Transporting false doors at the construction site of the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari

Abstract

The article presents a probable way of transporting false doors to their location within the Temple of Hatshepsut during its construction. The issue does not seem to be of particular significance until one considers the value of the false doors as such and the impossibility of using heavy equipment in the chapels of the Complex of the Royal Mortuary Cult. The false doors had to be introduced into the construction site at the time that the walls of the chapel were being raised but before the building of the vaults. The options discussed in the article illustrate the logistical problems of the undertaking and the construction opportunities that might have been taken advantage of. The discussion provides a closer look at the construction processes taking place in the Temple of Hatshepsut during the separate stages of expansion and the changes in its functional and spatial design. In consequence, it reopens the debate on the building chronology of the temple.

Keywords

• Deir el-Bahari
• Hatshepsut
• temple of Hatshepsut
• Complex of the Royal Mortuary Cult
• false door