Archaeological exploration using magnetic and GPR methods at the first court of Hatshepsut Temple in Luxor, Egypt

Abstract

The Hatshepsut Temple at Luxor, southern Egypt was built as a garden for Amun, and the first court indeed had exotic trees and vegetations. The pathway to the temple was along a sphinx-lined causeway linking the valley to pylons, which are missing now. As an effort to outline remains of the vanished garden and missing pylons and any other possible archaeological structures at this first court site, an extensive integrated magnetic/ground-penetrating radar (GPR) geophysical survey was conducted. The magnetic survey covered the entire area of the first court (100 × 60 m), while the GPR survey covered only an area of 50 × 50 m. The acquired GPR data were processed and presented as 2-D depth sections providing a reasonable vertical/horizontal resolution for the upper 6 m of the investigated site. The acquired magnetic data was processed and presented as 2-D image. The integrated interpretation of the acquired GPR and magnetic data revealed some archaeological features including a rectangular depression which is presumably an ancient man-made pond in the garden of the temple, a rectangular feature that may be a foundation of the missing pylon of the temple, and a suite of aligned anomalies that could be the remnants of sphinx. Such findings reflect the archaeological potentiality of the surveyed site and outline the extension of the temple. Meanwhile, these results necessitate further geophysical investigation or archaeological excavation to be confirmed.