The mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut of Dynasty XVIII was built just north of the Middle Kingdom temple of Mentuhotep Nebhepetre in the bay of cliffs known as Deir el-Bahri. In ancient times the temple was called Djeser-djeseru, meaning the 'sacred of sacreds'. It was undoubtedly influenced by the style of the earlier temple at Deir el-Bahri, but Hatshepsut's construction surpassed anything which had been built before both in its architecture and its beautiful carved reliefs. The female pharaoh chose to site her temple in a valley sacred to the Theban Goddess of the West, but more importantly it was on a direct axis with Karnak Temple of Amun on the east bank. Also, only a short distance on the other side of the mountain behind the temple, was the tomb which Hatshepsut had constructed for herself in the Valley of the Kings (KV20).
The Temple of Hatshepsut was built on three terraced levels, with a causeway leading down to her Valley Temple (now lost) which would have been connected to the River Nile by a canal. Gardens with trees were planted in front of the lower courtyard.
Mentuhotep Nebhepetre was the Theban ruler who reunited Upper and Lower Egypt at the end of the First Intermediate Period and was the founder of Dynasty XI. Although there were saff-tombs of the First Intermediate Period on the West Bank of Thebes, Mentuhotep Nebhepetre was the first known king to build a whole mortuary complex, which was to include his tomb and the site he chose was in the bay of cliffs known as Deir el-Bahri. Today, Deir el-Bahri is better known for the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, who built on a site adjacent to that of Mentuhotep and modelled her mortuary temple on his earlier design.