Among the numerous peaks of Western Thebes two stand out in a noticeable way. These are: the el-Gurn peak which towers over the entire Theban Necropolis and the so-called Thoth Hill. The first one which rises c. 420 m above sea level is located in the very heart of an ancient necropolis. From the northern side it neighbours on the Valley of the Kings which is the burial house of most of the rulers of the New Kingdom From the eastern part it is surrounded by a line of valleys, among which the Deir el-Bahari valley is the biggest and the most famous one. On the south-western slope of Thoth Hill one can find the ruins of Deir el-Medina, i.e., a settlement of workers who built royal tombs.
Contrary to el-Gurn, the second peak of Thebes, Thoth Hill, is located off the beaten track of the ancient necropolis on its north-western edge. The hill rises to the north of the Valley of the Kings as high as c. 460 m above sea level and it constitutes the highest peak of the Theban limestone massif of Gebel.
The map of Upper Egypt with the indicated location of Thebes, source: Digital Egypt for Universities
In order to get to its top one has to take one of the two possible routes leading from the Ancient necropolis. The first track leads from Dra Abu el-Naga to the North-East of Deir el-Bahari, in the direction of the Valley of the Kings through the ancient limestone quarry in Gurna. The second way is much longer and it starts in the Valley of the Kings, then it goes through the Western Valley and the following Wadi which is located to the north of the Western Valley. Me and my group we chose the second track because it appeared much more interesting than the first one.
The author of the report on his way to Thoth Hill
After climbing the closest northern massif which is adjacent to the Western Valley almost from the right angle, an unforgettable view unfolded before our eyes. We saw the entire Valley of the KIngs, the Western Valley as well as plenty of other, virtually untouched by man, western Wadis with the el-Gurn peak in the background. Just like the other one, this track leads to the quarry in Gurna. It is where the roads cross and branch into two, southern and south-eastern so as to meet again halfway the hill.
Passing by the quarry and walking up the southern track, one can come across one of the numerous Medieval mud brick Coptic temples preserved in this region. We stopped at one of them in order to have some rest after over an hour’s march. Finally, the time had come to take a commemorative photo with the hill in the background, which was still before us. The ancient path which leads from the top seems to be still frequented. From the northern side it is surrounded by a thick and about 1m high stone wall made of lime slates put one on the other. It is difficult to say who and when raised this construction. The wall goes from the quarry towards the southern slope of Thoth Hill and disappears somewhere in the West. Having reached the hill halfway, we came across a path rising almost sheer towards the hill. Some 20 more minutes of marching combined with climbing and Thoth Hill was ours.
On the top of the hill we have the view of a big plateau with towering ruins of a mud brick temple. The foundations remained totally unknown until the beginning of the XX century when a German Paleolithic researcher George Schweinfurth came across them in 1904. The first archeological works were undertaken in 1909 by Flinders Petrie who, based on the ceramic and, above all, engraving material, managed to date the object without much effort to the end of 11th Dynasty, the very beginning of the Middle Kingdom and Mentuhotep Sanchkar’s (1995-1983 BC) reign. Petrie’s research revealed to whom the temple was devoted. Contrary to the name of both the hill and the sanctuary functioning at present in literature, it was the site of the cult of god Horus, what we learn from the inscription on one of the preserved fragments of the front portal of the shrine: “Horus Sanchtauief (…) King of Upper and Lower Egypt Sanchkara, Son of Ra Mentuhotep, Living Forever. He raised this monument for Horus to present him with life like Ra.” The commonly accepted name Thoth Hill comes from G. Maspero who, after discovering the temple by Schweinfurth, reached the place and, on the basis of the fragments of two stone statues of baboons, ascribed the temple to Thoth. The shrine is formed on a mud brick structure of rectangular plan, 21,5 m x 24,6 m, which comprises the temenos wall with its eastern entrance flanked by two pylons. Within the walls is a separate sanctuary with three chapels of the construction typical of the Middle Kingdom. Originally, all the walls were covered with white plaster whose poor remnants remained until today, especially in the low parts of the walls.
Map of Mentuhotep Sanchkar’s temple according to Petrie, source: Digital Egypt for Universities
The present condition of the temple, phot. by D. F. Wieczorek
According to the modern works that have been recently done at Thoth Hill by a Hungarian archeological team from the University of Eotvos Lorand under the direction of Gyözö Vörös’s (1995-1998), under the preserved ruins of the Middle Kingdom temple traces of yet older foundations are hidden. It seems that the older stage of the extension of the shrine can be dated back at least to the so-called Archaic Period (c. 3000-2575 BC). If the dating assumption put forward by the Hungarian team is correct, one can safely consider the Temple of Horus on Thoth Hill as one of the oldest so far known sanctuaries in the Theban area or even one of the oldest Egyptian shrines.
The modern Hungarian investigations as well as the works carried out by Petrie also confirmed the presence of another temple foundation on the top of Thoth Hill, which is located around 124m to the West of the Temple of Horus. The building sized 21 m x 12 m was also made of mud brick and consists of three rooms with a roof initially supported on wooden columns whose traces were preserved in the form of the original floor of the building. The ceramic material found within the building premises explicitly showed that it is a contemporary construction in the second stage of the extension of the Temple of Horus, thus, raised also by Mentuhotep Sanchkar. As Gyözö Vörös himself suggests, it appears that the foundation might be connected with the so-called Sed-Feast organised in celebration of the ruler. The contemporary and also earlier works confirmed the lack of evidence for exploiting both sanctuaries later than in 11th Dynasty. What is more, both constructions appear to have undergone at least partial destruction caused by an earthquake which took place towards the end of the very Dynasty.
Second temple foundation on Thoth Hill investigated according to Petrie’s plan (1909), the plan after Digital Egypt for Universities
After over an hour’s visit to the site and a rest combined with a short meal, we started to walk down the hill. It is much easier this way and the road seems shorter, too. As Flinders Petrie himself put it in his description of the works at Thoth Hill, the way back from the top to the Gurna quarry takes about 45 minutes. Again, we decided to take the second track, i.e., the south-eastern one which is definitely the mildest. Having climbed down the hill, we tried to head South through the winding Wadis towards the limestone quarry. It is a stone’s throw from Dra Abu el-Naga and Deir el-Bahari where our home, i.e., the Metropolitan House which gathers the members of most of the Polish archaelogical missions working in Western Thebes, is located.
Cairo, December 2008
Bibliography:
Petrie W. M. F., Qurneh. London, 1909, pp. 4-6, Pl. IV-VIII.
Vörös G., Preliminary Report of the Excavations at Thoth Hill, Thebes The Temple of Mentuhotep Sankhkara (Season 1995-1996), in: MDAIK 53, pp. 283-287.
Vörös G., Preliminary Report of the Excavations at Thoth Hill, Thenes The Pre-11th Dynasty Temple and Western Building (Season 1996-1997), in: MDAIK 54, pp. 335-340.
Willkinson R. H., The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. London, 2000, pp. 172, 173.
