The Egyptians called the two temples _Tjeserti_, "the two holy places,"
the new building receiving the name of _Tjeser-tjesru_, "Holy of
Holies," and the whole tract of Der el-Bahari the appellation _Tjesret_,
"the Holy." The extraordinary beauty of the situation in which they are
placed, with its huge cliffs and rugged hillsides, may be appreciated
from the photograph which is taken from a steep path half-way up the
cliff above the Great Temple. In it we see the Great Temple in the
foreground with the modern roofs of two of its colonnades, devised in
order to protect the sculptures beneath them, the great trilithon gate
leading to the upper court, and the entrance to the cave-shrine of
Amen-Ra, with the niches of the kings on either side, immediately at the
foot of the cliff. In the middle distance is the duller form of the XIth
Dynasty temple, with its rectangular platform, the ramp leading up
to it, and the pyramid in the centre of it, surrounded by pillars,
half-emerging from the great heaps of sand and debris all around. The
background of cliffs and hills, as seen in the photograph, will serve to
give some idea of the beauty of the surroundings,--an arid beauty, it is
true, for all is desert. There is not a blade of vegetation near; all
is salmon-red in colour beneath a sky of ineffable blue, and against the
red cliffs the white temple stands out in vivid contrast.
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