 |
Queen Hatshepsut ruled in 18th dynasty ancient Egypt between 1479 and 1458 BC. Her temple is visually quite stunning as you can see below. It is also one of the few ancient sites that has it's own ticket office so you can just arrive, in our case pay two Egyptian pounds (about 20 pence) to park in the car park, before walking the gauntlet of Egyptian stall holders and purchasing entrance tickets from the well signed ticket office. We also always buy a ticket for the land train from the man at the desk nearby. |
|
|
The full vista of Queen Hatshepsut's temple on the west bank of Luxor at
Al-Deir Al-Bahari.
The little land train pictured is one of several that take you from the ticket office to the temple - though for a
small extra charge - but in the heat of this area it is most welcome. |
 |
View of the middle and upper levels of Hatshepsut temple.
On the very left of this picture the solid wall leads you to the lovely little chapel dedicated to the ancient goddess Hathor. |
 |
Detail from the small
Chapel of Hathor
on the first level.
Hathor is depicted in female form on the left hand column with the tell-tale Hathor ears.
Horus the falcon wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. He is depicted as god of the sky and behind him is the solar disc that is protected by the cobra god, Wadjet, who holds the ankh, the key of life. |
 |
Looking through the doorway at the rear of the
chapel of Hathor. |
 |
Detail from the lower
chapel of Anubis. |
 |
Tuthmosis III - his cartouche is just above him - seen here on the right as depicted in the
chapel of Anubis.
Hatshepsut was his step-mother and possibly co-regent for a period of time but accounts of this vary between scholars. Tuthmosis III became pharaoh in his own right in 1458 BC on the death of Queen Hatshepsut and after she had been Queen for 21 years 9 months.
The falcon headed god on the left looks like Horus but we couldn't find his name on the wall. From the hieroglyphs it is Sokar who is also a falcon headed god but regardless of who it is isn't it wonderful. |
|
 |
Queen hatshepsut
as seen on the walls of her own temple. |
 |
|
