The new temple lies immediately to the south of the great XVIIIth Dynasty temple at Der el-Bahari, which has always been known, and which was excavated first by Mariette and later by Prof.  Naville, for the Egypt Exploration Fund.  To the results of the later excavations we shall return.  When they were finally completed, in the year 1898, the great XVIIIth Dynasty temple, which was built by Queen Hatshepsu, had been entirely cleared of debris, and the colonnades had been partially restored (under the care of Mr. Somers Clarke) in order to make a roof under which to protect the sculptures on the walls.  The whole mass of debris, consisting largely of fallen talus from the cliffs above, which had almost hidden the temple, was removed; but a large tract lying to the south of the temple, which was also covered with similar mounds of debris, was not touched, but remained to await further investigation.  It was here, beneath these heaps of debris, that the new temple was found when work was resumed by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1903.  The actual tomb of the king has not yet been revealed, although that of Neb-hetep Mentuhetep, who may have been his immediate predecessor, was discovered by Mr. Carter in 1899.  It was known, however, and still uninjured in the reign of Ramses IX of the XXth Dynasty.  Then, as we learn from the report of the inspectors sent to examine the royal tombs, which is preserved in the Abbott Papyrus, they found the pyramid-tomb of King Xeb-hapet-Ra which is in Tjesret (the ancient Egyptian name for Der el-Bahari); it was intact.  We know, therefore, that it was intact about 1000 B.C.  The description of it as a pyramid-tomb is interesting, for in the inscription of Tetu, the priest of Akh-aset, who was buried at Abydos, Akh-aset is said to have been a pyramid.  That the newly discovered temple was called Akh-aset we know from several inscriptions found in it.  And the most remarkable thing about this temple is that in its centre there was a pyramid.  This must be the pyramid-tomb which was found intact by the inspectors, so that the tomb itself must be close by.  But it does not seem to have been beneath the pyramid, below which is only solid rock.  It is perhaps a gallery cut in the cliffs at the back of the temple.

The pyramid was then a dummy, made of rubble within a revetment of heavy flint nodules, which was faced with fine limestone.  It was erected on a pyloni-form base with heavy cornice of the usual Egyptian pattern.  This central pyramid was surrounded by a roofed hall or ambulatory of small octagonal pillars, the outside wall of which was decorated with coloured reliefs, depicting various scenes connected with the sed-heb or jubilee-festival of the king, processions of the warriors and magnates of the realm, scenes of husbandry, boat-building, and so forth, all of which were considered appropriate to the chapel of a royal tomb at that period.  Outside this wall was an open colonnade