Shrine dedicated to Hathor by Tuthmosis III, Deir el-Bahri, 18th Dynasty, New Kingdom (photo)

This small Hathor chapel was made by Tuthmosis III at Deir el-Bahri between the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Middle Kingdom Temple of Montuhotep II. The chapel is rectangular, with a vaulted ceiling decorated with stars. On the back wall is a scene of Tuthmosis III offering to the god Amun-Ra, who sits on a throne. At the front, on the left wall, Tuthmosis is accompanied by his wife, Meritre, before the divine cow and Hathor, while on the right wall Tuthmosis is shown with two princesses. Scenes on either side of the shrine, in the middle, show Tuthmosis III being suckled by the divine cow, followed by scenes of Tuthmosis and the goddess Hathor in human form. The statue of Hathor as the divine cow, in the middle of the shrine, is inscribed for Amenhotep II, Tuthmosis III’s son and successor. Hathor’'s head is surmounted by a uraeus, a solar-disc, and two short plumes. Amenhotep can be seen twice in the statue: once at the front beneath the cow’s head, and a second time presented as a young boy nursing beneath the cow’s right side.