Acquaint yourself with Egypt’s Deir el-Bahari

CAIRO – 16 January 2022: The site of Deir el-Bahari is famous for hosting the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BC) on the western mainland of Luxor.

The temple consists of three tiered layers. The funeral rites were held in the temple for Queen Hatshepsut -who was given the title of king-, in addition to her father King Thutmose I. In it, tributes were offered so that the soul of the queen would be guaranteed eternal life.

The site of Deir el-Bahari carried a measure of holiness because it is linked to the goddess Hathor, who patronizes the kings of Egypt, led by Lord Horus, the first mythical ruler of Egypt.

It was believed that the embodiment of that goddess was in the very hills whose shadows fall on the temple of Hatshepsut, and on the other side of it, where the tombs of some of the most famous kings of ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom are located in the Valley of the Kings.

The site of the temple on the western mainland was linked to the idea of sunset. This temple was also connected with the Temple of Amun in Karnak on the eastern mainland, where the statues of the Lord Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu walked in an annual festive procession known as the Beautiful Valley Festival to cross the Nile and visit the royal funerary temples, including the Temple of Hatshepsut, which was one of the important stations for this procession.

King Mentuhotep Nebhepetre [2055-2004 BC] of the Middle Kingdom first established a mortuary tiered temple in that important area about 600 years before Hatshepsut. Queen Hatshepsut borrowed the design of her temple from his.