The Temple Of Hatshepsut at Deir El-Bahri Thanks to its design and decorations, the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir El-Bahri is one of the most distinctive temples in all of Egypt. It was built of limestone, not sandstone like most of the other funerary temples of the New Kingdom period. It is thought that Senimut, the genius architect who built this Temple, found inspiration in his design by the plan of the neighboring mortuary, Temple of the 12th Dynasty King, Neb-HeptRe. The Temple was built to commemorate the achievements of the great Queen Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty), and as a funerary Temple for her, as well as a sanctuary of the god, Amon Ra.
In the 7th century AD, it was named after a Coptic monastery in the area, known as the “Northern Monastery”. Today it's known as the Temple of Deir El-Bahri, which means in Arabic, the “Temple of the Northern Monastery”. There is a theory suggesting that the Temple, in the Early Christian Period, was used as a Coptic monastery. This unique temple describes the conflict between Hatshepsut, and her nephew and son in law, Tuthmosis III, since many of her statues were destroyed, and the followers of Tuthmosis III damaged most of her Cartouches, after the mysterious death of the queen. The Temple consists of three imposing terraces. The two lower ones would have once been full of trees. On the southern end of the 1st colonnade, there are some scenes, among them the famous scene of the transportation of Hatshepsut’s two obelisks.