Hatshepsut’s temple: the female pharaoh’s masterpiece in Luxor

Set into the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari on Luxor’s West Bank, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut is one of Egypt’s most striking monuments, built for one of the few women to rule as pharaoh. Here’s what to see, how it was built and how to plan your visit.

Hatshepsut was one of Egypt’s more curious rulers. In fact, she was one of the few women to rule ancient Egypt in her own right. That would all be interesting enough, but it’s how she went about it that gives it extra spice. She knew the perils of being a female leader, so she billed herself as a king, and had herself portrayed as one in statues and reliefs, complete with a pharaonic beard.

Her temple is every bit as iconic as the woman herself seems to have been. Three great terraces rise in long, clean lines towards a wall of golden limestone cliffs, and from a distance it looks almost modern. Up close, the colonnades are carved with scenes of her reign, and her statues line the top terrace.

I visited in early June on a private tour of Luxor’s West Bank, stopping here between the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. I had about half an hour on site, which is enough to climb the ramps and see the upper terrace, though you could easily spend longer. Here’s what you need to know.

At a glance

• Location: Deir el-Bahari, on the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor, below the cliffs that separate it from the Valley of the Kings
• Ticket: 440 EGP for adults, 220 EGP for students (card only)
• Opening hours: daily, 6am to 5pm (4pm in winter)
• Getting in: an electric shuttle (about 20 EGP) runs from the ticket office to the foot of the temple
• Time needed: 45 minutes to an hour and a half
• Best time: first thing in the morning, before the heat and the tour buses build
• Photography: phones and cameras are fine; no drones

Who was Hatshepsut?

She was the daughter of Thutmose I and the Great Royal Wife of his successor, Thutmose II, her half-brother. When Thutmose II died, around 1479 BC, the throne passed to his young son by another wife, Thutmose III, and she ruled as his regent.

Within about seven years she had gone further, taking the full titles of a king and ruling as senior pharaoh alongside her stepson, until her death around 1458 BC. Her reign of about 20 years was peaceful and prosperous. She sent a famous trading expedition to the Land of Punt, raised obelisks at Karnak and built across Egypt.

Her name means “foremost of noble women”, which makes the way she presented herself all the more interesting. Early in her reign she appears as a queen. Later, as king, she’s shown in the traditional male regalia of a pharaoh.

The story of the temple

Djeser-Djeseru, the “holy of holies”

The temple’s ancient name was Djeser-Djeseru, the “holy of holies”. It was built between about the seventh and twentieth years of her reign as her mortuary temple: a place where priests would keep her cult, and her father’s, alive after death. It was also dedicated to Amun, the chief god of Thebes, with shrines to Hathor and Anubis.

The building is often credited to Senenmut, her high steward and one of her closest officials, though nobody can say for certain who designed it.

Why here?

The bay of cliffs at Deir el-Bahari was already sacred to Hathor, and around 600 years earlier the Middle Kingdom king Mentuhotep II had built his own terraced temple here. Its ruins are still right next door, and they clearly inspired her architects.

The site also lines up across the Nile with Karnak. Each year, during the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, the statue of Amun crossed the river from Karnak to visit the temples of the West Bank, and hers was one of its most important stops.

Erased from history

Around 20 years after her death, late in his reign, Thutmose III set out to remove his stepmother from the record. Her statues here were smashed and dumped in a quarry nearby, and her name and figures were chiselled out of the reliefs. Look closely as you walk around and you’ll see the gaps where she once stood.

Nobody knows exactly why. The most popular theory is that it was about the succession, and about writing a female king out of the official story, rather than personal revenge. Later, under Akhenaten, images of Amun were erased too, and these were restored by later kings.

Much later, Coptic Christians built a monastery on the upper terrace, between the sixth and eighth centuries AD. It gave the area its Arabic name, Deir el-Bahari, usually translated as the “northern monastery”.

Excavation and restoration

Auguste Mariette worked here in the 1850s and 1860s, and Édouard Naville cleared the temple between 1893 and 1906. In the 1920s, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s team pieced together many of her smashed statues, which is why some are now in New York and Cairo.

A Polish-Egyptian mission has been restoring the temple since 1961. Much of what you see, including the Osiride statues on the upper terrace, has been reconstructed from original fragments, and the upper terrace, the solar court and the sanctuary of Amun have reopened to visitors in stages since 2000.

What you’ll see, terrace by terrace

The temple was once approached along a causeway about a kilometre long, lined with more than 100 sphinxes, from a valley temple on the edge of the fields. Today you arrive by shuttle at the foot of the lower terrace and walk up through the temple in the same order as the ancient processions.

The lower terrace and the first ramp

The lower terrace is a wide, open court, which was once planted with trees. At the back, two colonnades flank the ramp. Their reliefs show the transport of two great obelisks by river from Aswan to Karnak (on the left) and the pharaoh as a sphinx trampling her enemies, with hunting and fishing scenes (on the right).

The broad first ramp takes you up to the middle terrace.

The middle terrace colonnades

The square pillars of the middle colonnades are where you’ll find the temple’s most famous reliefs. On the left (south) side is the expedition to Punt, a land somewhere on the Red Sea coast of Africa. Ships set sail loaded with goods and return with incense trees, ebony, gold and exotic animals, and the queen of Punt herself appears, in one of the most memorable figures in Egyptian art.

On the right (north) side is the divine birth colonnade. Its reliefs tell the story of Hatshepsut’s conception by the god Amun and her birth, with the ram-headed god Khnum shaping her on his potter’s wheel. It was her way of proving she was born to rule.

Many of the reliefs are faded or damaged, and her own figure has often been cut out, but traces of red, yellow and blue paint survive in places. Take your time in the shade of the colonnades: they’re the coolest spot in the temple on a hot day.

The chapels of Hathor and Anubis

At either end of the middle terrace is a chapel. At the south end, the Chapel of Hathor has columns topped with the face of the goddess, with her cow’s ears, and reliefs showing Hathor as a cow suckling the queen. Hathor was the guardian of Deir el-Bahari, and she’s the same goddess honoured in Nefertari’s temple at Abu Simbel. At the north end, the Chapel of Anubis has some of the best-preserved colour in the temple, with bright blue ceilings scattered with stars. I went into the chapels on my visit, and they’re worth seeking out. Access can change with restoration work, so ask at the site which areas are open.

The falcon and the upper ramp

A second, steeper ramp leads to the upper terrace. A stone falcon, the god Horus, stands guard here, with her statues lined up along the portico behind.

The Osiride statues

The front of the upper terrace is lined with her colossal statues in the pose of Osiris, the god of the dead and rebirth, with her arms crossed over her chest holding the crook and flail, and the false beard of a king. Most were rebuilt from fragments by the restorers, and a few still have their painted faces.

The festival court

Through the gateway in the middle of the portico is the festival court, a large court once surrounded by columns. On its back wall are niches that held statues of the king, and some still have painted reliefs.

The sanctuary of Amun and the cult chapels

At the back of the court, cut into the cliff on the temple’s main axis, is the sanctuary of Amun, where the god’s statue rested during the festival. To the north is the solar court, with a large open-air altar to the sun god Ra-Horakhty. To the south are the cult chapels of the female pharaoh and her father, Thutmose I, with vaulted ceilings and walls covered in offering scenes.

Where is Hatshepsut buried?

Not in her temple. Like the other kings of her time, she was buried in the Valley of the Kings, on the other side of the cliffs behind the temple. Her tomb, KV20, is one of the longest in the valley and was probably extended from her father’s tomb, and she had Thutmose I reburied there with her. It isn’t open to visitors.

Her mummy, though, wasn’t found there. In 2007 it was identified as a mummy from a small tomb in the valley (KV60), thanks to a tooth that matched a box inscribed with her name. Today she lies in the Royal Mummies Hall at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Cairo.

Tickets and opening hours

A ticket costs 440 EGP for adults and 220 EGP for students. Ticket offices on the West Bank are cashless, so bring a bank card. The temple opens at 6am every day and closes at 5pm (4pm in winter).

From the ticket office and visitor centre, an electric shuttle (the “taftaf”) runs to the foot of the temple for about 20 EGP. You can walk it, but there’s no shade.

Getting there

The temple is on the West Bank, at the end of a road that runs past the villages of Qurna, a few kilometres back from the river. From the West Bank ferry landing it’s about 20 minutes by taxi. From the East Bank hotels, allow around 40 minutes by road via the Luxor Bridge, or take the ferry across the Nile and pick up a taxi on the other side.

Most people visit on a tour or with a driver for the day, combining it with the other West Bank sites. My private tour went from the Valley of the Kings to this temple and on to the Valley of the Queens, which works well: the valley is closest, and the temple sits between the two. The Colossi of Memnon are on the main road back towards the river, so they’re easy to add at the start or the end of the day.

If you’d rather not organise it yourself, this private West Bank tour covers both valleys, this temple and the Colossi of Memnon, with an Egyptologist guide, entry tickets and lunch.

Tips for your visit

• Go early: there’s almost no shade on the terraces or the ramps, and it fills up with tour groups by mid-morning. When I visited in June there were points in Luxor where I was so hot I didn’t know what to do with myself, so bring a hat and plenty of water.
• See it from the air too: a sunrise hot air balloon flight gives you the best view of the temple’s terraces against the cliffs.
• Look for the gaps: the places where her figure and name were chiselled out are part of the story, so look out for them in the reliefs.
• Wear good shoes: the ramps are long and the stone gets slippery with sand.
• Stay on the West Bank: I stayed at El Mesala Hotel, by the ferry landing on the West Bank, which puts you close to the temple. See my guide to where to stay in Luxor for more options.

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Read next

• The best things to do in Luxor
• Visiting the Valley of the Kings: a practical guide
• Visiting the Valley of the Queens: a practical guide
• Taking a hot air balloon ride in Luxor
• Where to stay in Luxor
• A step-by-step Egypt itinerary
• The things you need to know before travelling to Egypt
• What to pack for your Egypt trip
• The best things to do in Egypt
• How much does it cost to travel in Egypt?

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