DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55202#0104
84 the MIDDLE KINGDOM IN THEBES
the temple of Amun at Karnak and northward beyond the probably
more ancient and then larger temple of Montu. On the west bank
the whole plain is visible, from the early Eleventh Dynasty cemetery
along the desert near the ferry landing—which must have crossed
direct from Karnak in those days—southward to the Deir el Bahri
avenue. In the Eighteenth Dynasty the landing stage opposite
Karnak was called Kheftet-hzr-neb-es-—“Opposite to her Lord.’’
It was obviously for such a view that the writers of the graffiti made
the breath-taking scramble up the cliff, for one of them luckily
recorded not only his name but the occasion and the reason for his
making the climb.34 He wrote: “The ^-priest Nofer-ebod;
giving praise to Amun and kissing the ground before the Lord of
Gods on his festival,35 the First Day of Shomu, when he crosses over
on the day of voyaging to the Valley of Neb-hepet-Ref; by the JVe'b-
priest of Amun, Nofer-ebod.”
The “Valley (m.i) of Neb-hepet-Ref” was clearly the popular
name of Deir el Bahri in the Twelfth Dynasty.36 During that period
the “Feast of the Valley,” which here finds its earliest mention, be-
came one of the chief religious holidays of Thebes, familiar to us
from the Eighteenth Dynasty to Greco-Roman times.37
It was the day when Amun’s statue was brought out of the sanctu-
ary in Karnak in its sacred bark, ferried across the river in a larger
ship, and borne on the shoulders of priests from the landing stage
on the western bank up to the temple of Neb-hepet-Rec, there to
pass the night. Even when in later dynasties new temples had been
built in western Thebes and the pilgrimage was made to them, it
was still under the name of the “Feast of the Valley,” though the
later temples were in the plain.
While the ritual clearly grew far more elaborate as time went on,
some hint of the earlier festival may be gained from the sequence of
events on that day in the reign of Hat-shepsut, as it was shown at
Deir el Bahri. After the Bark of Amun had been ferried across the
river it rested first of all in the Valley Temple of Deir el Bahri for
34 No. 1.
35 Actually written in the plural.
36 So on the stela of Se’n-Wosret III found in the temple (Naville, XI Dyn. Temple, I, p. 59,
Pl. XXIV).
37 Naville, Annales du Musee Guimet, 1902, p. 18, Pl. XIV; the festival, Winlock, Deir el
Bahri, p. 219, fig. 14; Foucart, BIFAO, 1924, reviewed by Kees, OLZ, 1927, 242. See also
Sethe, Amun und die debt Ur goiter, § 8, n. 1, and Steindorff and Wolf, Thehaniscbe Graberwelt,
p. 27.
the temple of Amun at Karnak and northward beyond the probably
more ancient and then larger temple of Montu. On the west bank
the whole plain is visible, from the early Eleventh Dynasty cemetery
along the desert near the ferry landing—which must have crossed
direct from Karnak in those days—southward to the Deir el Bahri
avenue. In the Eighteenth Dynasty the landing stage opposite
Karnak was called Kheftet-hzr-neb-es-—“Opposite to her Lord.’’
It was obviously for such a view that the writers of the graffiti made
the breath-taking scramble up the cliff, for one of them luckily
recorded not only his name but the occasion and the reason for his
making the climb.34 He wrote: “The ^-priest Nofer-ebod;
giving praise to Amun and kissing the ground before the Lord of
Gods on his festival,35 the First Day of Shomu, when he crosses over
on the day of voyaging to the Valley of Neb-hepet-Ref; by the JVe'b-
priest of Amun, Nofer-ebod.”
The “Valley (m.i) of Neb-hepet-Ref” was clearly the popular
name of Deir el Bahri in the Twelfth Dynasty.36 During that period
the “Feast of the Valley,” which here finds its earliest mention, be-
came one of the chief religious holidays of Thebes, familiar to us
from the Eighteenth Dynasty to Greco-Roman times.37
It was the day when Amun’s statue was brought out of the sanctu-
ary in Karnak in its sacred bark, ferried across the river in a larger
ship, and borne on the shoulders of priests from the landing stage
on the western bank up to the temple of Neb-hepet-Rec, there to
pass the night. Even when in later dynasties new temples had been
built in western Thebes and the pilgrimage was made to them, it
was still under the name of the “Feast of the Valley,” though the
later temples were in the plain.
While the ritual clearly grew far more elaborate as time went on,
some hint of the earlier festival may be gained from the sequence of
events on that day in the reign of Hat-shepsut, as it was shown at
Deir el Bahri. After the Bark of Amun had been ferried across the
river it rested first of all in the Valley Temple of Deir el Bahri for
34 No. 1.
35 Actually written in the plural.
36 So on the stela of Se’n-Wosret III found in the temple (Naville, XI Dyn. Temple, I, p. 59,
Pl. XXIV).
37 Naville, Annales du Musee Guimet, 1902, p. 18, Pl. XIV; the festival, Winlock, Deir el
Bahri, p. 219, fig. 14; Foucart, BIFAO, 1924, reviewed by Kees, OLZ, 1927, 242. See also
Sethe, Amun und die debt Ur goiter, § 8, n. 1, and Steindorff and Wolf, Thehaniscbe Graberwelt,
p. 27.