27 July 2008, Luxor: Female pharoah Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri is one of the most spectacular ancient buildings in Egypt, and is one of our favorite buildings in the world.

It was designed by Senmut, the highest official serving the pharoah and he was believed to be her secret lover. It was the first complex built at a site on the west bank of the Nile river. This site would become the famous Valley of the Kings because of all the pharaohs who later chose to associate their complexes with the grandeur of hers.

Hatshepsut Temple was built into a cliff face that rises sharply above it. Buildings in this complex are considered to be significant advances in architecture.

 A cartouche with a scarab beetle in it.

The Holy of Holies

Osirian (Osiris was the god of the afterlife) statues of Hatshepsut at her tomb, one stood at each pillar of the extensive structure. Note the mummification shroud enclosing the lower body and legs as well as the crook and flail associated with Osiris.

Many images portraying Hatshepsut were destroyed or vandalized within decades of her death, possibly by Amenhotep II at the end of the reign of Thutmose III, while he was his co-regent, in order to assure his own rise to pharaoh and then, to claim many of her accomplishments as his.

Hatshepsut

On the ground level, there were remains of trees brought from Punt during the time of Hatshepsut’s reign. Another amazing thing.

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