HATSHEPSUT TEMPLE

Even more than its architecture, the site's location at the foot of a vertiginous limestone cliff is likely to surprise you. Extremely dilapidated when Auguste Mariette began clearing it, it is still being restored today.

Hatshepsut's temple, originally surrounded by hanging gardens with pools, was built by the architect Senmout during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (1490-1468 BC). Access was via an alley lined with sphinxes. On the queen's death, her successor, Thutmes III, who had previously been kept out of power, had most of the bas-reliefs depicting Hatshepsut hammered out. During the reign of Amenhotep IV and his heresy, as well as during the Christian era, Hatshepsut's temple suffered further abuse before being transformed into a monastery. On either side of the ramps leading to the upper terraces are magnificent bas-reliefs, the finest being those on the middle level. They depict the maritime expedition organized by Hatshepsut to the land of Punt, identified today as Somalia and Ethiopia, from which animals and a particularly wide range of riches were brought back.

At thefar end of the left-hand portico is a small chapel dedicated to the goddess Hathor, whose cow-like ornaments make her easily recognizable as an ornament on the capitals. On the right wall, soldiers march in orderly rows, each carrying a different weapon: spear, stunner, axe... Next to them, rowers compete. The next room, long off-limits to visitors, is now open, so you can see the colors still adorning the walls.

On the right, there's a chapel of Anubis, sculpted with splendid bas-reliefs in absolutely intact colors. The ceiling, painted a deep blue and studded with yellow stars, is admirable.

The third terrace , whose restoration was completed in 2002, features a colonnade of Osirid pillars bearing the effigy of Hatshepsut, whose alignment of icy smiles is sublime. Inside, a former hypostyle hall, now roofless, opens onto several oratories, including the one to the left of Thutmose I, the sovereign's father.

To the left of Hatshepsut's temple, almost completely ruined and clearly visible from the top of the cliff, are the remains of the temple of Mentuhotep I, built six centuries earlier, and behind it, in a similar state, the temple of Thutmes III.