DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55201#0173
16o EXCAVATIONS AT DEIR EL BAHRI
passed through the gateway at the end of the avenue, he found his
way across the wide forecourt to the lower stairway between a row
of gigantic sphinxes of painted sandstone on each hand. We found
tons of fragments of such sphinxes, and we know of one head that
was taken to Berlin by Lepsius in 1845.
From the lower court the visitor ascended the broad stair to the
second court, and there, actually within the temple, he found his
path lined on either side with sphinxes of more costly red granite from
Aswan. The head of one was found by us, another was taken to Berlin
by Lepsius, and probably the head of at least one more, and the
bodies of four still exist. In all there were at least six.
In front of the visitor now rose the second stairway, leading to the
top terrace, where in a sort of vestibule with the columns widely
spaced, there would have been room for a standing statue on each
side. Here, probably, stood the pair of standing red granite statues
found in 1927-28—obvious pendants, with even their inscriptions
arranged to balance each other symmetrically.
Passing through the gateway, the visitor now found himself in an
open court entirely surrounded by columns and here, we believe,
knelt the colossal red and black granite statues (pl. 52).
We have been ascending a way laid out by Hat-shepsut for her
patron, the god Amun. Yearly, at the Feast of the Valley, his statue
was to have been brought across the river from the temple of Karnak
and borne in his divine barque on the shoulders of his priests up into
the sanctuary at the top of Deir el Bahri there to pass a night in the
dwelling prepared for him by his daughter, the Queen. Within the
sanctuary the walls are decorated with pictures of his barque at rest
with Hat-shepsut kneeling before it and presenting to it little round
pots of offerings. Her pose in these decorations is almost exactly dupli-
cated by the kneeling statues and even the little round pots were in
their hands. Therefore it is natural to see in these statues a repre-
sentation of Hat-shepsut making the sanctuary offerings, but the
narrow sanctuary chamber would never have held eight such figures,
each 2.65 meters high. Hence it is that we would place them in the
courtyard outside the sanctuary where they were intended to kneel
century after century, on each side of the path traversed by Amun at
his Feast of the Valley.
Elsewhere, throughout the temple, the portraits of the founder
were on every hand. We are reasonably certain that there were at
least twelve of the little kneeling statues3 and they could have come
3 See above, page 77.
passed through the gateway at the end of the avenue, he found his
way across the wide forecourt to the lower stairway between a row
of gigantic sphinxes of painted sandstone on each hand. We found
tons of fragments of such sphinxes, and we know of one head that
was taken to Berlin by Lepsius in 1845.
From the lower court the visitor ascended the broad stair to the
second court, and there, actually within the temple, he found his
path lined on either side with sphinxes of more costly red granite from
Aswan. The head of one was found by us, another was taken to Berlin
by Lepsius, and probably the head of at least one more, and the
bodies of four still exist. In all there were at least six.
In front of the visitor now rose the second stairway, leading to the
top terrace, where in a sort of vestibule with the columns widely
spaced, there would have been room for a standing statue on each
side. Here, probably, stood the pair of standing red granite statues
found in 1927-28—obvious pendants, with even their inscriptions
arranged to balance each other symmetrically.
Passing through the gateway, the visitor now found himself in an
open court entirely surrounded by columns and here, we believe,
knelt the colossal red and black granite statues (pl. 52).
We have been ascending a way laid out by Hat-shepsut for her
patron, the god Amun. Yearly, at the Feast of the Valley, his statue
was to have been brought across the river from the temple of Karnak
and borne in his divine barque on the shoulders of his priests up into
the sanctuary at the top of Deir el Bahri there to pass a night in the
dwelling prepared for him by his daughter, the Queen. Within the
sanctuary the walls are decorated with pictures of his barque at rest
with Hat-shepsut kneeling before it and presenting to it little round
pots of offerings. Her pose in these decorations is almost exactly dupli-
cated by the kneeling statues and even the little round pots were in
their hands. Therefore it is natural to see in these statues a repre-
sentation of Hat-shepsut making the sanctuary offerings, but the
narrow sanctuary chamber would never have held eight such figures,
each 2.65 meters high. Hence it is that we would place them in the
courtyard outside the sanctuary where they were intended to kneel
century after century, on each side of the path traversed by Amun at
his Feast of the Valley.
Elsewhere, throughout the temple, the portraits of the founder
were on every hand. We are reasonably certain that there were at
least twelve of the little kneeling statues3 and they could have come
3 See above, page 77.