DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55201#0214
SEASON OF 1930-1931
Ever since 1922 we had .known of a curious enigmatic wall built
of boulders on bedrock (pl. 3), and now buried deep under the surface
just east of the forecourts of the two Deir el Bahri temples.1 We had
picked it up again to the north of Hat-shepsut’s avenue in 1926-27,
and we had realized then that it marked the eastern limits of the
court of Neb-hepet-Ref’s temple as his architects had first laid it out
and we had traced the probable line of the wall on our maps.2 In
1929-30 and again in 1930-31 we located it under the avenue to Neb-
hepet-Ref’s temple and followed it to its end still farther south.
When Neb-hepet-Ref first planned his temple its axis was to have
run very nearly east and west, and its court was to have been a large
shield-shaped plain with the temple at the apex. Grading was begun
on these lines, the slopes were revetted with boulders gathered from
the desert surface, and the boulder wall was built across the desert
valley to inclose it. Then came changes in the plan. The most economi-
cal line for the avenue from the Nile led up the fAsasif valley from the
southeast, and the temple and court were eventually laid out in this
new direction. The boulder wall was abandoned and, the grading
having been raised, was buried deep under the final surface.
In 1912-13 we had discovered the avenue to Neb-hepet-Ref’s
temple. In the upper part of the fAsasif valley the lines of four walls
could be distinctly traced by the stone chips lying on the surface, and
following out these lines, we had discovered the northernmost of the
four walls well preserved on the cultivation edge a kilometer away and
we thought the position of the southernmost was clearly indicated by
the cutting of the rock. Later we had found sufficient traces of the
foundations of all four walls between the temple and the cultivation
to be assured that all four ran parallel up the valley from the fields
to the temple court.
All four walls appeared to be identical, and it was natural to assume
that they had been built as parts of the same scheme. The two in the
middle were only six meters apart and it was reasonable to take them
as defining the actual sacred way. On either side of them the outer
walls stood thirty-one or thirty-two meters away and these we took
to be the outermost boundaries of the avenue, planted with trees per-
haps, for we had found a row of such trees beside the northernmost
1 Bulletin, XXVII (1932), March, II, p. 4, somewhat rearranged.
2 See the end papers of this volume.
Ever since 1922 we had .known of a curious enigmatic wall built
of boulders on bedrock (pl. 3), and now buried deep under the surface
just east of the forecourts of the two Deir el Bahri temples.1 We had
picked it up again to the north of Hat-shepsut’s avenue in 1926-27,
and we had realized then that it marked the eastern limits of the
court of Neb-hepet-Ref’s temple as his architects had first laid it out
and we had traced the probable line of the wall on our maps.2 In
1929-30 and again in 1930-31 we located it under the avenue to Neb-
hepet-Ref’s temple and followed it to its end still farther south.
When Neb-hepet-Ref first planned his temple its axis was to have
run very nearly east and west, and its court was to have been a large
shield-shaped plain with the temple at the apex. Grading was begun
on these lines, the slopes were revetted with boulders gathered from
the desert surface, and the boulder wall was built across the desert
valley to inclose it. Then came changes in the plan. The most economi-
cal line for the avenue from the Nile led up the fAsasif valley from the
southeast, and the temple and court were eventually laid out in this
new direction. The boulder wall was abandoned and, the grading
having been raised, was buried deep under the final surface.
In 1912-13 we had discovered the avenue to Neb-hepet-Ref’s
temple. In the upper part of the fAsasif valley the lines of four walls
could be distinctly traced by the stone chips lying on the surface, and
following out these lines, we had discovered the northernmost of the
four walls well preserved on the cultivation edge a kilometer away and
we thought the position of the southernmost was clearly indicated by
the cutting of the rock. Later we had found sufficient traces of the
foundations of all four walls between the temple and the cultivation
to be assured that all four ran parallel up the valley from the fields
to the temple court.
All four walls appeared to be identical, and it was natural to assume
that they had been built as parts of the same scheme. The two in the
middle were only six meters apart and it was reasonable to take them
as defining the actual sacred way. On either side of them the outer
walls stood thirty-one or thirty-two meters away and these we took
to be the outermost boundaries of the avenue, planted with trees per-
haps, for we had found a row of such trees beside the northernmost
1 Bulletin, XXVII (1932), March, II, p. 4, somewhat rearranged.
2 See the end papers of this volume.