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site details
E£12 entry
camera free
video free
relevant links
travelogue 2/13
theban mapping project
history
New kingdom
18th Dynasty
Amenemhet III
Hatshepsut
Thutmose III
Temple of Hatshepsut
In the temple itself, the sanctuary of Amun is dug directly into the stone of the cliffside and is (at least technically) connected to the Valley of the Kings which lies on the other side of the escarpment. There is a burial chamber there, but it is usually assumed that Hatshepsut was buried in the Valley of the Kings.
The temple not follow the same rules as other temples -- it is far different from Karnak and Luxor, or the huge temples of Ramesses II and his followers. Instead of huge pylons and courtyards, then the hypostyle hall and then the inner sanctuaries, Hatshepsut built her temple against the stone wall as a series of levels.
It gets really hot here -- even early in the morning in the winter, we were sweating by the time we got to the temple. The gate is far away -- a result of security after the 1997 bombing that killed a busload of German tourists -- and the curved walls of the wadi capture the morning heat and reflect it back like a huge oven. Our guide, Jamil, compliained that it got hot enough on the upper terraces to melt tennis shoes.
