Deir EL BAHARI

DEIR EL-BAH(a)HRI - Coptic Monastery of the North. This iste is naned after a now defunct and disassembled coptic monastery. The ruins of this monastery were once visible and were on top of the underlying reminders of the Hatshepsut temple. Deir el Bahari is part of the Theban necropolis. It is noted primarily for the Hatshepsut temple and secondly for the smaller but equally significant if sometimes overlooked earlier Mentuhotep temple next to it. The Egyptians referred to this area of the necropolis as the Holy of Holies - *Djeseru-djeseru.
I have read several claims that the mortuary temple of Montuhotep is directly aligned to the Karnak temple of Montu. As Hatshepsut's temple is very well documented I am devoting the rest of this entry to the lesser known Montuhotep structure - a 11th dynasty mortuary temple built by the founding ruler of this dynasty. Several of the striking features of the design and layout of the Hatshepsut temple were copied or derived from this older smaller temple.It is the first temple known to have a ramp leading up to its terraces and unusally has an open external front colonnade and a garden in the front forecourt rather than to the side around a sacred lake as most temple sites do. Opinions are divided as to whether the collpased central block was a mastaba type strucutre or a small pyramid.