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Queen Hatshepsut and her Temple
(L) Granite Statue of Queen Hatshepsut
Leiden Museum, photograph by Rob Koopman, CreativeCommons.
The Spell of Egypt (excerpt)
by Robert Hichens,
published 1911, The
Century Co., New York.
Etext prepared by Dagny
and John Bickers.
Adapted for AscendingPassage.com, 2006.
DEIR-EL-BAHARI
Queen Hatshepsut's Temple - Djeser-Djeseru - an architectural treasure
Make Way for Queen Hatshepsut (Hatshepsu)!!!
Surely she comes to a sound of flutes, a
merry noise of thin, bright music, backed by a clashing of barbaric
cymbals, along the corridors of the past. This Queen who is shown upon
Egyptian walls dressed as a man, and
who sent to the land of Punt the famous expedition which covered her
with glory and brought gold to the god Amun.
To me she
seemed most feminine when I saw her temple at Deir-el-Bahari. It is a place of brightness
and suavity, pretty shallowness and sunshine. Its colors are trim and
fanciful, all very smart and delicate, full of finesse and laughter,
and breathing out to me the imagination of a
woman of 1500 B.C.
West Thebes presents the manhood of all the ages concentrated in granite. The terrific masculinity of Medinet-Abu,
the great freedom of the Ramesseum, and the grandeur of the two lone
colossus. The
temple at Deir-el-Bahari came upon me like a delicate woman, perfumed
and clothed in a creation of white and blue and orange. She is a gay and
sweet enchantress who knew her pretty powers and meant to exercise
them. Against a background of orange and pink,
of red and of brown she stands forever, a smiling coquette of the mountain.
Mr. Wallis Budge says in his book on the antiquities of Egypt: "It
would be unjust to the memory of a great man and a loyal servant of
Hatshepsu, if we omitted to mention the name of Senmut, the architect
and overseer of works at Deir-el-Bahari." By all means let Senmut be
mentioned, and then let him be utterly forgotten.
A radiant Queen
reigns here--a Queen of fantasy and splendor cut into the mountain--which
is the note of Deir-el-Bahari. And what a clever background! Oh,
Hatshepsut knew what she was doing when she built her temple here. It
was not the solemn Senmut who chose that
background, if I know anything of women.
Hatshepsut's Temple,
photograph by Lekegian, c.1895.
Long before I visited Deir-el-Bahari I had looked at it from afar. My
eyes had been drawn to it merely from its situation right underneath
the mountains. I had asked: "What do those little pillars mean? And
are those little doors?" I had promised myself to go there. And I had
realized the subtlety, essentially feminine, that had placed a temple
there.
And Menu-Hotep's temple, perhaps you say, was it not there centuries
before the Queen's? Then he must have possessed a subtlety purely
feminine, or have been advised by one of his wives in his building
operations. Blundering, unsubtle man
would think that the best way to attract and to fix attention
on any object was to make it bigger than things near and around
it.
Not so Queen Hatshepsut. More artful in her generation, she set her
long temple against the precipices of Libya. And what is
the result? Simply that whenever one looks toward them one says, "What
are those little pillars?" Or if one is more instructed, one thinks
about Queen Hatshepsut. The precipices are as nothing.
And yet how grand they are! I have called them tiger-colored
precipices. And they suggest tawny wild beasts, fierce, bred in a land
that is the prey of the Sun. Every shade of orange and yellow glows
and grows pale on their bosses, in their clefts. They shoot out
turrets of rock that blaze like flames in the day. They show great
teeth, like the tiger, when any one draws near. And, like the tiger,
they seem perpetually informed by a spirit that is aflame. Blake wrote:
"Tiger, tiger, burning bright".
Howard Carter copied this lion(?)
from the wall of Hatshepsut's temple c.1890
These tiger-precipices of Libya are burning things, avid like beasts
of prey. But the restored apricot-colored pillars are not afraid of
their impending fury. It is the fury of a beast baffled by a tricky little
woman. Still less afraid are the white
pillars, and the brilliant paintings that decorate the walls within.
As many people in the sad but lovely islands off the coast of Scotland
believe in "doubles," as the old classic writers believed in man's
"genius," so the ancient Egyptian believed in his "Ka" or separate
entity, a sort of spiritual other self. This Ka was to be propitiated and
ministered to, presented with gifts, and served with energy and ardor.
On this temple of Deir-el-Bahari is the scene of the birth of
Hatshepsut, and there are two babies, the princess and her Ka. When she became a great Queen she built this temple, that offerings might be made there on certain appointed days for this
imagined Ka.
Fortunate Ka of Hatshepsut to have had so cheerful a dwelling!
Liveliness pervades Deir-el-Bahari. I remember, when I was on my first
visit to Egypt, lunching at Thebes with Monsieur Naville and Mr.
Hogarth. Afterward I went with them to watch the digging away of
the masses of sand and rubbish which concealed this gracious building.
I remember the songs of the workmen toiling and sweating in
the Sun. I remember seeing a white temple wall come up into the
light with all the painted figures dancing with joy upon it.
And they are surely dancing still.
Thutmosis III and Horus at the Temple of Hatshepsut.
Photograph by Przemyslaw Blueshade Idzkiewicz, CreativeCommons.
Here you may see, brilliant as yesterday's picture anywhere,
fascinatingly decorative trees growing bravely in little pots, red
people offering incense which is piled up on mounds like mountains, Osiris receiving a royal gift of wine, the queen in the
company of various divinities, and the terrible ordeal of the cows.
Cows being weighed, wall carving in Hatshepsut's Temple,
photograph by Sebah, c.1890.
The cows are being weighed in scales. There are three of them. One is
a philosopher, and reposes with an air that says, "Even this last
indignity of being weighed against my will cannot perturb my soaring
spirit." But the other two sitting up, look as apprehensive as old
ladies in a rocking express, expectant of an accident.
(L) Limestone statue of Queen Hatshepsut, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph by Postdlf, CreativeCommons.
The vividness
of the colors in this temple is quite wonderful. At Deir-el-Bahari, what the long shell
contains--its happy murmur of life--is more fascinating than the
shell. There, instead of being uplifted or overawed by form, we are
rejoiced by color, by the high vivacity of arrested movement, by the
story that color and movement tell. And over all there is the bright
blue painted sky, studded with a
plethora of the yellow stars the Egyptians made like starfish.
The restored apricot-colored columns outside look unhappily suburban
when you are near them. The old white columns with their architraves are
more pleasant to the eyes. The niches are full of bright hues. The arched
chapels and the small white steps lead upward to shallow sanctuaries away from the Sun's glare.
Small black foxes face each other on little yellow pedestals-- All this
attracts one like the details and amusing ornaments of a clever woman's
boudoir. Through this most characteristic temple one roves in a gaily
attentive mood, feeling all the time Hatshepsut's fascination.
You may see her, if you will, a little lady on the wall, with a face
decidedly sensual--a long, straight nose, thick lips, an expression
rather determined than agreeable.
Queen Ahmes, mother of Hatshepsut
photograph of a plaster cast made at Deir el Bahari.
Another painting of the Queen shows her on her knees
drinking milk from the sacred cow, with an intent and greedy figure,
and an extraordinarily sensual and expressive face. That she was well
guarded is surely proved by a brave display of her soldiers. Full of life and gaiety all in a row they come,
holding weapons on the right hand, and, apparently, branches, and advancing with a gait
of triumph. At their head is an
officer, who looks back, much like a modern drill sergeant, to see how
his men are marching.
Queen Hatshepsut's men return from their expedition to Punt.
Photograph by Etxupoc, CreativeCommons.
In the southern shrine of the temple, cut in the rock as is the
northern shrine, once more I found traces of the "Lady of the Under-
World". For this shrine was dedicated to Hathor, though the whole
temple was sacred to the Theban god Amun. Upon a column were the
remains of the goddess's face, with a broad brow and long, large eyes.
Hatshepsut's Temple today, with the third terrace restored.
Image by Hajor, Dec.2001 License
Is not her influence still there upon the terraced
platforms, among the apricot and the white columns, near the paintings
of the land of Punt? Did it not whisper to the antiquaries, even to
the soldiers from Cairo, who guarded the Vache-Hathor in the night (a famous cow statue found here in 1905). They made haste to take her away, far from the hills of Thebes and from the
Nile's long southern reaches, that the great Queen might once more
reign unchallenged.
They obeyed. Hatshepsut was appeased. And, like a delicate
woman, perfumed and arranged, clothed in a creation of white and blue
and orange, standing ever so knowingly against a background of orange
and pink, of red and of brown, she rules at Deir-el-Bahari.
adapted from: The Spell of Egypt
by Robert Hichens, published 1911.
NEXT CHAPTER
Three Pharaohs built shrines at Deir-el-Bahari:
Mentuhotep II ruled 2010-1998 BC (11th Dynasty),
Hatshepsut ruled 1473-1458 BC (18th Dynasty),
and Thutmose III ruled 1458-1425 BC
- He was son of Hatshepsut.
Only parts of Hatshepsut's temple have been restored. The entire area was filled with gardens and statues during her rule. After Hatshepsut's death her temple was raided and hundreds of statues were "destroyed". In other temples (Giza, Karnak) the priests dug a big hole in the sand, threw the statues in and covered them up. They may be close by.
Deir-el-Bahari from the air.
The Valley of the Kings is over the ridge at right.
A guard house sits by the trail atop the ridge,
a post was probably in the same place 3500 years ago.
Photograph by Steve F. E. Cameron, CreativeCommons.
Deir el Bahari - Mentuhotep II
Deir el-Bahri: re-creation of the temple of Mentuhotep II,
by Edouard Naville, who excavated the temple. 1910.
The Temple of Mentuhotep II
Mentuhotep was first. 500 years before Hatshepsut he built the first temple at Deir-el-Bahari, a stunning new design. For reasons unknown, later pharaohs of the 11th Dynasty did not continue either the style or the location. The temple was probably half-covered with sand by the time Hatshepsut built her monument, largely on the pattern set by Mentuhotep II.
These days there isn't much left, one wonders how many visitors even notice those abbreviated columns off to the side.
Deir el-Bahri Temple of Mentuhotep II from the rear.
Photograph by Markh, CreativeCommons.
The Hidden Mummies
Many other interesting things have been found in this area, which a narrow ridge separates from the Valley of the Kings. Most notably a dozen mummies of New Kingdom pharaohs, hidden in the 21st Dynasty, were found in a tunnel here. It is suspected they were hidden away from their tombs to protect them from tomb robbers. Most tombs in the Valley of the Kings were heavily looted by this time.
Excerpted from Oriental Days
by Lucia A. Palmer, 1897
For a long time the antiquarians had known that the Arabs at Luxor were selling to travelers objects taken from tombs. It was a matter of great interest to them, and they were on the lookout to see where they came from. The Arabs were wily, and kept well their secret. One was at last induced to reveal it, and he then led the way. The place of the tomb chambers proved to be near Deir-el-Bahari.
Here was a well-like shaft, filled with sand, discovered by chance, leading to a tunnel, and the tunnel to a rough chamber in the cliff. In this chamber were upward of thirty mummy-cases, the majority of them decorated with the royal asp.
These cases contained the mummies of the Pharaoh of the exodus, Ramsses II, and Queen Nofretari, together with other royal personages and the high priest Nabseni. These relics had been taken from their first royal resting place and hidden in this rude chamber.
I recently read a very interesting description, by Emil Brugsch Bey, of the entering of the chamber. I will give it in brief:
“The well cleared out, I descended and began the exploration of the underground passage. Soon we came upon cases of porcelain, funeral offerings, metal and alabaster vases. Then we reached the turn in the passage, a cluster of mummy-cases came in view. Examining them by the light of my torch, I saw at once they contained the mummies of royal personages of both sexes. Plunging on ahead of my guide, I came to another chamber, containing mummy-cases of stupendous size and weight, with polished surfaces and gold coverings.
I spent most of that night hiring men to remove the relics. At early morning three hundred Arabs were employed. One by one the cases were hoisted to the surface, then securely sewed up in sail-cloth.
After six days of hard labor under a July Sun, the work was finished. I shall never forget the scene I witnessed when I watched the strange line of parcels carried across that historical plain: the bodies of the very kings who had constructed the temples that still stand, and of the very priests who had officiated in them.
When we made our departure from Luxor, our Egyptian helpers squatted in groups upon the Theban side and silently watched us. The news had been sent down the Nile in advance. When we passed the towns the people gathered at the quays and made most frantic demonstrations of mourning for the lost Pharaohs. A strange wail went up from the men, the women were screaming and tearing their hair. The children were so frightened I pitied them. At last we arrived at the Museum.”
Excerpted from Oriental Days
by Lucia A. Palmer, 1897
Temples of West Thebes
In the western desert,
New Kingdom pharaohs built great temples
for the everlasting worship of themselves.
Amenhotep III Memnon
Rameses III Medinet Habu
Rameses II Ramesseum
Seti I Kourna
Queen Hatshepsut - Deir el Bahari
Temples of the Craftsmen Deir el Medina
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