FIVE GREATEST BUILDING PROJECTS

Hatshepsut’s commissions were so grand that after her death many pharaohs tried to claim them as their own

RED CHAPEL

Hatshepsut made several contributions to the Temple of Karnak, but this was one of her largest. It was built to be a barque shrine, where a model ship was kept. The Ancient Egyptians believed these were used by the sun god to travel through the night, and to transport the dead to the afterlife. The shrine was made of red quartzite and black diorite. Image source: wiki/ Jon Bodsworth

TWIN OBELISKS

These were erected at the entrance of Karnak and at the time they were built were the tallest structures in the world.

One still stands, at 97 feet tall, and weighs approximately 320 tons. An inscription at its base says that it took seven months to cut the monolith out of the quarry. Image source: wiki/ Luna92

TEMPLE OF PAKHET

This was a cavernous underground shrine dedicated to the lioness goddess of war. Cut out of the rock into the cliffs east of the Nile, the temple is composed of two chambers with a connecting passageway. A huge number of mummified cats were found here, some having been brought great distances to be buried ceremonially. Image source: wiki/ Einsamer Schütze

MORTUARY TEMPLE

By far Hatshepsut’s greatest building achievement, her mortuary temple at Deir el-bahri consists of three layered terraces reaching 97 feet tall. Each is supported by columns and connected by long ramps that were once surrounded by gardens. It is considered the closest that Egypt came to classical architecture. Image source: wiki/ Andrea Piroddi

PRECINCT OF MUT

One of the four main temple enclosures that make up the immense Karnak Temple Complex, the Precinct of Mut consists of a spring-fed sacred lake and a temple dedicated to the mother goddess. Pharaoh Hatshepsut restored it after it was badly damaged during the Hyksos occupation.