Author Description

This Memoir is not intended to be a full statement of the results hitherto obtained from the present excavations at Deir el Bahari, but simply as an introductory volume describing the building, its plan, und the period to which it belongs, and also giving an account of the work accomplished by previous excavators on this spot, and especially by Mariette. I have dwelt at some length on the reign of Hatshepsut, whose temple of Deir el Bahari was at once her own creation and her noblest monument. Some reference to discoveries made in the course of the last two winters' excavations was unavoidable, and I have more than once alluded to them, particularly in showing how they have corrected erroneous restorations of the plan of the building. But I have carefully refrained from drawing from these discoveries any premature inferences which might have to be modified as the work progresses. As long as the excavations are still in progress, it is not possible, on many points, to arrive at definite conclusions.