The XIth dynasty temple at Deir el-Bahari .. - NYU | Digital Library ...

30 THE XIth dynasty TEMPLE AT DEIR EL-BAHARI.
not a tomb-pyramid surmounting tUe royal
burial chamber, but one put up as an appro-
priate architectural feature of the funerary
temple.^ In the old days, as at Abusir and
elsewhere, the kings had been buried in actual
pyramids, in front of which small funerary
temples were erected in their honour. Here at
Deir el-Bahari, under the XIth Dynasty, we
find a pyramid, beneath which the king was
probably not buried at all, in the midst of the
funerary temple, which is now larger than the
pyramid, and has surrounded it on all sides.
The pyramid has shrunk, become atrophied, and
is a mere architectural survival in the midst of
the temple,^ the real tomb being elsewhere,
possibly a bdb in the cliffs at the back of the
pyramid. The approach to a great tomb ^vas
discovered, as had been anticipated,^ during
' With all the usual layers of rubbish, stones, and
rubble, as if the pyramid actually covered the real
tomb. We may compare the sham mastabas in front of
the cenotaph of Usertsen III. at Abydos (Weigall,
Abydos, iii., p. 18), or the avowedly sham pyramid of Queen
Tetashera there, which was built simply as a memorial
(CuRRELLT, ib., p. 37). These erections were composed
of material excavated from the cenotaph-tombs of
Usertsen and Aahmes close by, and it might well be
supposed that the Deir el-Bahari pyramid was in the
same way composed of the material excavated from the
cenotaph or ia-sanctuary immediately behind it (p. 35),
but for the fact that it does not consist of the taji rock
in which this tomb is excavated. The taJi rubbish from
the tomb seems to have been deposited along the line of
the south temenos wall (see p. 38).
' It has been placed with its attendant ambulatory
between the entrance and the colonnaded court (the
"Saulenhof") of the normal type of funerary temple
under the Old Kingdom (see the hypothetical plan of
BoECHAEDT, Orabdeiikiiial des Konigs Ne-user-Be' , p. 20).
In the centre of the colonnaded court descends the dromos
of the " tomb-sanctuary," while the cella, corresponding
to the " holy of holies" at Abusir, is placed in its normal
position as regards the temple, but at the foot of a
mountain instead of a pyramid. (It will be noted that
there are at Deir el-Bahari no temple-magazines corres-
ponding to those at Ablisir. At Deir el-Bahari these
must have been separate from the temple, and were
probably of brick ;
p. 4.
see p. 39).
^ P.S.B.^. June, 1905, p. 180 ; Archaeol. Beport, 1904-5,
tlie work of 1!)06, but the work of 1907 has
shown that this is possibly not the actual tomb
of the king, but (as has already been noted on
p. 13) a cenotaph* or "tomb-sanctuary" of
the royal ka.
6. The Chapels and Tombs of
THK Princesses.
West of the pyramid was a row of six
shrines, or rather chapels, made on the line of
the western Avail of the ambulatory, dedicated
for the service of certain ladies of the king's
ha rim who were buried here, in rock-cut shaft-
tombs on the platform to the west and north of
the wall and the chapels. Probably because
they were buried here, they are described in
the chapel-inscriptions as possessing the dignity
of priestesses of Hathor.
We have already seen that Deir el-Bahari was
the great Theban necropolis of the XIth Dynasty.
Tombs of this Dynasty were excavated in the
temenos of the XIth Dynasty temple, and some
of them, as we have seen, were covered up by
Hatshepsu when she built her temple close by.
These tombs must have been practically contemporary
with the building of the temple : we
see it, in fact, as a sort of XIth Dynasty
Westminster Abbey ; the king's courtiers and
officials were buried not merely in the court, but
actually in the outer colonnade of his temple,
and the funerary chapel, as at Abusir and else-
where, soon became a burial-place.
The tombs found in the North Court during
the first season's work have already been men-
tioned. Those within the temple itself were
found in the outer upper colonnade, which has
been described above (p. 27) as looking north
over the Nortli Court, and at the back (west) of
* Like the Bah el-Hosdn (p. 9), or the "tombs" of
Usertsen III. and Aahmes I. at Abydos, which were
certainly never the actual tombs of those monarchs, who
must have been buried at Dahshur and the Dra' Abu-
I'Negga respectively.