The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, located at Deir el-Bahari on the west bank of the river Nile, is one of the most celebrated architectural achievements of ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom period. The construction was overseen by Hatshepsut’s chancellor and royal architect, Senenmut, who also served as tutor to her daughter Neferu-Ra and may have been her close confidante or consort. Senenmut designed the temple with careful reference to the Mortuary Temple of Mentuhotep II, yet he expanded and elaborated upon the earlier model, producing a structure that was longer, larger, and far more intricate in detail.

The temple is organized on three layered terraces reaching a height of 29.5 metres (97 feet), each connected by ramps and articulated with a double colonnade of square piers. A distinctive feature is the northwest corner of the central terrace, where proto-Doric columns frame a chapel, creating a subtle variation within the overall harmonious colonnade. The combination of terraces, colonnades, and monumental ramps demonstrates a sophisticated integration of form, function, and symbolic landscape, reflecting Hatshepsut’s desire to assert her divine legitimacy and commemorate her reign through enduring architecture.

circa 1450 BCE

The architectural history of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple, known as Djeser-Djeseru, is a layered narrative of innovative design, politically motivated defacement, and subsequent reuse spanning millennia. Designed by her chief steward Senenmut and constructed over approximately 15 years starting around 1479 BCE, the temple's structure intentionally echoes and elaborates upon the adjacent Middle Kingdom temple of Mentuhotep II. Its striking tripartite terraced layout, connected by monumental ramps and integrated into the dramatic Deir el-Bahari cliffs, represents a New Kingdom innovation in mortuary architecture, symbolizing Hatshepsut's divine legitimacy and imperial ambition. Later in the Eighteenth Dynasty, her successor, Thutmose III, orchestrated a proscription campaign that sought to erase her memory, resulting in the chiseling away of her name and images and the ritual smashing of her statues, many of which were deposited near the temple, altering its physical form and ideological message. Further alterations occurred during the Amarna Period, when Akhenaten's edicts targeting the god Amun led to the removal of related imagery.

Subsequent structural history involves both decline and adaptation. An earthquake around the ninth century BCE caused significant damage. During the Ptolemaic period, the complex was repurposed, with the sanctuary of Amun being restructured and later used for the cults of the deified Imhotep and Amenhotep, son of Hapu. This included the addition of a new portico and the alteration of internal features. The Coptic era saw the complex converted into a monastery, from which the site gets its modern name, Deir el-Bahari ("Northern Monastery"), with early Christian imagery painted over pharaonic reliefs. Modern archaeological work, led notably by the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological Mission since the 1960s, has focused on meticulous excavation, consolidation, and reconstruction, painstakingly reassembling the temple's structure and recovering artifacts to reveal its complex and multistage structural history.

circa 1450 BCE

The Lower Terrace of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple served as a transitional zone that introduced the visitor to the temple complex from a causeway linking it to the Nile. As the initial architectural feature of the site, it was an expansive, colonnaded courtyard that drew inspiration from the nearby mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II but was expanded in scale and complexity by Hatshepsut's architect, Senenmut. The terrace was originally adorned with lush, fragrant gardens featuring exotic trees, such as myrrh and frankincense, imported from the expedition to Punt, thereby transforming the stark desert landscape into a symbolic paradise.

Flanked by porticoes with square pillars, the terrace's walls were decorated with detailed reliefs celebrating Hatshepsut's political and religious legitimacy, including scenes depicting the transport of obelisks from Aswan to Karnak and her coronation. These visual narratives, combined with the cultivated landscape, framed the visitor's experience, establishing Hatshepsut's divine right and reign of prosperity before they ascended to the more sacred spaces of the upper terraces.

circa 1450 BCE

Middle Terrace Ramp
On the right (north-east) side of the ramp leading to the third level was the Birth Colonnade (inspect), and on the left (south-west) is the Punt Colonnade (inspect). The ramp to the third level, centered perfectly between the Birth and Punt colonnades, brought a visitor up to another colonnade, lined with statues, and the three most significant structures: the Royal Cult Chapel, Solar Cult Chapel, and the Sanctuary of Amun.

circa 1450 BCE

Birth-Colonnade
The Birth Colonnade told the story of Hatshepsut’s divine creation with Amun as her true father. Hatshepsut had the night of her conception inscribed (read) on the walls relating how the god came to mate with her mother. As the daughter of the most powerful and popular god in Egypt at the time, Hatshepsut was claiming for herself special privilege to rule the country as a man would.

circa 1450 BCE

Chapel of Anubis
The chapel of Anubis is located at the north end of the second level of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple. Anubis was the god of embalming and the cemetery. He was frequently represented with the body of a man and the head of a jackal, as he is shown here. Anubis sits on a throne, which, in turn, rests on a small plinth. He faces a pile of offerings which reaches in eight levels from the bottom to the top of the register. Although much of the color is now gone, one can imagine the vibrancy of the original painting. The Egyptians used mineral pigments; so the colors have not faded as much as vegetable pigments would have.

circa 1450 BCE

Chapel of Hathor
Since Hathor was the guardian of the Deir el-Bahari area, it is appropriate to find a chapel dedicated to Goddess Hathor within Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple (south end of second level). The columns which fill the court (inspect) of this chapel are Hathor columns, each of which resemble a sistrum, a percussion instrument associated with the goddess of love and music. The capitals of the columns (inspect) are topped with female head with cow ears topped with a crown, the curved sides ending in spirals, perhaps suggestive of cow horns. The central section of the crown is a shrine in which two uraei (rearing cobras with spread hoods) are surmounted by sun disks. A cavetto cornice tops the whole.

circa 1450 BCE

Upper Portico
The upper terrace of Hatshepsut's temple has a forefront portico with two rows of columns. The external row is made of square columns decorated with colossal osiride statues of the queen, of which only few remain. The inner row is made of octogonal columns. These statues of Osiris have the delicate features of Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh, wearing the Double Crown of Egypt and a false beard with a curved tip (indicative of divinity).

circa 1450 BCE

Upper Court
When entering the third and the upper most court, the first noticeable thing is that it seems empty though it once contained two rows of colums, of which only a few one have been reerected. The back of the court houses the very heart of the temple: a sanctuary dedicated to the god Amun, cut directly in the mountain. On each side of the entrance to the sanctuary (inspect) there are nine niches, small cult chapels alternate with niches housing osiride statues of the queen.

circa 1450 BCE

Inner Sanctuary
Here is where a very important ceremony, dedicated to the Sun-God, took place: the placing of the Amun-Ra celestial sun-boat which arrived carried on the shoulders of priests from the Temple of Karnak, on the Nile river's Eastern bank. Images of the procession and a relief of the Sun-boat appear on the vestibule's walls, where the remaining image of the Royal family in Hatshepsut's temple can be seen.

circa 1450 BCE

Sun Cult Complex
The Shrine Complex of the Sun Cult is a group of rooms located in the northern part of the upper terrace of Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir El-Bahari. It was first unearthed by the expedition of the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1893 under the direction of Edouard Naville and some of its texts and representations were published in his monumental publication of the whole temple.

circa 1450 BCE

Although the adjacent, earlier Mortuary Temple of Mentuhotep Nebhepetre was used as a model, the two structures are nevertheless significantly different in many ways. Hatshepsut's temple employs a lengthy, colonnaded terrace that deviates from the centralised structure of Mentuhotep’s model – an anomaly that may be caused by the decentralized location of her burial chamber. Mentuhotep II’s temple featured a large stone ramp from the first courtyard to the second level; Hatshepsut’s second level was reached by a much longer and even more elaborate ramp one reached by passing through lush gardens and an elaborate entrance pylon flanked by towering obelisks.

circa 1450 BCE

The Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Expedition at the Temple of Hatshepsut, under the auspices of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw rather than the Polish Academy of Sciences, has undertaken the extensive study and reconstruction of the monument since its establishment in 1961. As of early 1995, the mission had achieved significant progress, with the Lower and Middle Terraces nearing completion.

This involved the meticulous reassembly of monumental architectural elements, such as the porticoes adorned with narrative reliefs, and the restoration of key shrines, including the Southern Middle Portico commemorating the Punt expedition and the Hathor Chapel. Conservation efforts in the Hathor Chapel, in particular, have addressed damage to its limestone walls and polychrome decorations. Simultaneously, the complex process of reconstructing the Upper Terrace was ongoing in 1995, focusing on the Main Sanctuary of Amun-Ra and the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex. This work involved the restoration of monumental statuary, including the Osiride statues of Hatshepsut that once fronted the portico and the reassembly of architectural fragments.

Throughout these campaigns, the Polish team has employed a multidisciplinary approach, combining traditional excavation and conservation with advanced documentation techniques, including 3D scanning, to systematically restore and study the temple's structural history and iconographic program. The phased and continuous nature of this work underscores the long-term scholarly commitment to preserving and interpreting one of the New Kingdom's most architecturally significant monuments.