Rekhmire, vizier to Thutmose III, during the last decade of the king's reign. Documentary evidence - in the form of a series of limestone ostraka found at the site and published by W.C. Hayes [1960] - reveals that construction began in regnal year 43 and was probably not finished by regnal year 54 when Thutmose III died. The temple was likely then brought to completion by his successor Amenhotep II, in the early years of his reign. Despite the clear existence of a causeway leading up to the site, the temple remained hidden from archaeologists until the 1960s as the result of an ancient rock fall from the high cliffs above - scholars have posited the temple's almost complete destruction by landslide towards the end of the 20th Dynasty, some 250 years after its completion. Thereafter, the site was apparently plundered of its sandstone building blocks for the construction of other projects. Completing the temple's devastation was the eventual collapse of the built-up portion of its supporting platform, causing the south-eastern corner of the temple to precipitate on to the Temple of Montuhotep immediately below. Relief fragments from the Djeser-Akhet were subsequently discovered amongst the rubble in the temple of Mentuhotep II by the Egypt Exploration Society excavators, conveniently foreshadowing the temple's re-discovery by the Poles several decades later. Conservation and reconstruction works The reconstruction of the temple's layout was hindered by the large scale of destruction. However, the plan of the upper terrace could be reconstructed thanks to the outlines of walls visible on the remains of pavements and the partly-preserved column bases and shafts. Tens of thousands of relief fragments and wall inscriptions were excavated, as well as statuettes, steles of dignitaries of the New Kingdom, and sculptures depicting the ruler, including a 2-m-tall stone statue of Tuthmosis III. The work of the PCMA UW expedition, resumed in 1978 and continued to the present day in cooperation with National Museum in Warsaw and Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, focuses on reconstructing the relief and architectural decoration and protecting the polychromies, as well as documenting them. Until 1996, Jadwiga Lipińska headed the team; since 2008, Monika Dolińska directs the work. The team is preparing a monograph on the temple reliefs to emphasize their uniqueness and the need for further conservation. See also Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III References Nathalie Beaux, Mariusz Caban, Dawid F. Wieczorek. A new double foundation deposit