dynasty. In ancient Egypt, there were 30 dynasties. This dynasty is considered the most important since it contained the most lots of many critical kings who played essential roles in military, architecture, political, and religious issues.

Queen Hatshepsut was the daughter of King Thutmose, the first, and his primary wife, goddess Ahmose. By the way, the name “Ahmose “was used for both women and men.

According to the ancient Egyptian tradition, the king of Egypt must be a man with holy blood. That means the king must be from royal parents, and the parents of Hatshepsut had only her and her brother-in-law from the concubine’s king. The brother-in-law was called Thutmose the second, who got married to his sister-in-law through a recommendation of priests to legitimize the position of king successor “Thutmose the second,” who ruled Egypt partially with queen Hatshepsut for around 15 years.

After her brother’s death, she ruled Egypt with her brother-in-law and, meanwhile husband “Thutmose the third,” who was born from another concubine as a co-regent around 22 years.

Queen Hatshepsut is one of 3 queens who ruled during ancient Egyptian civilization; however, she was the most intelligent and wise who ruled for the most extended period and left a unique reign and significant antiquities in Luxor.

The builder of the temple

The founder of this temple is called “senmut,” who is one of the most famous architects in ancient Egypt after Imhotep, the founder of the step pyramid in Saqqara.

His roots are related to a humble family in Armant – around 20 kilometers to the south of Luxor- he was so intelligent, skillful, and ambitious. He could be one of the elite architects and the main one during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut.

He was the tutor of her daughters and the architect of her mortuary temple and buildings during her reign.

Many rumors about discreet relationships between Hatshepsut and senenmut were mentioned in holes nearby this temple; even his tomb was engraved under the temple.

Even the historical news about this architect was interrupted by the 18th year of Hatshepsut’s reign.

The temple's architecture

The temple is built on three layers; each is higher than the previous to the top, like ramps, where the sanctuary lies.

Before the temple, there was a sphinx avenue now wholly erased. Between the sphinx avenue and the temple gate, two roots of trees are planted before the temple. It is mentioned that these trees were brought from punt to decorate the temple’s facade. The type of trees does not exist anymore. In my estimation, it is not logical that such roots could exist and be seen till today; the temple is more than 3300 years old.

After the trees, there were traces of a wall on the high ground, around 2 meters. Most hypothetically, there was a wooden gate for the temple.

Most of the temple’s scenes are demolished since the temple had many erasing processes, first by king Akhenaton, Ramses the second and later in the fourth century the Christian, changed the temple to Kloster, and till now, the temple is known as the northern Kloster

The expedition to punt

For the first time, punt was mentioned in ancient Egypt during the reign of king sahura from the fifth dynasty.

Then the ancient Egyptians regularly organized expeditions to this land to bring incense to tiger skin ointments.

All these products were highly needed in temples in ancient Egypt, each priest had a uniform from the tiger’s skin, and each god had his smell from essence and incense, and ointments were used popularly in temples in ancient Egypt.

However, punt was mentioned several times in ancient Egypt; there is no definition about this land; punt refers just to the land in the south, but wherein the south, and till now, no archeologist could determine the exact location of punt in ancient time, maybe it is Yemen or Somalia, or Oman.

Transferring obelisks

One of the most important scenes of this temple is the documentation of transferring the obelisks of Hatshepsut from Aswan to Karnak temple.

That reflects the importance of this occasion; she decided to document this occasion in Karnak and her temple indeed.

Each obelisk was transferred by two boats; each boat was around 90 meters long and 30 broad; such a boat was not easy to sail on the Nile, that is why each boat had a lot of sailors and navigators since each obelisk weighed more than 250 ton.

The scene reveals the arrival of both obelisks at Karnak temple and how to locate it in the Karnak temple.

Highly important to mention the season of transferring these obelisks was during the Nile flood to facilitate this process.

The sanctuary

Sanctuary or holy of holies is the core place of this temple or any other temple in all of Egypt, in this temple is very special since it’s the only place of the temple engraved in the mountains to the top of the temple.