The fabulous terraced temple here (and the area itself) is called Deir al-Bahari, or “Northern Monastery”. A more engient name is Djeser Djeseru, “Splendor or SPlendors”. The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut is a huge tourist attraction, a tremendous monument to one of the few women in Egyptian history who rose to the throne. She was the daughter of Tuthmosis I and married Tuthmosis II and eventually took the throne after being regent for Tuthmosis III.

But that was not enough. Hatshepsut came up with a fabulous story that she was directly descended from the gods and thus destined to be pharaoh, a claim that she shows in many reliefs on her temple.