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king victory over the invaders of Egypt; defeat of northern tribes by the Egyptians; counting the hands (3,000!) cut off from dead enemies; Rameses leading three rows of captives; and captives being offered to Amen; the accompanying text celebrates the king's victories.

On the north-east are representations of religious processions at the festival of Seker, the festival of Amen, and the festival of Amsu; these reliefs are of great interest. This courtyard was turned into a church by the Copts, who removed the middle column of the northern portico, and built an altar against the wall behind it. On the west wall are figures of a number of the king's sons. Passing into the Hall of Columns (c) it is seen that this part of the temple is not as well preserved as the First and Second Courts, for of the 24 columns which supported the roof, only the bases remain. This damage is said to have been wrought by the earthquake of B.C. 27, and the portions of the overthrown columns were probably used by the Copts and Arabs to make stones for corn mills. This hall measures about 87 feet by 62 feet. On the walls are reliefs in which the king is seen making offerings of various kinds to the gods of Thebes. On the south side are five small chambers wherein the treasures of the temple were kept. After the Hall of Columns come two small chambers, each with eight columns; the first, the reliefs of which are destroyed, measures about 56 feet by 27 feet. On each side are numbers of small chambers, the walls of which are decorated with mythological, astronomical, and other scenes, and some were clearly set apart for the service of special gods; in most of them are sculptured figures of the king adoring the gods. The spaces left hollow by the foundation walls, and commonly called crypts, were often used as tombs. On the outside of the temple walls are series of reliefs which refer to -1. Calendar of Festivals (South Wall); 2. Wars against the people of the Sûdân, etc. (West Wall); and

3. Wars against the Libyans and peoples of Asia Minor (North Wall and part of West Wall). For a full account of the temple, see M. Daressy's excellent Notice Explicative des Ruines de Médinet Habou, Cairo, 1897.

V. The Temple of Queen Ḥātshepset at Dêr alBaharî was built by order of Hatshepset in terraces on a wide, open space, bounded at its further end by the semicircular wall of cliffs which divides this space from the valley of the Tombs of the Kings; it is approached from the plain on the western side of the river through a narrow gorge, the sides of which are honeycombed with tombs. It was called by the Great Queen, "Tcheser Tcheseru"

i.e., "Holy of Holies." At the end of the XVIIIth century (1798) MM. Jollois and Devilliers visited it, and made a plan of the ruins as they found them; they declared that the approach from the plain was by an Avenue of Sphinxes, and that the avenue was about 42 feet wide, and 437 yards long, omitting to count a break of 54 yards; but they, apparently, did not know the building, which they imperfectly described, by the name it now bears, "Dêr al-Baḥarî,” i.e., the Northern Monastery. In 1827 Wilkinson made excavations on the site, and Lepsius seems to have done the same, but no serious clearance of the ruins was begun until Mariette began to work at them in 1858, in which year he uncovered the bas-reliefs which depict the Expedition to Punt. At an early stage in his labours he recognized that Ḥatshepset's temple was, like many another temple on the western bank of the Nile at Thebes, a funerary temple, and that it must be classed with buildings like the Ramesseum and the great temple at Madinat Habû. In other words, the temple of Dêr al-Bahari was a huge private chapel which was built by the great queen for the express purpose that offerings might be made to her ka, or "double," on the appointed days of festival, and to that of her father, Thothmes I.

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The Temple of Hatshepset at Dêr al-Baharî.

which has disappeared, and was approached by means of an avenue of sphinxes. It was entered through a pylon, in front of which stood two obelisks. Passing through this pylon the visitor, the following

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pathway, arrived at an incline which led to the raised colon

nade of the Eastern Terrace (A). The bas-reliefs on its wall were protected by a roof (B), supported by one row of rectangular pillars, and by one row of polygonal pillars. From the centre of this platform (c) an inclined plane or flight of steps led to the Western Terrace (D), and the face of the supporting wall was protected by a portico (E), formed by two rows of square pillars. At each end of the portico are rock-cut shrines, which are approached through a twelve-columned portico, the roof of which is in perfect preservation. The Northern Shrine is decorated with religious scenes, and the Southern or Hathor Shrine, which is entered through a covered vestibule having pillars with Hathor-headed capitals, contains scenes relating to the rejoicings which took place at Thebes on the return of the queen's successful expedition to Punt. Everywhere will be seen the marks of the erasure of the queen's name which was carried out by Thothmes III. her ward, who hated Hatshepset with a deadly hatred; in many places will be found marks of the vandalism of Amenophis IV., who erased the name and figure of the god Amen from the walls, because he hated this god and preferred to worship Åten; and everywhere will be seen the cartouche of Rameses II., who, because in places he tried to repair the mischief done by Amenophis IV., added his own name wherever possible. At the end of the building is a small rectangular court, which is entered through a granite gateway, and directly opposite it is a rock-hewn shrine with a vaulted roof. The plan of the temple given on p. 609 is from Mariette's work,* and will be found useful; from it, however, the reader would think that the northern part of the buildings on the Western Terrace was similar to that on the south, but this is not so. The total length of the whole building, not including the Avenue of Sphinxes, was about 800 feet.

* Deir-el-Bahari, Leipzig, 1877.

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