There is a small rock-cut chapel at the end of the desert valley called Batn el-Baqara, opening behind the famous Speos Artemidos, about 4 km south from the Beni Hasan tombs of nomarchs in Middle Egypt. The two monuments are separated by...
moreThere is a small rock-cut chapel at the end of the desert valley called Batn el-Baqara, opening behind the famous Speos Artemidos, about 4 km south from the Beni Hasan tombs of nomarchs in Middle Egypt. The two monuments are separated by a mere 15 minutes of walking distance, and were both dedicated to Pakhet, the cat/lioness goddess of the region. The small chapel was documented in detail by Ahmed Fakhry in 1938, and due to its size, the whole material was published in a single article, where the inscriptions surrounding the entrance, the layout and the decoration program of the walls were drawn and described. However, Fakhry did not carry out an in-depth analysis of the decoration and neither has it been conducted ever since. There is ample ground to surmise that the Pakhet of this chapel and of the great speos nearby both had the special aspect of the returning solar Eye, emphasized by Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and that the two monuments are to be treated together, as one complex created at the same time for the same purpose, rather than being two separate entities.