Bahari the appellation _Tjesret_,
"the Holy." The extraordinary beauty of the situation in which they are
placed, with its huge cliffs and rugged hillsides, may be appreciated
from the photograph which is taken from a steep path half-way up the
cliff above the Great Temple. In it we see the Great Temple in the
foreground with the modern roofs of two of its colonnades, devised in
order to protect the sculptures beneath them, the great trilithon gate
leading to the upper court, and the entrance to the cave-shrine of
Amen-Ra, with the niches of the kings on either side, immediately at the
foot of the cliff. In the middle distance is the duller form of the XIth
Dynasty temple, with its rectangular platform, the ramp leading up
to it, and the pyramid in the centre of it, surrounded by pillars,
half-emerging from the great heaps of sand and debris all around. The
background of cliffs and hills, as seen in the photograph, will serve to
give some idea of the beauty of the surroundings,--an arid beauty, it is
true, for all is desert. There is not a blade of vegetation near; all
is salmon-red in colour beneath a sky of ineffable blue, and against the
red cliffs the white temple stands out in vivid contrast.

The second illustration gives a nearer view of the great trilithon
gate in the upper court, at the head of the ramp. The long hill of Dra'
Abu-'l-Negga is seen bending away northward behind the gate.

[Illustration: 346.jpg THE UPPER COURT AND TRILITHON GATE]

Of The Xviiith Dynasty Temple At Dek El-Bahari. About 1500
B.C.

This is the famous gate on which the jealous Thothmes III chiselled out
Hatshepsu's name in the royal cartouches and inserted his own in
its place; but he forgot to alter the gender of the pronouns in the
accompanying inscription, which therefore reads "King Thothmes III, she
made this monument to her father Amen."

Among Prof. Naville's discoveries here one of the most important is that
of the altar in a small court to the north, which, as the inscription
says, was made in honour of the god Ra-Harmachis "of beautiful white
stone of Anu." It is of the finest white limestone known. Here also were
found the carved ebony doors of a shrine, now in the Cairo Museum. One
of the most beautiful parts of the temple is the Shrine of Anubis, with
its splendidly preserved paintings and perfect columns and roof of
white limestone. The effect of the pure white stone and simplicity of
architecture is almos