Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (11.1999(2000))

DEIR EL-BAHARI

EGYPT

NORTHERN WALL OF THE UPPER COURTYARD

The overall objective of the season was to
preserve the original substance of the wall
(which had survived intact in part) and to
harmonize — in color and texture — the
modern plaster with the original stones,
many of which were fitted into their origi-

nal positions over the past few seasons.1’ On
one hand, after years of weathering the
modern plaster and mortar is no longer
acceptable from the aesthetic point of view.
On the other hand, more and more time is
being spent on protecting blocks that were


Fig. 2. Northern wall of the Upper Courtyard. General view of the western section after final
restoration (Photo W. Jerke)

11 Minor restoration and consolidation work in the 1930s by French engineer E. Baraize was followed with a project for
reintegration executed by a Polish-Egyptian Preservation Mission, cf. Z. Wysocki, "Deir el-Bahari, Chronique des fouilles",
ET XVI (1992), 436-485; and more recent work, especially in the upper registers where the Beautiful Feast of the Valley is
depicted, cf. J. Karkowski, "Notes on the Beautiful Feast of the Valley as represented in Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-
Bahari", in: 50 Years of Polish Excavations in Egypt and the Near East (Warsaw 1992).

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