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Egypt: Hieroglyphic inscription from the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Deir al-Bahari, Luxor, c. 1458 BCE

Egypt: Hieroglyphic inscription from the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Deir al-Bahari, Luxor, c. 1458 BCE

Deir el-Bahari or Deir el-Bahri (Arabic الدير البحري ad-dayr al-baḥrī, literally meaning, 'The Northern Monastery') is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt.

The focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning 'the Holy of Holies', the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is a colonnaded structure, which was designed and implemented by Senemut, royal steward and architect of Hatshepsut (and believed by some to be her lover), to serve for her posthumous worship and to honor the glory of Amun.

Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.

She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.

Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.

She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which is also famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.

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