Temple of Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Kings. Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Thebes

The gorge of Deir el-Bahri on the west bank of the Nile is a kind of monumental stage for the transition of Queen Hatshepsut to the afterlife. Its limestone, almost 100-meter steep wall is like a luxurious folded curtain, against which in the 15th century. BC. was built - more precisely, built into a natural wall - the memorial temple of Hatshepsut. This temple is considered the prototype of the Parthenon and other buildings of classical antique architecture.

STAGES OF PERFECTION

Hatshepsut herself called the temple she was building "Djeser Djeseru" - "The Most Sacred of the Sacred", which exhaustively explains its basic sacred concept.

Hatshepsut (1490/1489-1468 BC, 1479-1458 or 1504-1482 BC), female pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom, dedicated her memorial (mortuary) temple to the supreme god of Ancient Egypt Amon-Ra. A papyrus has been preserved in which, at the beginning of construction, she calls God her father. When the temple was built, she became its high priestess with the title of "wife of Amon." The chief architect of the temple, who directly supervised all the work on the site, was Senenmut (Senmug) - a confidant and, according to some information, a close personal friend of the dowager queen.

The temple was conceived by him as the greatest building, this plan was carried out in full and brilliantly. Today it appears to us no longer in its original form: the cataclysmic cataclysms of past eras, of course, played their role. But it all started much earlier, with one purely family dramatic story. Hatshepsut became pharaoh after the death of her husband and brother Thutmose II in 1490 BC. Twelve-year-old Thutmose III (the son of the pharaoh from the concubine of Isis) was proclaimed the "sole" pharaoh, and Hatshepsut was his regent. A year and a half later, the priests proclaimed Hatshepsut a full-fledged pharaoh. When Thutmose grew up and after the death of Hatshepsut returned to the throne, he began to cruelly take revenge on his stepmother - the usurper of power, as he believed. All her images were destroyed or the faces on them and all references to the queen on cartouches were erased, her name was replaced by the names of Thutmose I, Thutmose II and Thutmose III.

This is the most common version of the behavior of Thugmose III. There is also an alternative opinion of historians on this matter: the young man Thutmose did not take revenge on his own initiative, but was a puppet in the hands of intriguing officials who considered only the power of men to be legitimate, although even before Hatshepsut there were female pharaohs in the history of Egypt. But there certainly wasn’t such an influential and brilliant ruler: Egypt flourished under her. The Temple of the Queen is the best embodiment of this fact. To imagine what he was, it is not enough to see him, one must turn on the imagination. This allows you to do research by archaeologists, continuing to this day.

The temple began from a pylon, followed by a procession road, flanked by painted statues of sphinxes. Near the walls of the temple, a garden of trees and shrubs, brought by the queen in tubs from the country of Punt, was green and blooming. Two T-shaped basins were dug among the trees. The temple itself was carved into a rocky wall, as if growing out of it. The basis of its design is three huge terraces, located one above the other in steps. On each of the terraces there was an open courtyard, covered hypostyle rooms - porticos, behind them there were sanctuaries going into the thickness of the rock. The tiers of the temple were connected by gently sloping ramps for the entry of chariots. In total, about 200 statues were installed in the temple, 140 of them in the form of sphinxes. The queen appeared both as a sphinx, and in an "osiric" appearance, and as a pharaoh - in a white male robe, with her arms crossed on her chest, in which she held the royal sceptres, on her chin she had a narrow strip of false beard, which was worn by male pharaohs.

The relief compositions of the first tier represent multi-figured colorful scenes from the history of the unification of Egyptian lands. The second tier is dedicated to the personality of the current ruler, Hatshepsut, her high origin and relationship with the gods, of course, treating her with patronizing favor, which promised the further development of the state and the prosperity of all its subjects. There was a mythical story cardinally important for the queen: Amon enters the chambers of Ahmes, Hatshepsut's mother, in the guise of her earthly husband, therefore, she, Hatshepsut, is really the daughter of Amon himself.

A PLACE FOR A DIFFERENT LIFE

In all the memorial temples that the Egyptian pharaohs built, the spiritual component was immediately followed by rational meaning and strict engineering calculations, coupled with purely aesthetic considerations. This is the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Senenmut chose the place for the temple meticulously, consulting with mathematicians and surveyors. The result was the choice of a point on a conditional axis, going from the Great Temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak, which is located approximately 2.5 km from Deir el-Bahri, and ending in the Valley of the Kings, where the tomb of Hatshepsut had already been prepared, and this is very close to temple.

For all the uniqueness of the Temple of Hatshepsut, its architectural concept was not completely original. In part, it duplicates the design of the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep I, the founder of the XI dynasty, during whose reign in the middle of the XXI century. BC. order was restored in the country after 200 years of civil strife. Little has survived from the predecessor temple, but according to the drawings-reconstructions of archaeologists of the early 20th century. one can see that both temples have something in common: for example, the same stepped terraces, covered colonnades, and ramps, and the general proportions are similar. True, there was also a pyramidal top above the Mentuhotep temple. Some researchers find in the temple of Hatshepsut allusions to the terraced mortuary temple of Queen Ahmes-Nefertari in Abydos. These facts once again prove that even a borrowed idea, fertilized by the inspiration of the creator (and Senenmut was a creator on a large scale), can surpass the model taken for imitation.

The main axis of the temple was set at an azimuth of 116°. On the days of the winter solstice, the axis aligns with the sunrise point. Sunlight enters through a hole in the roof of the sanctuary of Amun to the rear wall of the chapel, after which it moves to the right, falling on one of the statues of Osiris, standing on both sides of the door. Then he runs to the image of Amon, and after him - to the kneeling figure of Thutmose III, ends the sheaf of light on his way to the figure of the god Nile Hapi. And one more thing: during the 41 days before and 41 days after the solstice, sunlight reaches the inner chamber of the sanctuary.

The ramps of the temple, which at first glance looked like decorative elements, divided the terraces into northern and southern parts, thus creating an additional rigid element of the building frame: earthquakes in the gorge are by no means impossible.

A strict hierarchy was observed in the list of gods and people to whom the temple was dedicated. Amon-Ra, his "daughter" and "wife" Hatshepsut, the deified real father of Hatshepsut Pharaoh Thutmose I, the guide to the afterlife Anubis, a deity with a jackal's head and a human body, and Hathor-Imentet - whose name (Hathor) means " home of Horus. Chorus is a "solar" falcon and the god of order. Hathor was considered the wife of Horus, was the goddess of the sky, love, femininity, fun and also the protector of the necropolis of Thebes. Imentet is the West, as the ancient Egyptians symbolically called the entrance to the kingdom of the dead. Hathor-Imentet met the deceased at the door of another world in the West, took care of him and did not give offense. Depicted in the form of a "heavenly cow" - a woman with cow horns on her head. In a word, the afterlife, another life of Hatshepsut with such powerful patrons promised to be serene. On the terraces of the temple, the high priests of Amun and Montu, the patron of Thebes, were buried. In Greco-Roman times, in the temple, next to the images of Amun, images of two deified persons were carved - the architect and healer Imhotep and the architect Amenhotep, the son of Hapu. And people began to reach for the walls of the temple for hopes of healing and protection. On the walls of the temple, there are inscriptions with prayers for deliverance from suffering, at least in the afterlife.

ATTRACTIONS

• Pylon entrance.
• Ramps.
• Terraces.
• Covered first and second courtyards.
• Upper level colonnade
• Chapels of Hathor.
• Lower and upper chapels of Anubis.
• Chapels of Hatshepsut and Thutmose I.
• Sanctuary of Amon.
• Tomb of Senenmut.
• "Osirian" sculptures, sphinxes and other artifacts from the temple are in the Luxor Museum of Antiquities, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

CURIOUS FACTS

• The modern Arabic name of the Deir el-Bahri gorge, in which the temple is located, in Arabic means “Northern Monastery”: in the period of early Christianity there was a Coptic monastery, of which there are no traces.
• It is still unknown where the "country of Punt" - the "Land of the Gods" was located, where many Egyptian pharaohs made military and peaceful campaigns, including Hatshepsut, who brought saplings of trees and shrubs from there to decorate her temple. The main hypotheses are called such countries - Ethiopia, northern Somalia, Zimbabwe, Kenya. India, which is more distant from Egypt, also figures in such assumptions. Russian Egyptologists admit that the country of Punt could also be located in the Black Sea region, namely: in the valley of Colchis. Hypotheses are based on such key interests of the Egyptians that forced them to make trips to Punt: vegetation, thanks to which you can get frankincense and myrrh, incense, spices and the seashore. But none of the hypotheses has been convincingly proven. And yet, given the not too great navigational skills of the Egyptians and the length of the sea voyage, the most likely location of the mysterious Punt is the coast between modern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.
• For a long time it was not known where Hatshepsut was buried: her two official tombs were empty. In 1903, the archaeologist G. Carter in the Valley of the Kings opened the tomb KV 60 with two mummies of women. One of them, it was written on the sarcophagus, was named Satra Inn. It was a noble lady, close to the queen, perhaps her nanny in childhood. The second mummy could not be identified; there were no inscriptions on the sarcophagus. Assumptions that this is Hatshepsut did not even arise: the mummy during her lifetime was a full-bodied woman, and all the images of the queen represented her slender. Then the first mummy was sent to the museum, sealing the tomb. The mummy remained lying on the floor, her sarcophagus was taken away. They returned to her only in 1989, suddenly remembering that the mummy's right hand lay on his chest, touching his heart. Only monarchs were buried in this position. In 2007, genetic studies were carried out. The DNA of the epithelium of the mummy and the ashes of Hatshepsut's grandmother Ahmose Nefertari were compared. The conclusions of the examination were confirmed by tomographic scanning, which proved that the tooth found in the box with the cartouche of Hatshepsut in 1880 was the one that was missing from the "full" mummy. And it was announced: this mummy is the remains of Hatshepsut. As for the grace of the statues, everything is understandable here: the appearance of the powerful of this world was embellished by artists in ancient times.
• It is not known exactly why two chapels are dedicated to Anubis in the temple of Hatshepsut - on the lower and upper levels. One can only guess what was so emphasized: Anubis is on guard from the beginning to the end of the transition of the queen to the afterlife.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Historical and architectural monument of Ancient Egypt on the west bank of the Nile.

Historical name of the region: Upper Egypt.

Administrative affiliation: the modern Egyptian city of Luxor.

Time of construction: approximately 1482-1473 BC.

Language: Arabic.

Monetary unit of modern Egypt: the Egyptian pound.

Nearest airport: Luxor (international).

NUMBERS

Temple height: approx. 30 m

Length: 240 m.

Width: up to 100 m.

Width of the procession road: 37 m.

The original number of sculptures in the temple: approx. 200.

Height above y. m.: 107 m.

CLIMATE

Tropical desert.

Average January temperature: +14.4°С.

Average July temperature: +33.2°С.

Average annual rainfall: 2.65 mm (morning dew).

It is associated not only with its excellent beaches and resorts of the Red Sea, but also with acquaintance with the great history of this country, its pyramids, temples and ancient cities. Today we will tell you about the amazing sights of Egypt - the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.

Temple complex of Hatshepsut located at the foot of the high cliffs of Deir el-Bahri. But this place is unusual not only because it differs from other Egyptian temples, but because it is dedicated to the female pharaoh - the ruler of Egypt. It is worth telling a little about this exceptional aristocrat of antiquity in order to understand what could move her to such an ambitious project. Hatshepsut was the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I by Queen Ahmes, and also the half-sister and wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. Her husband did not rule for long - about seven years, but she could not give up power in favor of the royal heir Thutmose the Third - the son of the pharaoh from his younger wife - Isis, a proud and power-hungry woman who knew the charm of power, could not. In addition, the heir was still very small, so Hatshepsut proclaimed herself his regent. But since she did not want to share power, she soon called herself the sole and rightful mistress of all Egypt. Queen Hatshepsut ruled for fifteen years, these years were very bright in the history of Egypt, the woman was able to show herself as a talented ruler, military leader: there were several victorious military campaigns in Asia, Nubia, an expedition to Punt was carried out. To commemorate the great moments of her reign, Hatshepsut decided to build a huge mortuary temple in her honor, so that its buildings, monuments and steles would remind her through the centuries.

In those distant times, it was in the order of things to build mortuary temple complexes, even during the lifetime of their future owner. Queen Hatshepsut entrusted the construction of her temple to the architect Senmut. The site was chosen at Deir el-Bahri, next to the temple of Mentuhotep the First, who was the ancestor of the eighteenth dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs. This choice of location was symbolic: in this way, Hatshepsut emphasized her personal right to the Egyptian throne.

At the end of the construction work, the temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt surpassed all the structures known at that time in all respects: size, architecture, decoration. According to the established traditions for the construction of mortuary complexes, the temple stood on the border of the desert and irrigated lands, a processional road led to it, thirty-seven meters long, which was guarded on both sides by sandstone sphinxes, painted with bright colors, they had the heads of Hatshepsut, in the form of a god Osiris. In front of the temple, a garden of trees and shrubs was laid out, two sacred lakes were dug, which had a "T-shaped" shape. The temple was the crowning achievement of ancient Egyptian engineering: it was carved into limestone rock, it had three huge terraces, located one above the other. Each terrace had an open courtyard and covered rooms with columns, the porticos of which went into the thickness of the rock.

The tiers of the temple were connected by ramps - sloping roads that replaced stairs. In ancient times, flowers, trees and ponds grew on the terraces. The lowest step was protected by a wall decorated with falcons. At the end of this terrace were placed lion figures and statues of Queen Hatshepsut. Images of military parades and construction works of those times were also knocked out right there. The second tier in the Temple of Hatshepsut in its reliefs tells about the life of this queen: about the expedition organized by her to the country of Punt, located in the eastern African settlements. The stairs are decorated with figures of cobras, on the backs of which falcons sit, these are symbolic images: the cobra is a symbol of Upper Egypt, the falcon is of Lower Egypt, and all together - the unity of the state of Egypt, under the rule of the pharaohs. There are also sphinxes here. The upper tier was the site of sacred rituals. The entrance to the sanctuary of Hatshepsut in those ancient times was decorated with a portico with statues of the queen, they were so huge that they were seen from ships sailing along the Nile. Immediately behind the entrance was a complex network of underground rock halls, richly decorated with gold and silver. Here again stood the statues of Hatshepsut, in the form of the god Osiris. In the temple of Queen Hatshepsut there were two hundred statues, of which one hundred and forty were sphinxes. Temple sculptures represented the queen in three guises: as a pharaoh, as Osiris and as a sphinx. The great attention of the ancient sculptors was paid to the exact reproduction of the facial features and the image of the queen, thanks to this, in our time, her appearance was accurately recreated.

Unfortunately, the beauty and splendor of the Temple of Hatshepsut did not last long. The true heir came to power - Thutmose the Third, and ordered to destroy all reminders of the pharaoh-usurper. In the temple of Hatshepsut, all the sculptures were destroyed and buried nearby. By royal order, the official chronicles were rewritten in order to destroy the name of the queen, it was replaced with the names of Thutmose the Third and his predecessors, all the affairs and buildings of the queen were also attributed to her successor. Despite the destruction, the temple remained an important religious center of the country; representatives of the noble families of the priests of Amun were buried on its terraces. During the reign of the Greeks and Romans in the temple sanctuary near the rocks of Deir el-Bahri, with the images of Amun, images of the wise men and healers of those times - Imhotep and Amenhotep were carved. Pilgrims flocked here for healing from illnesses: they believed in the holiness of this place. To this day, ancient inscriptions are visible on the walls of the temple - requests for healing from illnesses, deliverance from suffering. At the time of early Christianity, Hatshepsut's temple was a Coptic church, but then fell into disrepair and became ruins.

Many centuries have passed when the painstaking work of archaeologists made it possible to accurately restore the picture of the former splendor and grandeur of the funerary temple of Hatshepsut, carry out its restoration, restoration and present it to tourists and admirers of Egyptian antiquities. It all started with the study of the ruins by Edouard Naville in 1891. At first, he could not even imagine that the Temple of Hatshepsut could be restored, since a huge number of fragments of sculptures and reliefs were lost and taken out of the country. But, in 1961, Polish restorers decided to start restoring the burial complex: year after year, they collected what was lost, bit by bit they put everything together into a single picture. Thanks to their efforts, the temple again found a third terrace, from where the pilasters of Queen Hatshepsut proudly look at the travelers. But the restoration work is not finished, there is still enough work ahead. However, tourists can visit the Temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt at any time.

The temple of Queen Hatshepsut is located at the very foot of the rocks of Deir el-Bahri. The temple complex of Queen Hatshepsut is significantly different from the temples of other Egyptian rulers. Its architecture and location were as unusual as the very appearance of a female pharaoh in the historical arena.

The daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, Hatshepsut was the half-sister and great royal wife of Thutmose II. This king ruled for about 7 years, leaving behind the heir Thutmose III, his son from the younger wife of Isis. By the time of his father's death, Thutmose III was too young, and Hatshepsut was appointed regent for the little ruler. However, she was too proud to rule on anyone's behalf - she soon proclaimed herself the sole and rightful mistress of Egypt. The 15 years of Hatshepsut's reign were one of the brightest pages in the history of the 18th dynasty. On behalf of Hatshepsut, victorious military campaigns were conducted in Asia and Nubia, in the 9th year of her reign, the famous expedition to Punt was carried out (the location, as well as the exact name of this exotic country, is still unknown. Perhaps Punt was located on the northern coast Somalia). In memory of these events, the queen erected magnificent monuments, only some of which have survived to this day.

As unusual as the woman pharaoh was, her mortuary complex, and, above all, its location and architecture, is just as unusual. First of all, Djeser Djeseru, "the most sacred of the sacred" - as Hatshepsut called her temple - is located at a great distance from the buildings of other rulers, in the very depths of the Theban necropolis. Nevertheless, Hatshepsut did not violate established traditions - a giant pylon was erected on the very border of the desert and irrigated land, from which a processional road went to the temple itself. This path, about 37 meters wide, was guarded on both sides by sphinxes made of sandstone and painted with bright colors. Right in front of the temple, a garden of outlandish trees and shrubs brought from the mysterious country of Punt was planted. Two sacred T-shaped lakes were also dug here. The temple itself was truly an engineering marvel of the ancient Egyptians. Carved into limestone rocks, it consisted of three huge terraces, located one above the other. On each of the terraces there was an open courtyard, covered rooms with columns - porticos - and a sanctuary that went into the thickness of the rock. The tiers of the temple were connected by ramps - sloping roads that replaced the stairs and divided the terraces into southern and northern parts.

Entrance to the temple - from the portico of Punta Hatshepsut temple

Such a design and location of the building were not at all accidental: less than 100 meters from the Hatshepsut complex there is a similar temple erected by the ruler of the XI dynasty Mentuhotep Nebhepetra. This king was considered the ancestor of the Theban kings, and Hatshepsut thus demonstrated the continuity of her reign and proved the legitimacy of her claims to the Egyptian throne.

Hathoric columns

The distribution of reliefs on the walls of the temple largely reflects the attitude of the ancient Egyptians. Thus, on the walls of the southern part of the lower portico, the delivery of obelisks carved in Upper Egypt and destined for the temple complex of Amon in Karnak is depicted. On the walls of the northern portico are scenes set in the reed beds associated with Lower Egypt. The idea of ​​the unity of the Two Lands is found once again on the railing of the ramp connecting the second and third terraces of the temple. The lower bases of these stairs are decorated with images of a giant cobra, the tail of which rose up the top of the railing. Above the head of the snake, which personified the patroness of Lower Egypt - the goddess Wadjet, there is an image of Khor Behdetsky, the deity of Upper Egypt.

Temple of Hatshepsut: lower terrace relief depicting warriors

If the reliefs of the first tier of the temple are dedicated to the united Egyptian lands, then the compositions of the second terrace tell about the ruler, on whom the stability and prosperity of these territories depended. The main plot of the reliefs of the northern portico was divine theogamy - the story of the divine birth of Hatshepsut, step by step recreated on these walls. According to legend, the great Theban god Amon took the form of Hatshepsut's earthly father, Thutmose I, and entered the chambers of her mother Ahmes. While the royal wife carried the future ruler under her heart, the gods endowed Hatshepsut with all the qualities necessary for a pharaoh; the scene of the divine birth of the ruler completes this composition.

To the right of the ramp is the so-called Portico of the Birth. Its reliefs and inscriptions tell of the conception and birth of Hatshepsut.

Khnum and Hekat lead the pregnant queen Ahmose, mother of Hatshepsut, to the place of birth

In the maternity ward, the god Khnum sculpts Hatshepsut herself and her ka on a potter's wheel. At the birth of Hatshepsut, the god Bes and the frog goddess Heket are present; the goddesses nurse the child, and Thoth writes down the details of the queen's reign.

This plot, like everything in Egyptian art, is not accidental. Having removed Thutmose III from the reign and received unlimited political power, Hatshepsut was never able to get rid of the question of the legality of her ascension to the Egyptian throne. That is why in the monuments of this queen about her divine origin and original chosenness for the role that she played. And although Hatshepsut proved the legitimacy of her power and in fact confirmed her ability to rule the state, she could not cross the barrier of the age-old tradition, according to which only a man could rule Egypt. This was manifested, first of all, in the iconography of Hatshepsut, who certainly depicted herself in male attire and with a ceremonial pendant beard. So, each of the columns of the porticos was complemented by an Osirian pilaster - a colossal statue of the queen in the form of Osiris, in a white robe, with her arms crossed on her chest, in which she held the royal scepters, and a long pendant beard.

The boat of Hatshesput. Ancient Egypt. XVIII dynasty. 15th century BC. Original: Relief from the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri.

The image of the boats is replete with interesting technical details. These are river boats.

Sea sailboats

The composition of the southern portico of the second tier tells of the famous expedition to Punt. According to official chronicles, the expedition equipped by Hatshepsut was so representative that the locals, seeing the power of the Egyptian fleet and troops, immediately recognized themselves as vassals of Egypt. The reliefs of the temple at Deir el-Bahri show all the details of this campaign. The artists depicted Hatshepsut's fleet in detail, the features of the landscape of Punt with forests of fragrant trees, for which this country was so famous. The famous king and queen Punta are also represented here, bringing gifts to Hatshepsut, including precious woods, incense, ointments, animal skins, gold and slaves.

Egyptian ships during the expedition to Punt

Things from the ship are loaded onto boats for delivery to the shore

The inhabitants of the country of Punt lived in pile buildings with conical roofs and used ladders at the entrance. Huts of this type can still be seen in some parts of East Africa.

The white and yellow square blocks are copies of the reliefs transferred to the Cairo Museum

The king of the country Punt Parehu with Queen Ati receive the Egyptian embassy. The queen is presented as pathologically overweight, which indicates her elephantiasis (although it is possible that she is from the Hottentot tribe). This relief is now in the Cairo Museum.

The captain of the Egyptian expedition, accompanied by soldiers, delivers goods from Egypt to the rulers of the country of Punt.

Antiu trees, along with their roots, were placed in baskets and carried to the ship

General view of the wall with reliefs

Procession demonstrating the abundance of goods exported from Punt

Precious trees are carried on board the ship

The ships raised their sails and set off on their way back to their homeland.

On either side of the porticos are the shrines of Anubis and Hathor. Anubis was the ruler of the necropolises, and the territory of Deir el-Bahri itself has long been dedicated to Hathor, the veneration of which gave people hope for renewal of vitality and rebirth after death. Both sanctuaries consist of 12-columned hypostyle halls located on the terrace, and interior spaces that go deep into the rock. The columns of the sanctuary of Hathor are completed with hathoric capitals, made in the form of the face of this goddess, and on the walls of the sanctuary there is a seated figure of Thutmose II, whose hand is licked by a cow - the sacred animal Hathor.

On both sides of the second terrace there are sanctuaries of the guide to the afterlife of Anubis and the goddess of love Hathor, which are small halls with 12 columns, from which one could get deep into the rock, into the interior.

The temple of Anubis is decorated with a hypostyle hall with 12 16-sided columns and an astronomical ceiling

Southwest wall. The image of Hatshepsut, placed between Nekhbet(?) and Ra-Horakhti, was deliberately destroyed.

Northwest wall. Sacrifices to Amon.

Northwest wall. Sacrifices to Anubis.

Northeast wall. Thutmose III brings gifts to Sokar.

The upper part of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut is dedicated to the gods who gave life to both the Egyptian land and its ruler. Around on the sides of the central courtyard of the third terrace are the sanctuaries of the Divine sun Ra and Hatshepsut's parents - Thutmose I and Ahmes. In the center of this complex is the holy of holies, the sanctuary of Amun-Ra, which was the most important and most intimate part of the entire temple of Deir el-Bahri.

The walls along the perimeter of the vestibule and the hypostyle hall are decorated with scenes of festivities in honor of the goddess and scenes of sacrifices to Hathor, who appears on her boat in the form of a cow. Hathor in the form of a cow licks the queen's hand.

Traditional ornament: "... all life, stability and power... all life, stability and power ..."

Once a year, this sanctuary of Amun became the center of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, during which the sacred image of Amun left the walls of the Karnak sanctuary and went to the funeral temples of the Theban necropolis. Reliefs telling about this holiday occupy most of the walls of the courtyard of the upper terrace of the Hatshepsut temple. Often, the paintings of private Theban tombs are also associated with this celebration, during which the Thebans came to their dead relatives, sacrificed flowers, wine, bread and fruits to them, and spent the whole day visiting their ancestors, celebrating the arrival of Amun-Ra on the western bank of the river. . Having bypassed all the royal temples, the boat with the divine statue was solemnly brought into Dzheser Dzhesera and spent the night there, in order to return in the morning to the eastern bank of the river in Karnak. The images on the walls of the sanctuary of Hatshepsut's temple show a boat "floating" on the "golden lake", that is, standing on a special sacred pedestal made of pure gold. Around this pedestal there were four containers, symbolizing the four cardinal directions, filled with the night milk of sacred cows. Torches placed around the boat burned all night; at dawn they were quenched in milk.

The sanctuary of the temple symbolized the womb of Hathor, the eternal mother, after spending the night in which the solar deity was reborn renewed, washed with life-giving milk, which took into itself its night glow, which was symbolically denoted by the light of torches. By visiting Hathor, the great mistress of the West, the solar creator god received new magical powers in order to continue his daily cyclic journey in orbit. The beautiful holiday of the Valley was the starting point of the annual life cycle, in which the sun god experienced a symbolic death, so that in the morning he would be reborn rejuvenated, full of strength to fight chaos and the forces of evil.

Northeast wall: boats and parade of soldiers of the queen in honor of the goddess Hathor

Hatshepsut brings rich gifts to Amon

He and Seshat closely monitor the weighing and accounting of the delivered wealth. Here are mountains of myrrh, and living myrrh trees in tubs.

Hatshepsut spared no expense for the construction of this temple, which she built "out of love for her father Amun." This grandiose idea was embodied by the hands of the architect Senenmut, the favorite of the queen and the tutor of her daughter Neferur. Several statues of this architect, presented together with his pupil, have survived. Images of Senenmut are also found in Deir el-Bahri, however, apparently, their appearance was secret: located near doorways, they each time turned out to be hidden by an open door. In addition, the territory of the first terrace of the temple Senenmut began the construction of his tomb, so that even after death he would remain as close as possible to the temple he built. However, this sacred territory belonged to Amon and Hatshepsut, and this encroachment on the sacred land, and possibly other reasons, caused Hatshepsut's disgrace. The tomb of the architect, in which all his names were carefully destroyed, was never finished.

Most of the images of Hatshepsut were destroyed by Thutmose III. Behind the half-erased Hatshepsut, only a small figure remained, probably these are queens.

After the death of Hatshepsut, the throne of Egypt returned to Thutmose III. Needless to say, how he hated his stepmother, who deprived him of his kingdom for 15 years? By order of the king, all official chronicles were rewritten, the name of the queen was replaced by the names of this ruler and his predecessors; all the deeds and monuments of the queen were henceforth attributed to the successor of Hatshepsut.

Thutmose III in front of the sacred barge

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri

For one and a half thousand years BC, at the foot of the Theban rocks, the construction of a temple unfolded, the equal of which Ancient Egypt did not yet know. The main inspirer of this unprecedented sanctuary was the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, who shortly before that managed to remove her husband Thutmose III from power and thus become the first female pharaoh in the history of the Egyptian kingdom. By the way, in order to confirm her status as a pharaoh, Hatshepsut even began to defiantly wear an artificial beard (a symbol of royal wisdom), walked with an open torso, as befits the stronger sex, and dressed in a man's dress.

The priests, willy-nilly, had to call the queen "female Horus", which must have plunged into amazement all the inhabitants of the country of the Nile, for such a phenomenon was a fact unheard of in the dynastic tradition of Egypt. After this metamorphosis, the word "majesty" took on a completely different form, and the customs of the court were changed so that they could fit the rule of a woman. And the ambition of Hatshepsut was not to hold. It is enough to see the inscription on one of the queen's obelisks, the meaning of which was as follows: “You (subjects) will proclaim her word, you will obey her command. Whoever pays homage to her will live, whoever blasphemously speaks ill of her majesty will die.”

So, after the party of the energetic queen gained power, and she herself began to play a leading role in the state, she undertook grandiose transformations, among which was the construction of a stepped temple according to a project made by the best architects of that time - the queen's favorite Senmut, his successor Ineni and master Tutia, who made doors from an alloy of gold and silver. Hatshepsut paid special attention to the layout of the sanctuary. She saw in it the real paradise of Amon, whose terraces seemed to her "the myrtle gardens of the wonderful country of Punt, the original home of the gods."

The temple rose from the valley in three terraces to the level of an elevated courtyard adjoining high yellow rocks, where the name and image of the deity was carved. On the second terrace there was an extensive colonnade, which could be seen from a distance. All three terraces, or tiers, were connected by wide ramps. The measured rhythm of repeatedly repeated light columns was especially emphasized against the background of dark rocks. But Hatshepsut attached special importance to myrtle trees, which should have been planted on all spacious terraces. Such trees grew only in the southern country of Punt, famous for its wealth, luxury, exotic animals and plants. The queen sent an expedition there, led by the close treasurer Nekhsi, in whose chests the gifts of the blessed country were to be stored.

Apart from a great deal of barter, a fleet of five vessels carried a large stone statue of the queen, which was supposed to be erected in Punta. Having safely reached one of the southern borders of Egypt, the expedition arrived at its destination, where it was friendly received by the leader of the country and his entourage. After the ambassadors presented them with gifts, the ships were loaded with generous gifts. According to the chronicle, among them were “heaps of myrtle resin, fresh myrtle trees, ebony, pure ivory, incense, baboons, monkeys and panther skins. Nothing like this was ever brought to any king who lived in the north.

Having surveyed the brought gifts, the queen immediately sacrificed part of them to Amon. Huge piles of myrrh and impressive rings of barter gold were carefully weighed and used for their intended purpose. Gathering all her favorites, Hatshepsut reminded them of the oracle of Amon, who ordered her to “arrange a Punt for him in his house and in his garden,” and said that she had fulfilled the highest command that was revealed to her in the moments of divine revelation.

For all the main performers, there was a place in the reliefs on the walls of the temple. Senmut was even allowed to depict himself on one of the steles of the temple praying for the queen - an extraordinary honor!

The stepped temple built by Hatshepsut, presumably, not only to the glory of Amon, was, in fact, a new phenomenon both in architecture and in the location of the royal tomb and the temple with it. The fact is that by the beginning of the New Kingdom, which was opened by the reign of Hatshepsut's grandfather Ahmose I and her father Thutmose I, the pharaohs already understood that no precautions could save the tomb from plunder; that is why by this time the Egyptian rulers had practically ceased to build all sorts of pyramids - both large and small. It was for security reasons that Thutmose I separated the tomb from the chapel standing in front of it in order to keep the burial place of the king a secret. As the chronicle testifies, the same architect Ineni said that he alone watched the carving of the cave tomb of His Majesty, so that "no one saw or heard." According to the new location, the tomb was still located behind the chapel (temple), which continued to remain east of the tomb. But now the two places were separated by rocks. By the way, the valley, which is now known as the Valley of the Kings, for several hundred years was filled with the richest tombs of the successors of Thutmose and continued to be a cemetery not only for the kings of the 18th, but also the 19th and 20th dynasties. More than forty tombs of Theban kings were carved in it.

The terraced sanctuary of Hatshepsut was, therefore, her funerary temple, also dedicated to the queen's father, Thutmose I. The ruler's tomb itself was carved into a desert valley. From its eastern side, immediately behind the located temple, a passage descends steeply onto the rock, ending in a series of chambers, one of which contained the sarcophagus of the queen herself, and the other the sarcophagus of Thutmose I. However, all these precautions did not help preserve the royal shrines. Both sarcophagi were plundered in antiquity, and archaeologists who discovered them in modern times did not find any remains of the two pharaohs.

And one more unique feature of the stepped temple of Hatshepsut. These are magnificent snow-white columns rising above the lower tier. Viewers who see them from afar will undoubtedly be struck by the amazing sense of proportion and natural arrangement of these architectural details. By the way, the architecture of the temple colonnade completely contradicts the statement according to which the Greeks first mastered the art of arranging the external columns, and the Egyptians were able to achieve their harmony only inside the building. The overall configuration of the temple also testifies to the amazing ability of the builders to combine the greatness of nature with man-made material.

In addition to the colonnade of the stepped temple, which has survived to this day, you can also see the famous obelisks of Hatshepsut - needle-shaped steles, rapidly ascending to the sky. The queen chose an unusual place for them, namely, the hall of the Karnak temple near Thebes, where once her husband, Thutmose III, was proclaimed pharaoh "by the command of Amon." These obelisks, carved from solid blocks of stone, were covered with precious metals (which the architect Tutia worked on) and at that time were considered the greatest structures that had ever been erected in Egypt. The queen proudly described their beauty: "The tops of the obelisks are made of the best alloy of gold and silver ... Their rays flood the Two Countries when the sun rises between them, rising on the horizon of the sky." The height of the obelisks reached forty meters, and each of them weighed about three hundred and fifty tons.

The legendary female pharaoh ruled the country for more than twenty years, after which she died under unclear circumstances. Power again passed into the hands of her husband, Thutmose III. Having restored his rights, the tsar fully paid off for past grievances, treating the memory of his late wife in a completely barbaric way. The name of Hatshepsut was erased from all the walls of the stepped temple, the images and reliefs that tell about the deeds of the queen were destroyed. The same fate befell the queen's close associates, including the architects Senmut, Ineni, Tutia and the vizier Khanuseneb, whose names adorned the tombs and obelisks.

To some extent, Thutmose III can be understood. A born warrior who dreamed of conquering the rebellious Asiatic tribes and gaining glory for Egypt, he, being removed from the government of the country, was forced to engage in such, in his opinion, childishness as burning incense before Amon, or building sanctuaries in honor of the powerful wife. However, Thutmose III fully realized all his warlike plans after he again took the throne.

And yet, no matter how hard the vengeful spouse tried, he could not erase the memory of Hatshepsut. Evidence of this is the stepped temple and obelisks, which, despite their disfigured appearance, still amaze with their grandeur, unearthly beauty and courage of incarnation.

13. The Biblical Temple of Solomon and the Temple of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul When combining biblical and European history, King Solomon is superimposed on the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, allegedly the VI century. He "restores" the famous Hagia Sophia in Tsar-Grad. Aligned Temple