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180 AX SeRi — pry EL dg tat —~~s Figure 56 The god Anton took the form of his majesty the king, of this [queen's] husband the king. Then he went to her immediately; then he had intercourse wee Lae with her. These are the words which the god Amon, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, spoke thereafter in her presence: "Hatshepsut-by-Amon-created shall be the name of this my daughter whom I have planted in thy body . . . She is to exercise the beneficent kingship in this entire land." One of ancient Egypt's most imposing royal temples is that of queen Hatshepsut in Deir-el-Bahari, a section of Thebes on the western side of the Nile (Fig. 56). A series of ramps and terraces took yesteryear's worshiper (and today's visitor) up to the level of magnificent colonnades where (on the left) the queen's expedition to Punt was depicted in reliefs and murals, and (on the right) her divine birth. In this section the painted reliefs show the god Amun being led by the god Thoth to queen Ahmose, the mother of Hatshepsut. The accompanying inscription can well be considered one of the most poetic and tender records of a sexual Divine Encounter, as the god— DIVINE ENCOUNTERS