Hatshepsut - her temple preserves the last secret

Often it is described as a symbol of perfect harmony of nature and architecture. It seems as the funeral temple of Queen Hatshepsut (18th dynasty, ca. 1504 - 1483 BC) with its three terraces snuggles up to the rocks up to 280 metres high. The temple is famous for the reliefs showing scenes of hunting and fishing at the first terrace. And of course for the unique reliefs of the second terrace showing the god Amun when he became father of Hatshepsut. The beginning of a legend and a legitimitation of her status as a king. Then there are the paintings showing the expedition to the legendary country of Punt (probably Somalia). There you can see paintings showing fishes of the Red Sea and the people of Punt looking as if they

are alive and some very unknown things the soldiers brought with them like the tree of incense. All this was admired by millions of visitors. But the last secret of the temple was prevented for tourists to visit it. The third terrace (see picture right). Now, after 40 years of restauration and the grand opening by His Excellency President Hosni Mubarak, tourists can go there. But at least there is still a secret - the sanctuary. Thanks to a special permission by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) we were allowed to visit it for you and take some pictures.

We climb up on the ramp from the second terrace. Step by step the skyscratching rocks come nearer and nearer. The outlines of the 26 statues of god Osiris, originally all headed with the face of Hatshepsut, become slowly clearer. Statues and rocks they become a virtual symphony.

An inspector leads us to a special part of the gallery. He likes to show us a sculpture of the head of Hatshepsut (picture below). "The most beautiful that I know,“ he smiles. For true the stony face of the daughter of Thutmes I. (ca. 1524 - 1518 BC) looks very lifelike, just as it was taken as a masque from a model a few days ago. And it will give an impression of the meaning of her kings name which was Maat-ka-re. This means "Wisdom is the soul of Re".

 

Then we walk on, pass an entry which was in ancient times closed with a door made by granite. Some fragments of columns, once loadbearing a roof, rise up to the blue sky. Behind them the sharply rising rocks. But they don’t look threatening, it seems as they embrace you. Here you will suspect, why Hatshepsut and her chancellor and architect Senenmut choosed this place. If the gods created the world, so they embrace here the mankind by taking shape as the rocks, they give the warm feeling of security. This is the place where Hatshepsut, who took over the regency after the death of her husband Thotmes II. (ca. 1518 - 1504 BC), celebrated the feasts of harvest and Opet. This is the place of life and resurrection, a symbol of the everlasting cycle of nature. Here you will feel why this tempel once was only called djeser djeseru, only the holy of the holies.

Visiting a familiy

In the western corner of the courtyard just down under a protective wall there is an entrance to go inside the hill. The way inside the sanctuary. For the length of some 25 metres chapels were hammered inside the cliff. "This may have needed about 15 years," the inspector says. The first room, Mohamed el Bialy, the Director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities for Upper Egypt, explains, hosted once a holy golden barque for the god Amun. Hathsepsut built the myth that he was her father. And furthermore there was a golden shrine with a statue of the god. But unfortunately nothing survived. Except the myth.

However, something survied. The chapel with its barrel vault partly painted in a streaming blue decorated with richly coloured reliefs. In former days only the high priest and Hatshepsut (her name means "First of the noble Ladies") were allowed to go in. The paintings with its brillant colours of blue, red, turquoise and ochire don’t look as they are 3500 years old. Here we find the only known scene showing the Queen with her sister Nefru-biti (picture above right) and her daughter Nefru-re (picture above left). In the background there are scenes showing Hatshepsut and her step son Thotmes III. sacrificing the god. Scenes of family life. A Queen becomes alive again in your impression. This chapel is followed by smaller other ones. At least a chapel built under Proloeic ruling with nice but not coloured reliefs.

We walk back to the courtyard. A last view to the rocks, through the entrance to the green agriculture area. On the horizon on the eastern bank of the Nile the pylons of the temple of Karnak are rising up, built in a parallel line to Hathsepsut. If you can imagine that once you came up a causeway flanked by sphinxes, flowers and trees, you will find here must have been a little paradise.

Protecting instead of treasure hunting

However, its a paradise with little secrets. "We found two windows in the rock chapel (picture below right). Twice a year the rays of the rising sun found its way through it, enlightened the golden barque,“ explains Mohamed El Bialy. A festival of light like it was created later by Rameses II. in Abu Simbel.Then little pieces of real gold which were found on a doorframe at the end of the chapel are brightly shining. Once all the frame was covered with gold (picture below right), so it give an idea, how rich the sanctuary once was decorated. Bialy: "The temple with its third terrace is a new highlight. For everybody who loves Egypt it is a must to see it."

Bialy is an expert for the 18th dynastie, especially for the queens. Since around 17 years he worked on the West Bank, was five years something like the ruler of tombs and temples in his job as the General Director of the Antiquities of Theben West. He is one of the new generation of archaeologists. "We have to restore, to discover our history. Therefore only cleaning and replacing of original findings is allowed. There are no new paintings replacing the old ones. We are no more hunting for treasures. Our work is to protect the monuments for the next generations,“ he explained his view of archaelogy.

A lot of legends

Modern Bialy is talking in another way. "Some scholars take over some beloved old conclusions and stories from others that are not right," he critizises some of his collegues. And so he put an end to some legends of Queen Hatshepsut. There is the legend of a retaliation campaign in the royal family. Thutmes III. (officily he ruled ca. 1504 - 1450 BC) is blamed to have destroyed most of the sculptures and paintings showing Hatshepsut. Okay, the queens' step son had to wait some 21 years since he became the only king. Because Hatshepsut in approximately 1504 BC took over the reign as a guardian for the underaged heir of the throne before she appointed herself as the King in ca. 1498 BC. Many scholars describe this - as they say - iconclasm as the revange of a suppressed man full of hatred.
"Maybe under the reign of Thutmes there have been some little destractions. But he never started off a campaign. First he was fascinated by his family. Second he got a very good education with Hatshepsut. She was the one who formed him to the man with a strong personality he became. Furtherthemore the social and political balance was very important in the most important kingdom of the world. This was a big part Thutmes had to play. He was too busy to initiate something like an iconclasm. At least we found all the reliefs they show Thutmes and Hatshepsut together sacrificing the gods," refuses El Bialy the legend.

Most of the destractions inside the temple were done under the ruling of the so called "herated king" Akhenaten (ca. 1350 - 1334 BC), and then later when Christianity came to Egypt and monks used the temple as a monastery. The name of the temple we know today goes back to this time, "Deir El Bahari", the northern monastery. Even after ten years of cleaning, the ceiling of the chapel of Amun is partly black from the smoke of the ovens the monks cooked with. "This smoke covered the reliefs totally," Bialy says.

There is still another myth, another legend. There was nothing in the often mentioned love story between Hatshepsut and her chancellor and architect Senenmut, the most powerful man under her reign. "Hatshepsut was a real Queen. She had a strong personality, was going her way. And she knew how to use people in the right way. But a story like this is always good for some novels," laughs El Bialy. He goes on: " And I think she didn’t know that Senenmut built up his own tomb underground the temple." This tomb for many writers is a proof of the love story. But it was never used.

Also today the myth making of Hatshepsut is going on. Her name was not mentioned in the listing of the Egyptian kings as in Abydos. She built two tombs for herself. One in a valley out of the way which was researched by Howard Carter. He found it as never used. The other one is in the Valley of the Kings (KV 20) where she was buried after she died in ca. 1483 BC. But here mummy was never found. So there is enough material for new legends.

But one thing rises again. After 40 years of restauration done by Polish and Egyptian scholars the temple of Hatshepsut is shining nearly like in former days. Even in the third terrace (pictures below: photo left from the book Ägypten - Architektur, Plastik, Malerei in drei Jahrtausenden, Hirmer-Verlag, München, 1985, shows one corner of the terrace before restauration starts, our photo right how this part looks today) there are only about 40 per cent original pieces. All the rest is reastically rebuilt with material from the area but without reliefs. To visit the temple and now the third terrace will impress you - even the santuary still stays as a secret. Like so many things of the life of Queen Hatshepsut. (Text Antje and Wolfgang Sliwka, Fotos Antje Sliwka)