History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent DiscoveryKing, L. W. (Leonard William)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery
King, L. W. (Leonard William)
Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C.; History, Ancient
The new temple lies immediately to the south of the great XVIIIth
Dynasty temple at Dêr el-Bahari, which has always been known, and which
was excavated first by Mariette and later by Prof. Naville, for the
Egypt Exploration Fund. To the results of the later excavations we shall
return. When they were finally completed, in the year 1898, the great
XVIIIth Dynasty temple, which was built by Queen Hatshepsu, had been
entirely cleared of débris, and the colonnades had been partially
restored (under the care of Mr. Somers Clarke) in order to make a roof
under which to protect the sculptures on the walls. The whole mass of
débris, consisting largely of fallen _talus_ from the cliffs above,
which had almost hidden the temple, was removed; but a large tract lying
to the south of the temple, which was also covered with similar mounds
of débris, was not touched, but remained to await further investigation.
It was here, beneath these heaps of débris, that the new temple was
found when work was resumed by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1903. The
actual tomb of the king has not yet been revealed, although that of
Neb-hetep Mentuhetep, who may have been his immediate predecessor,
was discovered by Mr. Carter in 1899. It was known, however, and still
uninjured in the reign of Ramses IX of the XXth Dynasty. Then, as we
learn from the report of the inspectors sent to examine the royal tombs,
which is preserved in the Abbott Papyrus, they found the _pyramid-tomb_
of King Xeb-hapet-Râ which is in Tjesret (the ancient Egyptian name for
Dêr el-Bahari); it was intact. We know, therefore, that it was intact
about 1000 B.C. The description of it as a pyramid-tomb is interesting,
for in the inscription of Tetu, the priest of Akh-aset, who was buried
at Abydos, Akh-aset is said to have been a pyramid. That the newly
discovered temple was called Akh-aset we know from several inscriptions
found in it. And the most remarkable thing about this temple is that in
its centre there was a pyramid. This must be the pyramid-tomb which was
found intact by the inspectors, so that the tomb itself must be close
by. But it does not seem to have been beneath the pyramid, below which
is only solid rock. It is perhaps a gallery cut in the cliffs at the
back of the temple.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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