Portico 2 - Chapel of Hathor History of Building

1	Hathor-Cow inside a shrine; opposite wall: Hathor-Cow in a shrine is suckling and protecting the royal child
2	Procession of Hathor with barques and soldiers; in the northwestern corner Thutmosis III is shown with an oar before Hathor
3	from left to right, left (south) of the entrance: ritual run with bird before Hathor, Hathor-Cow licking the hands of the queen; right (north) of the entrance: Hathor-Cow licking the hands of the queen, ritual run "Seizing the Oar".
4	Pillars with Hathor-standards, columns with Hathor-heads
5	Weret-Hekau offering a menat to Amun
6	Hatshepsut before Hathor
7	Royal titles on lintel and jambs, on both sides two Hathor-standards (see photo below)
8	Portraits of Senenmut
9	Hatshepsut (replaced by Thutmosis III) embraced by Hathor, both before Amun
10	Hatshepsut (replaced by Thutmosis III) playing ball before Hathor
	According to Wysocki (1992) the purpose of the small room south of the Chapel of Hathor is not known.

According to Wysocki (1992) the construction of the chapel of Hathor was started already during the first building phase under Thutmosis II. He explained that by the fact that especially on the 3rd terrace and in the Chapel of Hathor the name-rings of Hatshepsut had been replaced later by that of her husband.

If one follows the argumentation of Wysocki, then the work on the chapel already began during the construction of the platform for the 3rd terrace. Additional evidence is provided by the architectural findings of a connection between the southern retaining wall of the 3rd terrace and the west wall of the 1st portico of the chapel (see left part of a plan taken from Wysocki 1992, fig. 2, position 11). The connection is visible the the back of the wall but not from the portico side.

Apparently, the work on the building was stopped - most likely when Thutmosis II died - and restarted later by Hatshepsut. Wysocki (1992) explained that - among other things - by the fact that at position 32 no connection had been built between the retaining wall of the 3rd terrace and the west wall of the chapel.

The building phase under Hatshepsut has been also divided by Wysocki into several sections. Beside work on the upper and 2nd terrace, which must have been ready because the 2nd portico carries the columns of the upper portico, Wysocki believes also that the work on the chapel of the Hathor had been resumed in the 1st stage of the building phase II. Most likely, the shrine which was begun under Thutmosis II (P in the above drawing) and the pillared hall in front of it (O) might to have been accomplished.

According to Wysocki the 2nd stage in the time of Hatshepsut was characterized by extending the temple northward, extending of the 2nd terrace to the East, and by the construction of the southern retaining wall of the 2nd terrace. The 1st series of foundation deposits of the queen (marked by Winlock A to F) encircled the new area.

Wysocki (1992) assumed that during this phase the work on the Chapel of Hathor and its 1st pillared hall had been finished. In his opinion most probably also the 1st ramp between southern retaining wall of the 2nd terrace and the northern enclosure wall of the temple of Mentuhotep was finished - its slanting is marked by the 1st line at the southern retaining wall (see below) and its start west of the foundation deposit A (which lay right on the line which still exists as a step on the 2nd terrace). This, however, means also that the western part of the retaining wall must have been finished so far that it could support the ramp.

The changes of plan for the 3rd terrace by the construction of the sun court induced also changes of plan for the 2nd terrace. Since the use of the upper Chapel of Anubis was impaired by the construction of the sun court, the northern wing of the 2nd portico was extended by the construction of the lower Chapel of Anubis.

The of the facade of the 2nd portico was already disturbed by the Chapel of Hathor which was withdrawn westward, and this impression was increased by the construction of the lower Chapel of Anubis, because this chapel was built in line with the front of the 2nd portico. Therefore, facade was rebalanced by the building of a 2nd pillared hall (N in the plan above) in front of the Chapel of Hathor.

Front of the 2nd pillared hall of the Chapel of Hathor, which was partly built over of the southern wing of the 2nd portico. One clearly recognizes the gap between the two buildings and the already finished execution of a torus moulding and cavetto cornice at the wall of the southern wing.

That the 2nd pillared hall was added later is demonstrated by the observation that it has no bonding with the southern wall of the 2nd portico (see photos above). The photos above show clearly that the facade of portico of the Chapel of Hathor lies in front (and overlapping) the portico of the 2nd terrace.

The Chapel of Hathor was accessible by an own ramp which covered a difference in altitude between the chapel and the level of the 1st court by about 9 ms. On its north side the ramp lent against the southern retaining wall of the 2nd terrace and on its southern side against the old limestone enclosure wall of the temple of Mentuhotep Nebhepetra. The layers of the old limestone wall built by Mentuhotep have been preserved up to a height of about 2.20 ms, this was was raised under Hatshepsut to support the ramp. The southern retaining wall of the ramp to the Chapel of Hathor does not run parallel to the retaining wall of the main temple - from the head of the ramp at the Chapel of Hathor down to the the edge of 1st. portico the width increases by about 2 ms.

How the original access to the Chapel of Hathor was planned, is hard to reconstruct. Clarke (in: Naville, E., The Temple of Deir el-Bahari, part VI London 1894-1908, p. 22) suggested that in the 1st stage of development of the chapel access from the 2nd terrace may have been possible over a narrow ledge. However, he thought that such a method of approach was deemed "ignominious" and "unserviceable" and therefore out of question.

During the excavation Naville and Clarke discovered 6 slant lines marked with red paint on the southern retaining wall of the 2nd terrace (see the following illustration). Somers Clarke, the architect working with Naville, concluded that the furthest westward and the furthest eastward line indicated the slope of the first and the finally erected 2nd ramp to the chapel - all other lines between the extreme west and east line were regarded by Somers Clarke as experimental lines (according to Wysocki, 1985a).

Furthermore, Clarke concluded that the ramp did not cover the entire space between the retaining wall of the 2nd terrace and the enclosure wall the Mentuhotep district, but only adjoined the retaining wall of the 2nd terrace (see Naville, E., loc. cit., plate CLXXIV). IHis conclusion was based on the evidence of weathering at both walls and and rough tooling of the stones of the retaining wall of the terrace, where they were covered by the ramp.

Wysocki (1985a) contradicted the assumption that the ramp did not cover the entire space between the retaining wall of the 2nd terrace and the enclosure wall of the Mentuhotep district. In his view the weathering observed on the enclosure wall was not relevant since the wall was exposed to the weather already for several centuries.

Detail taken from: Naville, E., The Temple of Deir el-Bahari, part VI London 1894-1908, plate CLXXI. The picture shows on the left the 2nd pillared hall of the chapel and to the right the remains of the retaining wall of the 2nd terrace.

At the southern, exterior retaining wall Naville and Clarke had identified 6 lines, which indicate the slope of different ramps leading to chapel. Thereby, the two western (red) lines most likely mark the slope of two ramps which may have led to the chapel, before the chapel had been extended eastward by the 2nd pillared hall. Due to this figure the 2nd ramp had started slightly east of the foundation deposit A, resp., right on the line which still exists as a step (red arrow and photo below) on the 2nd terrace.

Based on the plan above the following rough estimations are possible - if one takes the eastern side of the 2nd pillared hall as the point of reference, then the 1st ramp started approximately 27 ms and the last ramp 58 ms further east, whereby the distance between the eastern side of the 2nd pillared hall and the eastern side of the 1st portico is approx. 85 ms. Taking into calculation the difference in altitude of approx. 9 ms the gradient of the furthest westward line is approx. 33% and about 15% for the furthest eastward line.

In the plan CLXXI, shown above, one recognizes immediately that all lines - with exception of the westernmost - partly cross the decoration of the southern retaining wall of the 2nd terrace. That means that each ramp, which had followed one these lines, which would have covered parts of the decoration of the retaining wall.

On the left the remains of the southern retaining wall of the ramp which had led to the Chapel of Hathor; on the right side the photo shows the retaining wall of the 2nd terrace. The southern (left) retaining wall was built over the remains of an enclosure wall of the temple of Mentuhotep. Straight forward, between the retaining wall of the ramp and the retaining wall of the 2nd terrace there are the remains of another mud-brick enclosure wall of the Mentuhotep-district. This mud-brick wall was covered by the ramp to the Chapel of Hathor and the 2nd terrace.

Wysocki (1985a, 1985b) reported that his team was only able to find again all lines (1985a, plate 5; 1985b, Fig. 1). He also agreed that the lines indicated the slope of ramps. However, in contrast to Clarke he was convinced that several ramps had been built subsequently to adopt the ramp to the eastward extension of the temple.

In the 2nd publication (1985b) Wysocki discussed in detail the lines on the southern retaining wall of the 2nd terrace. However, both publications from 1985 are not consistent, in report 1985a he wrote that they found again 4 lines, in 1985b they had found 5 lines. Also the slant of the lines is differently presented in both publications (1985a, plate 5; 1985b, Fig. 2).

- most likely, the ramp leading to the Chapel of Hathor was carried out totally in 4 succeeding versions, each of them decreasing its inclination and increasing its length; however, at least the 1st and 4th version which are associated with lines 1 and 5 were carried out (see I in figure below);

- a 2nd version of the ramp (indicated by the 3rd from the west) was raised after the extension of the Chapel of Hathor and the 2nd terrace to the east; the 2nd experimental line may reflect a correction of the inclination of a part of the 2nd ramp (see II in figure below);

- Wysocki reconstructed the final version - and already the 3rd version - with a theoretical landing so that the course of the ramp did interfere with the decoration of the southern retaining wall of the 2nd. terrace;

As mentioned above, in consequence of reconstruction and extension of the ramp the enclosure wall of Mentuhotep was raised (see photo below) so that it could support the southern side of the ramp and function also as balustrade.

Southern retaining wall of the ramp to the Chapel of Hathor - the lower rows of smaller belong to the enclosure wall of the temple of Mentuhotep II, the upper rows with larger blocks belong to Hatshepsut.

The photo shows that one of the red lines runs directly through the palace-facade decoration, indicating that the corresponding ramp had been planned after the decoration of the southern retaining wall of the 2nd terrace had been finished.

This photo shows the northern side of the southern supporting wall of the ramp to the Chapel of Hathor. It shows the beginning of the stone blocks placed by Hatshepsut on the top of the wall of Mentuhotep. The lower blocks of Hatshepsut show a slanting upper border suggesting that these stone were part of the ramp.

Neither Naville nor Wysocki have published data about the design of the platform in front of the chapel. However, based on the publications of both authors and the scales given in the corresponding plates it is possible to estimate that

- based on Navilles plan the last right (easternmost) painted line reached the level of the central terrace approx. 8 m before the portico of the chapel - thus, if this line shows the slant of the final ramp, then the platform in front of the chapel was approx. 8 m deep, and

- based on Wysocki (1985b) the last right (easternmost) line (= ramp) reached the platform about 3.3 m in front of the chapel.