Deir el-Bahari (“The Northern Monastery”) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor. The focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is a colonnaded structure, which was designed and implemented by Senemut, royal steward and architect of Hatshepsut, to serve for her posthumous worship and to honor the glory of Amun. The unusual form of Hatshepsut’s temple is explained by the choice of location, in the valley basin of Deir el-Bahari, surrounded by steep cliffs.
On the other side of the mountain is Deir el-Medina, an ancient Egyptian village that was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th dynasties of the New Kingdom period (ca. 1550–1080 BC). While these workers were well paid, they were not allowed to leave the area in order to keep the location of the tombs a secret. As such, they spent their free time working on their own tombs.
Photos taken December 2010 (Fuji FinePix S9000).
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