This article offers evidence to demonstrate certain new, unpublished aspects of the Egyptian Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, in Deir el Bahari, Luxor (fifteenth century B.C.): A) The number and the disposition of the doors of the building symbolize the synchronism of the lunar and the solar Egyptian calendars. B) The representations on the walls, at the three terraces of the temple, generally interpreted as historical events from the queen's life, also correspond to pairs of unpublished nocturnal and diurnal versions of the "Books of the afterlife". The representations relate to northern half to night and to the lunar year, and the southern half to daylight and to the solar year. C) In parallel to its main function as a funerary site, the temple was deliberately designed as an astronomical instrument for the observation of solstices and equinoxes, which allowed determination of the length of the solar year.
Relation:
Aula orientalis: revista de estudios del Próximo Oriente Antiguo 27(1), pp.27-42
