Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Egypt
Temple
Hatshepsut
Egypt
Sandstone
Sphinx figure
KSE 100
KSE 300
KSE 300 HV
Restoration Mortar ZF
RM ZF
Restoration mortar
RM N
Funcosil SL
Silicone Resin Paint LA
Color LA
Historic Lime Filler
CL Fill Q3 Historic
Injection Resin 100
IR Epoxy EP Resin
Antihygro
KSE OH
Mortuary temple
New Valley Governorate
Egypt
Around 3,500 years ago, Hatshepsut rose to power and built the monumental “Temple of a Million Years” in Deir el Bahari. The building is made entirely of fine sandstone and consists of several terraces and a sphinx figure.
After the pharaoh’s death, her successor had all traces removed, destroyed statues and scratched the name out of the inscriptions. In addition, the effects of the last three and a half millennia were starting to be felt on the building. There was a great deal of rock debris in the temple due to earthquakes, rockfalls, fires and so on. Nonetheless, the key building elements had not been irrevocably destroyed and it was possible to reconstruct them with modern materials.
Reference identification data
- Construction project:
-
Façade restoration
Other
Façade restoration / natural stone
- Building type:
- Historically protected / historically valuable buildings
Castles / forts
- Short description
- Owing to the weathering that had taken place over many thousands of years, the fragments of the building exhibited different wear patterns and strength profiles. These had to be levelled out using a variety of stone strengtheners. In addition, the chemical processes within the limestone were blocked, preventing future water and dirt absorption. Levelling out the differences between the fragments was also an important step in achieving a uniform appearance. Cracked relief blocks had to be bonded together. Some of the limestone elements exhibited pronounced swelling and shrinkage due to swelling clay minerals. This process had to be stopped. During the restoration of the sphinx statues, the building fabric had to be taken into consideration, along with the fact that no single figure was completely preserved. This meant that up to six complete figures had to be reconstructed from the many fragments.
- Site address:
-
New Valley Governorate
- Data sheet:
-
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- Date / completion:
- 2011
- Can the work be viewed?
-
No