FOUNDATION OR COMPLETION? The Status of Pharaoh-Queen Tausret's Temple of Millions of Years

Abstract

The temple of millions of years of the Nineteenth Dynasty female pharaoh Tausret has long been thought to consist of little more than its foundations. A decade of excavation by the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition has challenged that assumption and revealed evidence for far more advanced construction, which is significantly supplemented by the discovery of a block from the temple found and identified by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute at Medinet Habu. This article presents the archaeological evidence for a functional and nearly complete temple for Tausret prior to its thorough destruction at the beginning of the Twentieth Dynasty.