Kammern der Hatschepsut

	Karnak-Temple	last update: 14.04.2009
	Chambers of Hatshepsut

Current assumption about the original location of the Red Chapel (detail taken from Burgos, Larché, 2008, plan page 254) in the middle of the building complex erected by Hatshepsut. Above in yellow-brown the wall of the courtyard from the MK.

Chambers of Hatshepsut
Directly in front of the buildings erected during the middle kingdom (MK) a new complex was built, which consisted of several rooms. Most likely the sanctuary for the barque of Amun - the Red Chapel - had been erected in the middle of this new complex. An inscription of Hatshepsut in the rooms left of the sanctuary shows that at least these rooms were built in regnal year 17 of Hatshepsut/Thutmosis III (see following photo).

Inscription of Maat-ka-Ra (see cartouche in 2nd register, left) with the building date of the "Chambers of Hatshepsut" (at position A in the floor plan above; Year 17, lower line, the horseshoe with the 7 lines under it - the third line in the lower series "is corrected" by the clearly visible " horizontal line", i.e. it is also possible to read "Year 16" is );

The plan above shows for a better orientation the actual arrangement of the rooms. In Yellow the sanctuary of Phillip Arrhideus.

The rooms on the northern (left) side - following the direction into the interior of the temple - and the inscriptions therein are - to a large extent - already published and therefore, the rooms are accessible to the public. The southern (right) rooms on the might are not published - therefore the right chambers are not accessible. However, the traces of Maat-ka-Ra Hatshepsut can be seen in the rooms on both sides (see photos below).

North chambers

The northern (left) chambers give the impression, as if they have had "survived" into modern times as they can be seen today. Today the two chambers are separated by a wall which however is not the original one because it previously had been the right exterior of the right chamber. When Mariette started the first attempt in the 19. century "to clear up" the area, he discovered that directly behind the wall of the "Hall of Annals" of Thutmosis III an original wall of Hatshepsut, covered with a colored relief - Thutmosis III had simply erected a new wall of sandstone in front of it and inscribed his annals on the new wall. The relief of Hatshepsut already showed clear attempts to extinguish her memory - by rough chisel the raised relief, e.g. the figure of Hatshepsut, was eliminated. In addition, it shows first attempts to re-assign the inscriptions, recognizable by finer and flatter chisel impacts, with which one tried to smooth the area of her cartouches again.

After Dorman (1988) the "Hall of Annals" of Thutmosis III can not have been built and decorated before his regnal year 42 - therefore, one could deduce a late start of the persecution of Hatshepsut from the fact that the wall has not yet completely redecorated.

When the French Egyptologists detected the implications of the wall, they decided to cut the blocks lengthwise. The side of the blocks with the relief which had been covered so far by the wall of the "Hall of Annals" were used in place of the missing block of the left chambers to re-erected the partition. Using the other half of the original blocks the rear side was set up again at the old place, just as the wall of the "Hall of Annals" of Thutmosis III.

Above the lower one of 2 registers of the original wall of Hatshepsut which had been covered by the wall of the "Hall of Annals" of Thutmosis III
on the left - hardly discernable - Hatshepsut (2) offers in front of Amun (1), behind her there is as small figure, her Ka (3);
right of this scene Hatshepsut (5) - with a Hst-vase in each hand - is shown running towards the ithyphallic Amun (4) to offer "Water" (the same scene is shown on a block of the Red Chapel - see next picture);
in both scenes her figure was hacked away and her cartouches were partly destroyed;
further right (6) the remains of a side wall are discernable
far right (7) Hatshepsut is purified by Thot (right) and Horus (left) who pour Ankh-signs over the queen

At the very right edge the photo above shows the remainders of a side wall, i.e. of one the transverse walls which are also drawn in the floor plan above. These walls were pulled down by Thutmosis III because they were in the way when he built the a new bark shrine. Earlier, it had been assumed that the Red Chapel had been erected by Hatshepsut in the center of these chambers. However, the remainders of these transverse walls are the reason for the fact that today the original position of the Red Chapel is located in front of the "Chambers of Hatshepsut" - with the transverse walls in place there would not have been enough space for a bark shrine in the center the chambers.

The Luxor-Museum exhibits this door-jamb showing the titles of Hatshepsut. Most likely this block originates from the northern chambers of Hatshepsut at Karnak-temple.

South chambers

The above block of the Red Chapel also shows on the right register the "water donation" to the ithyphallic Amun without damages. Here one clearly detects that Hatshepsut carries 2 Hst-vases. In the left register she sacrifices bulls, which are already put down with bound legs ready for sacrificing. The photo was kindly made available by Mrs. G. Haferkamp, who photographed this block in the middle of the nineties in the Open Air Museum at Karnak, when the blocks of the Red Chapel were mounted individually on concrete supporters.

Relief sector from one of the southern (right) rooms: it shows on the right Hatshepsut - almost the legs of her are clearly discernible - sacrificing in front of the ithyphallic Amun (left), her two cartouches are clearly to be detected above her destroyed figure

Above another sector from a relief, which shows two secondarily recut cartouches of Hatshepsut, recognizably by the "T" underneath the duck which had been chiseled out - thus, there was a "Sa.t- Ra" above the cartouche. Due to the photo above the "Chambers of Hatshepsut" originate from her regnal year 16, this means that in year 16 the writing "Daughter of Ra" was still used - at least occasionally.

The above sector was increased again and the contrast slightly enhanced, the red arrow points to the "T" that had been chiseled out.

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