During her reign, the great pharaoh-queen Ma'at-Ka-Ra Hatshepsut had her mortuary temple built just beyond the Valley of the Kings at what is now known as Deir el-Bahari. It took approximately twenty years to complete, the same time as the building of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The temple itself was built by Senmut, Hatshepsut's lover and royal advisor who was also a well-known architect throughout the Two Lands. He had the temple constructed with rows of collonades among the three levels that are connected by huge ramps. On either side of the lower inclince are papyrus pools shaped like T's. On the ground level there were trees brought in from Punt and sphinxes with the head of Hatshepsut. On the north and south sides of the Upper Terrace are shrines dedicated to Hatshepsut, her father Tuthmosis I, Ra-Harakhti, and Amun-Ra. A row of niches in the west wall of the Upper Terrace contained statues of the Queen, and an entrance in the middle of the west wall led to the innermost sanctuary. It was cut into the rock by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II. A thirty-seven metre wide causeway lined with sphinxes joins the mortuary temple with the valley temple, of which only the foundation has been found.

On the walls, the pharaoh-queen is displayed as a lion capturing birds of evil and clawing at her enemies. Senmut was rewarded greatly for his work and paid extremely well. Because of the amount of time it took to built the temple, Hatshepsut most likely did not have a lot of time to enjoy it during her reign as Pharaoh. As her reign progressed, the walls were filled in with paintings of her life. On many places, there are records of Hatshepsut's efforts to repair the damage created by the Hyksos invaders, the raising of the enormous obelisks at the Karnak temple, her divine birth and coronation, and the trading expeditions to Punt (the land of incense). There are even paintings of Senmut himself.

The temple was cut into the mountainside, as a connection between man and nature. It was dedicated to Amun-Ra and Hathor, the gods from whom Hatsheptsut was supposedly descended. Once a year for fifteen days Amun-Ra would come down from the heavens to visit Hathor. There is also shrines to other gods such as Anubis within the temple walls. Hatshepsut called her temple Djeser Djeseru, which means "Splendour of Splendours" in ancient Epyptian.

After Hatshepsut's death, her nephew Tuthmosis III had the temple erased of all her names and even destroyed the statues within the sanctuary. His hatred for Hatshepsut did not end as far as the destruction of the temple, however. He had every monument wiith her name and image nearly destroyed, including the obelisks she had built at Karnak. He even sent out groups of his soldiers and slaves to try and find the tomb of his aunt, whihc had been constructed in a hidden place far from the Valley of the Kings. His efforts to find her burial place failed however, and Hatshepsut was left undisturbed...even to this day.

In 1967, the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, in coordination with a group of Egyptologists and restoration experts from Italy and Poland, managed to restore the temple to be later opened for visitors. And not long ago, the famous opera Aida was performed with the temple in the background.