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

64 THE XItii dynasty TEMPLE AT DEIR EL-BAHARI.
two small chambers separated bv a passage
leading from the door to the cave in the middle
of the rock-facing opposite. These chambers
have entii'ely disappeared. Not one single
block of the walls has been found ;
they must all
have been carried away ^vhen tlie temple was
used as a quarry. Also the blocks which
covered the rock-facings on the West and on the
North have been removed, except the lower
layer, and even that is not complete.
It is all the more remarkable that the shrine
of llathor has been preserved nearly intact, and
especially that the cow has not been injured.
There has certainly been a fall of rubbish from
the North, which closed the entrance, and saved
the goddess. But Avhen this fall took place the
walls of the chambers and of the facings had
already been carried away ; the sanctuary of
the goddess alone had been respected.
The shrine is a cave about 1 ft. long and 8 ft.
high. It is he"wn in a rock of a marly nature
which could not be cut to a smooth face.
Therefore it has been lined all round with slaljs
of sandstone, on which the sculptures were
executed. The roof is a vault consisting of
two stones abutting against each other, and cut
in the form of an arch. There never was any
pavement ; the cow stood on the rough rock.
Originally the shrine was closed by a rect-
angular door. We found a fragfment of the
lintel bearing the name of Thothmes III. The
slab over the doorway has disappeared, as well
as the walls of the forehall, on both sides of the
door. The entrance is the only part of the
shi'ine which is damaged.
There is no doubt that the chapel is the work
of Thothmes III. I should think that he built
it towards the end of his reign. On the left side of
the entrance he is followed by his queen, Merit En.
No other personage seems to have been repre-
sented. We know, from the king's tomb, that
Merit Ra survived him. 8he is the same who
is called in the temple of Mediuet Habu,
Hatshepsu ilerit Ra. But towards the end
of the reign of Thothmes III. she seems to have
dropped from her name the Hoti^hcji.^ii and to
have been called only Merit Ra.
Thothmes III. (PI. xxviii.) stands with his
(jueen befoi-e an enormous heap of offerings,
which he presents to the goddess. These offer-
ings are of the usual type, quantities of cakes,
vegetables, fruits, with a few pieces of meat.
The goddess thanks him in promising to the
king all the life, joy, happiness, and health
which she has in her power.
The goddess is painted very much as she is
in the statue, except that she is of a light yellow
colour, and has no plants along the neck and
shouldei's. She steps out of a pavilion which
seems to be made of a coloured cloth The
lunar disk is between her horns ; she suckles a
little boy who is represented also as a grown-up
king under her head. She wears a thick neck-
lace of the kind called mennt. Its lower part
surrounds the neck of the king.
Neither the child nor the man has a name
but there is no doubt that in both cases they
represent the king who dedicated the chapel.
We have a positive proof of it in the temple of
Hatshepsu, where we find a similar representa-
tion.^ Here the cow is also in a pavilion, but
she stands on a boat, and the child and the man
both have the name of the queen.
Behind the sanctuary is another scene, where
Thothmes III. appears alone, with hanging arms
in the attitude of prayer. He is worshipping
the goddess, who is in the form of a standing
woman with horns, between which is the disk.
This scene closes the representations on the left
side of the chapel.
On the right they are exactly similar, except
at the entrance, where Thothmes III. is followed
not by his queen but by his two daughters, the
name of one of whom is destroyed. The other
one is Merit Anton, a name very similar to that
Deir el-Bahari IV., PI. 104.
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