Speos Artemidos
Hatshepsut's rock-cut temple of the lion goddess Pakhet near Beni Hasan, with her famous denunciation of the Hyksos.
A temple in the rock
The Speos Artemidos ("cave of Artemis") is a rock-cut temple at the entrance to a desert valley about 2 kilometres south of the tombs of Beni Hasan, on the east bank of the Nile in Minya Governorate. It was dedicated to Pakhet, a local lioness goddess whom the Greeks later identified with Artemis, hence the name. It was carved in the fifteenth century BC in the reign of Hatshepsut, with decoration completed later under Thutmose III and Seti I.
Hatshepsut's inscription
The temple consists of a portico of pillars cut into the cliff, a short passage and a sanctuary niche. Its façade carries one of the most famous inscriptions of Hatshepsut's reign, in which the queen claims to have restored the temples of Middle Egypt that had been neglected since the time of the Hyksos, the foreign rulers who had dominated northern Egypt before the New Kingdom, condemning them as having ruled "without Ra". The text is a key document for the queen's political propaganda and for how the New Kingdom remembered the Hyksos period.
The valley
The surrounding valley, known as Istabl Antar, contains other rock chapels and cemeteries of sacred cats, animals associated with Pakhet. The site is often visited together with the tombs of Beni Hasan.
Exhibo editorial
Only a short drive from Beni Hasan, at the mouth of a quiet desert valley, a row of pillars carved straight into the cliff marks the temple of a lioness goddess. Stand in front of it and read — or have your guide read — Hatshepsut's proud inscription over the doorway, claiming she restored what the hated Hyksos had destroyed.
It's a small, atmospheric place, a reminder that Hatshepsut's ambitions reached far beyond Thebes. Add it to a morning at Beni Hasan.
How to find it
The Speos Artemidos lies about 2 km south of the Beni Hasan tombs, at the entrance to the Istabl Antar valley on the east bank of the Nile; it is reached by car or on foot from Beni Hasan with a local guide.
