Gibna Kebira's photostream  

Deir el-Mohareb (Monastery of St. Tawdros) is located in the desert southwest of Medinet Habu on the west bank at Luxor.

Three of the twenty-four enormous statues of Hatshepsut as Osiris on the upper terrace at Deir al-Bahri. In The Illustrated Guide to Luxor: Tombs, Temples, and Museums, Kent Weeks writes: "Twenty-four colossal Osirid statues front the pillars on either side of a huge granite doorway at the top of the ramp [to the upper terrace]. The statues were originally painted and would have been visible from a distance. Their long beards would have been blue, their throats and faces red, with black and white eyes and blue eyebrows. The various items that they wore or held were red, blue, and yellow."

One of the massive Osirid statues at Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, he/she wears the white crown of Upper Egypt. The statues to the left--south--of the doorway all wear the white crown; those to the right--north--wear the double red and white crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.

"The Deir el-Bahri Temple Complex (also spelled Deir el-Bahari) includes one of the most beautiful temples in Egypt, perhaps in the world, built by the architects of the New Kingdom Pharaoh Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC. This lovely structure is found in a steep half-circle of cliffs on the west bank of the Nile River and guarding the entrance to the great Valley of the Kings. Hatshepsut (or Hatshepsowe) ruled for 21 years [about 1473-1458 BC] during the early part of the New Kingdom, before the vastly successful imperialism of her nephew/stepson and successor Thutmose (or Thutmosis) III."

This year I have set about finding as many occurrences as I can on temple walls and elsewhere of the lesser-known goddess Seshat. In the past, as a librarian, I had taken on Thoth as my "god"; but when I started to read up on Seshat I decided that I would prefer to have a "goddess" in my corner instead. She is the goddess of writing, and venerated under the epithet "she who is foremost in the house of books".

Manfred Lurker, in his book An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, writes: "On the founding of a temple either she or her priest established the ground-plan with a measuring cord, hence she was also the 'lady of builders'. Her most important function was that of recording the regnal years and jubilees which were allotted to the king [such as the sed festival]. Her head-dress resembled a seven-pointed star surmounted by a bow, or was perhaps a crescent moon often crowned by two falcon feathers. She usually held a palm leaf in her hand and often wore a panther skin over her dress."

This example is found on the north end of one of the colonnades at Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri.