My acquaintance with Hatshepsut and the temple at Deir el-Bahra in egypt

in #travel6 years ago

"My close acquaintance" with Hatchepsut began with a very sad and terrible event. While I was in Cairo taking a test on Egyptian history to obtain a license from a tour guide (1997), a brutal terrorist act was committed in Luxor.

Early in the morning on November 17, on the slopes of the Hatshepsut temple in Deir el-Bahri, six bandits dressed as Egyptian security officers armed with light machine guns and machetes, brutally killed a group of tourists. The unfortunate people who came on the way, tried to hide behind the pillars of the temple, but the terrorists finished off the wounded machete.
After 45 minutes, the bandits try to hide in the mountains, hijacking the same bus where the tourists arrive. But on the road there was an ambush, as a result of a firefight, one bandit was killed, the rest managed to escape. Later, their corpses were found in one of the mountain caves - an Islamic radical group committed suicide.

So the whole world remembers the name of Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, and sees the white pillar of the temple in Deir el-Bahri, with a trail of red blood. The burial temple of the Queen of the Dynasty became the place of death of 62 people.

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Queen Hatshepsut Temple in Deir el-Bahri

Frankly, for a long time, but on the mention of the name Hatshepsut (as in the entire Cairo National Museum exhibit, dedicated to the 18th dynasty and Hatshepsut as well), in front of my eyes there are horrible picture frames of scenes displayed on television.

But, as the saying goes, time passes, and a few years later, at the request of the Russian school director (where I am, therefore, a freelance tour guide and organizer of various tours), I took a cruise on a group of Nil employees of trade missions, consulates, embassies and Some teachers. The voyage begins with Aswan, and then to Luxor, with all relevant stops at Kom Ombo, Edtfu, Etna, Elephantine.

A good five star ship, the beautiful bank of the Nile, exploring the ancient monuments of culture - everything must be good, but my luck for tourists pampered we attached to English-speaking (local) guide, who owned Russian language at the primary level. In a word - it became our frenzied tourist company's call to immediately send a Russian guide. Well, of course, they sent me - they sent me straight from the office to the airport.

Upon reaching the ship moored in Luxor, I was greeted by a group meeting in the hall and with the cry of a little girl who, seeing me, loudly shouted: "That's it! Now we will tear it into pieces!" To him! That's what he said! I can imagine how my bones were washed before. But, really, thanks to this phrase, the adults themselves were stunned and in a relatively polite manner began to complain that the three days of voyages disappeared, when they visited the ancient temples, they learned nothing and everything in the spirit. But after my assurance that I would personally do all the visits around Luxor - the incident was rather tired.

I must say Luxor, of course, a beautiful city - blooming, clean, and with a whole series of interesting old objects - Lyuksorsky, Karnak Temple, singing Colossi of Memnon, Valley of Kings and Queen, with the pharaoh's grave, and the same burial temple Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahri. We checked with tourists Lyuksorsky Temple, all around who like the wishes of a great zagadyvaya scarab. Visiting the Karnak Temple, we stopped at a special souvenir stock market, photographed in a no-gigantic singing, and went to Hatshepsut temple.

And then we were chased by a police car - with a roaring siren, and almost with the announcement in the megaphone "a number of hugs like this and that to the side of the road." Well, we "dwell", thinking, maybe some high class riders. And suddenly one of my cameramen with a child came out of their police car - all tear-stained, threw himself at me with a fist and yelled, "How can you forget me in the bazaar." I do not speak any language. I hardly explain that you threw me ... "and everything in that spirit. Everyone else gladly joined him, and started pecking at me. (Since then, I no longer trust tourists, and when the bus ride is no longer required to "check all their neighbors in a chair", and stupidly counting overhead).

So my second acquaintance, who was not happy with Hatshepsut started.

In this informal section I ask to consider closing and I will pass on to the story of the temple.

Hatshepsut Temple in Deir el-Bahru

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Hatshepsut began building his burial shrine still within its seventh year of government (XV century BC), and is known to 20 years of his reigning unfinished church. All nomas [4] participated in this "national" project, as well as when the whole country built the Great Pyramid. The architect of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahri was her chief adviser, assistant (and according to some assumptions and lovers) - Senenmut, and after her death, the church building was completed by the court architect - Imhotep.

The unique architectural structure is carved on the rocks of the site, which in ancient times was considered sacred, and dedicated to the worship of the goddess Hathor. In the same place lies the ancestral tomb of Hatshepsut, including the Pharaoh XI dynasty. [16] The form of the draft, which was littered during construction in the courtyard of the queen temple.

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the temple of Hatshepsut is dedicated to his god Amun, and built in a separate temple complex to Hathor and Anubis (wolves in the afterlife). rooms devoted to the worship of Queen Hatshepsut, though according to some assumptions, were originally buried in the Valley of the Kings (a few kilometers from Deir el-Bahri) in the same grave with his father Thutmose I. In addition to worshiping the temple of the god Amun to perform the function certain to most of Hatshepsut - it depicts scenes from the legend of divine origin of the queen and his journey to the land of Punta.

The temple was built of limestone, its back wall carved into the structure of a stone cave. It consists of three terraces located at different levels and is connected by a transition that divides the temple to the north and south, up from the valley to the sanctuary, fitted deep within the rock.

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These vertical and horizontal lines are in harmony with the environment - red mountains, blue and yellow skies, endless deserts. The design of the temple combines the architecture of the Middle Kingdom [9] (corner column) and elements of the construction of the temples in the New Kingdom period (page width).

Originally, from the Hatshepsut temple in Deir el-Bahri, a long road to the queen's old temple in the Nile Valley followed, 120 sphinxes with Hatshepsut's face on each side. But the old temple, like the road itself, was destroyed by Hatshepsut's successor - Thutmose III. Later (in the XIX century AD) found only a few sphinx statues, which are now on display at Hatshepsut at the Cairo National Museum.

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Sphinx Hatshepsut. Cairo National Museum

In front of the temple gate, and on both sides of the street on the first page, the trees were planted, carried from the ground of Punta. The stumps of these trees can still be seen outside the gates of today's fences. It is believed that this is the first fact of import cultivation.

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Hatshepsut temple estimate model

Originally, the lower courtyard was a flowering garden, with four artificial ponds equipped with papyrus. The remains of this pool can now be identified only with two small holes in front of the temple.

Long describes the colonnade of the temple, all the bas-reliefs and preserved images will not - I just propose to admire the skills of the artist and the ancient sculptor.

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To the right is a gift brought from Punta. Left - Hatshepsut brings a gift to the god Horus

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Painting in the Birth column, illustrating the origin of Hatshepsut

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Sanctuary

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God of Horos (Horus)

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One of the Hatshepsut columns


The original article was written by the author about the personal experience of many years working as a tour guide in Egypt


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