From Limestone to Sandstone – Building Stone of Theban Architecture During the Reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III

Abstract

This paper reviews the monuments built in the Theban area during the reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III, and their stone materials. This period witnessed a shift from limestone to sandstone in the second part of the Hatshepsut coregency with Thutmosis III, when the queen commissioned an ambitious architectural program. In his autonomous reign, Thutmosis III reused limestone in various monuments, possibly to distance himself from the queen’s choices, and to connect his reign with those of their glorious predecessors in the Middle Kingdom (Mentuhotep II at Deir el-Bahari; Senusret III at Medamud) and in the early Eighteenth Dynasty (Thutmosis I and II).