The solar altar in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari: architecture and ideology

Abstract

In a recent article Teresa Dziedzic presented a theoretical reconstruction of the solar altar in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, with two obelisks standing on the top of it. From both a technological/logistic and an ideological point of view this hypothesis seems untenable. An alternative reconstruction may be offered in agreement with the archaeological evidence and the ideological program of the temple. Statues of the king and of Amun-Ra placed on the altar served as focal points of an early version of the ritual of ‘joining the sun-disk’.