Temple of Hatshepsut

The height of royal mortuary temple construction dates from the new kingdom, when a string of sandstone buildings dotted the desert's edge on the west bank at Thebes. By the eighteenth Dynasty the pharaohs had physically separated the royal burials from the mortuary temples themselves, in an effort to protect their tombs from thieves. Several new kingdom temples at Thebes are noteworthy, among them the terraced temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari.

 

This temple imitates the temples built for the gods, with massive entrance pylons, followed by a series of courtyards, porticoes and hypostyle halls, leading into sanctuaries and places of devotion in the depths of the buildings.