Holger Uwe Schmitt · File:"Millionenjahrhaus" - Totentempel der Hatshepsut. 11.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Millionenjahrhaus%22_-_Totentempel_der_Hatshepsut._11.jpg
Attraction · Luxor
Deir el-Bahari
Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, rising in three colonnaded terraces straight out of a cliff amphitheatre — the most modern-looking building in Egypt, and three and a half thousand years old.
Time needed1 – 1.5 hours
Best timeEarly morning
WhereWest bank, below the cliffs
Builtc. 1470 BC
ArchitectSenenmut
ShadeNone — the cliff reflects heat
About
Deir el-Bahari
Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for about two decades as a female pharaoh, and the mortuary temple she built at Deir el-Bahari does not look like anything else from the ancient world. Three colonnaded terraces rise on ramps out of the floor of a natural cliff amphitheatre, so severely proportioned and so plainly detailed that architects have been claiming it as modern since the nineteenth century. The reliefs on the middle terrace record two things she wanted remembered: her divine birth, which was the argument for her right to rule, and the trading expedition she sent to the land of Punt, shown in astonishing detail down to the fish in the Red Sea. After her death her successor had her images and her name systematically chiselled out, which is visible throughout — and is a large part of why she was forgotten until the nineteenth century.
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What to See
What to see at Deir el-Bahari
Three terraces, walked up. The reliefs are on the middle one and that is where the time goes.
The building
- The approach along the causeway, from which the temple reads as part of the cliff rather than as a thing in front of it — the effect the whole design is built around.
- The Osiride statues of Hatshepsut along the upper colonnade, several of them reconstructed from fragments, showing her in the full pharaonic regalia including the ceremonial beard.
- The ramps between the terraces, which are the original circulation and give the building its symmetry.
The reliefs
- The Punt colonnade on the middle terrace — the expedition’s ships, the houses on stilts, the incense trees carried aboard in baskets, and the queen of Punt, recorded with real curiosity.
- The birth colonnade opposite it, arguing her descent from Amun and therefore her right to the throne.
- The chiselled-out cartouches and hacked figures throughout, which are the erasure campaign that followed her reign and are as much a part of the site as the carving.
Around it
- The chapel of Hathor at the southern end of the upper terrace, with Hathor-headed columns and better-preserved colour than the main axis.
- The ruins of Mentuhotep II’s much older temple immediately to the south, five hundred years earlier and the model Hatshepsut’s architect was answering.
- The cliff itself, with the path over the ridge to the Valley of the Kings on the other side — the route the tomb workers used.
Getting There
Getting there
Fifteen minutes from the Valley of the Kings, on the same west-bank morning.
From the valley
- About fifteen minutes by road around the cliff — the two sites are close as the crow flies and separated by the ridge.
- Doing the valley first and this second is the standard order and the right one: the cliff amphitheatre is still partly shaded early and becomes an oven later.
- The west-bank ticket office on the way in sells the ticket; there is no separate booth worth queueing at here.
From Luxor
- The ferry from the corniche plus a car, or a car all the way round by the bridge some kilometres south.
- Twenty-five to thirty minutes from the east bank by either route, and part of a west-bank half-day rather than a trip of its own.
At the site
- An electric shuttle covers the flat approach from the car park; it is a short walk and pleasant early, less so later.
- The climb is up two ramps to the upper terrace, which is a steady gradient rather than steps.
- There is a shop and shade at the entrance and none at all on the terraces.
Best Time
When to visit
A cliff amphitheatre facing east concentrates the morning sun and then holds it. Early is not a suggestion.
Time of day
- The first two hours after opening, when part of the cliff is still in shadow and the terraces are usable.
- By mid-morning the rock behind the temple is radiating heat back at it and the upper terrace has no relief from it at all.
- The light for photography is best early too, with the cliff still contrasty rather than blown out.
Time of year
- October to April is comfortable, and this is the site where the difference between winter and summer is most extreme.
- May to September, do it first or not at all — after nine it becomes a matter of endurance rather than interest.
- Balloon flights pass overhead at dawn in season, which is worth knowing if you want the temple without them in the frame.
How long
- An hour is a proper visit including the Punt reliefs and the Hathor chapel.
- An hour and a half if you also walk down to Mentuhotep’s temple next door, which almost nobody does.
- Half an hour is what a rushed schedule gives, and it covers the approach and the upper terrace only.
Visitor Intelligence
Visitor intelligence
A simple site to visit, with one historical thread worth having explained.
What to ask a guide
- Who erased the cartouches, when, and why — the answer is more interesting and less certain than the popular version.
- How the Punt reliefs were read, since they are one of the few surviving Egyptian records of a foreign country described rather than conquered.
- What is original and what is reconstruction. A great deal of the colonnade has been rebuilt from fragments and the joins are not hidden.
Photography
- The whole temple with the cliff behind it, from the causeway, is the frame — and it needs the early light to keep detail in both.
- The Osiride statues along the upper colonnade repay a longer lens.
- Interiors are dim and the chapels are small; no flash, and tripods are generally not permitted.
Comfort and access
- The approach and the ramps are gradients rather than steps, which makes this the most manageable major west-bank site for anyone unsteady on stairs.
- There is no shade above the entrance. Hat, water and an early start do all the work.
- Hawkers work the causeway rather than the terraces; a firm no at the start of the walk settles it.
Families
- The building reads instantly, even to children, in a way a tomb corridor does not.
- The Punt reliefs — ships, monkeys, fish, trees in pots — are the ones to point out.
- An hour early in the morning is comfortable; the same hour at eleven is not.
Nearby
Nearby
The rest of the west bank, and the town across the water.
The Valley of the Kings
Fifteen minutes around the cliff, and the site to do first on the same morning.
Luxor Temple
Back across the river in the town centre. Best after dark.
Luxor
The town — corniche, souq, museum and where the ferry lands.
Deir el-Medina
The tomb-cutters’ village further south, with small, exquisitely painted tombs. No page of its own yet.
Good to Know
Frequently asked
Because of what it leaves out. It is built as three colonnaded terraces on a single axis, set into a natural cliff amphitheatre, with almost no decorative mass and a rhythm of square pillars that reads as severely proportioned rather than ornamental. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century architects seized on it for exactly that reason. It also genuinely responds to its site: the design makes the building and the cliff behind it read as one form, which is not a common ambition in Egyptian architecture.
She was one of the very few women to rule Egypt as pharaoh, for roughly two decades in the fifteenth century BC, and she was a highly successful one — the Punt expedition recorded on her temple walls was a considerable undertaking. After her death her successor Thutmose III had her name and images systematically chiselled out of monuments across Egypt. Why is still argued about: the old explanation of personal spite has largely given way to arguments about succession and legitimacy. The erasure is visible all over this temple.
An hour for a proper visit including the Punt colonnade and the Hathor chapel, and an hour and a half if you also walk over to the much older ruined temple of Mentuhotep II immediately to the south, which almost nobody does. Half an hour — which is what a compressed schedule allows — covers the approach and the upper terrace and misses the reliefs, which are the reason to be here.
The first two hours after opening. The temple sits in an east-facing cliff amphitheatre that concentrates the morning sun and then radiates heat back off the rock all day, and there is no shade anywhere above the entrance. Early is also better for photography, since the cliff still holds contrast. From May to September this is the first stop of the morning or it is not worth doing.
It is the most manageable of the major west-bank sites. An electric shuttle covers the flat approach from the car park, and the climb between terraces is up ramps at a steady gradient rather than steps, which is unusual in Egypt. The surfaces are firm. What it does not have is shade or seating above the entrance, so the limiting factor for most people is heat rather than gradient.
Yes — they are fifteen minutes apart around the same ridge and they belong to the same morning. The right order is the valley first at opening and this second, because the valley is a heat trap that gets worse fastest and the cliff amphitheatre here holds some shade a little longer. Both are finished by late morning, which is when the west bank should be finished.
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