After a quarter-century of restoration work by a joint Polish-Egyptian mission, the upper terrace has recently been re-opened to the public. Architecturally, it is the most spectacular part of Queen Hatshepsut’s temple; its smooth and well-carved columns and walls stand in sharp contrast to the rugged cliffs that loom so dramatically behind it.

Twenty-four colossal Osirid statues front the pillars on either side of a huge granite doorway at the top of the ramp. The statues were originally painted and would have been visible from a distance. Their long beards would have been blue, their throats and faces red, with black and white eyes and blue eyebrows. The various items that they wore or held were red, blue, and yellow.

Behind, on the right wall, are scenes of the queen’s coronation in which she is escorted by the gods, the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt placed on her head. The central door, with huge and elaborate door boltholes and hinge sockets, leads into a great columned hall.

Two rows (three in the front) of seventy-two thirteen-sided columns surround it. Kneeling statues of Hatshepsut once lined the axis of the courtyard. Its walls are decorated with festival scenes. On the north side of the front (east) wall and the entire right (north) wall, the scenes are of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley.

Hatshepsut, Thutmes II, and Thutmes III are shown in a great procession from Karnak across the Nile into this very sanctuary. The Opet Festival is shown in the other half of the court and again, the procession of boats on the Nile is elaborate and impressive.

On the right (north) side of the court a series of rooms (now closed) are devoted to the solar cult of Ra-Harakhty and to Anubis. On the left (south) side a complex of rooms (also closed) was used for the royal cult of Hatshepsut and Thutmes I. In the rear (west) wall of the court a series of niches, eight large ones, ten small, once held statues of the queen in the pose of Osiris and statues of Thutmes III. In the northwest corner is a small hall of Amen and  in the southwest , a chamber decorated with scenes of  Amen-Ra and the queen.  

From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a