ond of fine masonry
in white stone. The contrast between these splendid XIth Dynasty walls,
with their great base-stones of sandstone, and the bad rough masonry of
the XVIIIth Dynasty temple close by, is striking. The XVIIIth Dynasty
architects and masons had degenerated considerably from the standard of
the Middle Kingdom.

This rock platform was approached from the east in the centre by an
inclined plane or ramp, of which part of the original pavement of wooden
beams remains _in situ_.

[Illustration: 324.jpg XIth DYNASTY WALL: DER EL-BAHARI.]

Excavated by Mr. Hall, 1904, for the Egypt Exploration Fund.

To right and left of this ramp are colonnades, each of twenty-two square
pillars, all inscribed with the name and titles of Mentuhetep. The walls
masking the platform in these colonnades were sculptured with various
scenes, chiefly representing boat processions and campaigns against the
Aamu or nomads of the Sinaitic peninsula. The design of the colonnades
is the same as that of the Great Temple, and the whole plan of this
part, with its platform approached by a ramp flanked by colonnades,
is so like that of the Great Temple that we cannot but assume that the
peculiar design of the latter, with its tiers of platforms approached by
ramps flanked by colonnades, is not an original idea, but was directly
copied by the XVIIIth Dynasty architects from the older XIth Dynasty
temple which they found at Der el-Bahari when they began their work.

[Illustration: 325.jpg XVIIIth DYNASTY WALL, DBR EL-BAHARI.]

Excavated by M. Naville, 1896; repaired by Mr. Howard
Carter, 1904.

The supposed originality of Hatshepsu's temple is then non-existent;
it was a copy of the older design, in fact, a magnificent piece of
archaism. But Hatshepsu's architects copied this feature only; the
actual arrangements _on_ the platforms in the two temples are as
different as they can possibly be. In the older we have a central
pyramid with a colonnade round it, in the newer may be found an open
court in front of rock-cave shrines.

[Illustration: 326.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE NORTH LOWER COLONNADE OF THE
XIth DYNASTY TEMPLE, DER EL-BAHARI, 1904.]

Before the XIth Dynasty temple was set up a series of statues of King
Mentuhetep and of a later king, Amenhetep I, in the form of Osiris, like
those of Usertsen (Senusret) I at Lisht already mentioned. One of these
statues is in the British Museum. In the south court were discovered
six