Hatshepsut was one of ancient Egypt's most notable pharaohs, reigning from around 1479 to 1458 BCE during the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom period. She ruled the longest out of Egypt's female pharaohs, reigning for twenty-one years (which includes her regency on behalf of Thutmose III).
Born the daughter of Thutmose I and his wife Ahmose, Hatshepsut married her half-brother, Thutmose II, when they were both teenagers. She was Thutmose II's queen consort and Great Royal Wife when he became king after their father's death, and they had one child named Neferure. When Thutmose II died after a thirteen year reign, his son by a secondary wife named Iset, Thutmose III, was two years old and too young to rule.
Hatshepsut assumed the role of regent to rule on her stepson's behalf for seven years before she officially took the throne and declared herself pharaoh, adopting the full regalia and titles of a king. She legitimized her right to the crown by claiming that she was the daughter of the god Amun from Egyptian Mythology, having it inscribed that she was born of a Bed Trick when Amun came to her mother in Thutmose I's form, and having herself portrayed as masculine—complete with a false beard—in artistic depictions. Said depictions were strictly for symbolic purposes and were not considered evidence of personal crossdressing or androgyny; they represented her power as a female king, who was traditionally seen as the living incarnation of male deities like Amun and Horus.
Her reign is known for remarkable accomplishments in trading and architecture, as well as economic growth and artistic achievements. She re-established the country's foreign trade networks, which had been disrupted by the Hyksos invasions in the past, and sent expeditions to Punt (modern-day Somalia), a fabled country that no Egyptians had visited in five hundred years. The expeditions were enormously successful in bringing back numerous bounties: gold, ivory, ebony, live myrrh trees, frankincense, and an assortment of exotic animals like panthers, apes, and giraffes. Hatshepsut had the frankincense ground up into kohl eyeliner, making it the first recorded use of the resin in Egypt.
She was also a very productive builder, being responsible for the construction of hundreds of temples. Among many others, she commissioned the Mortuary Temple at Deir el-Bahri and the famous Red Chapel at Karnak. She had the Precinct of Mut, a temple complex devoted to the goddess in Karnak, restored from its previous destruction during foreign occupation, and she had massive twin obelisks built at the entrance, which were considered the tallest in the world at the time. At her temples, she performed the religious rituals that were traditionally carried out by kings. Her daughter, Neferure, played a much more prominent role in court than was usually expected of princesses by taking the ceremonial and religious duties of a queen consort, along with her mother's previous titles as Great Royal Wife.
Most of Hatshepsut's building projects were headed by two architects, Ineni (an aristocratic official who had worked under her father and her husband) and Senenmut. Hatshepsut and Senenmut shared a particularly close relationship; though Senenmut was of commoner birth, he quickly rose through the ranks to become her high steward and chief architect. He was also trusted with tutoring Neferure (they were often depicted in statues together, with him holding the child), and he personally supervised the quarrying and transport of the obelisks in Karnak. His closeness with Hatshepsut sparked much speculation—both in their time and with modern Egyptologists—that they were lovers, which was fueled further by the facts that Senenmut never married or had any children in his lifetime (his funeral rites were carried out by one of his brothers, rather than a son), and that his name and image were depicted in the Mortuary Temple (meaning that Hatshepsut allowed him to immortalize himself on her achievement). note
Hatshepsut also built the Temple of Pakhet to the south of the Beni Hasan cemetery in Minya, which was constructed by cutting out caverns into the rock cliffs (and was later named the Cave of Artemis by the Greeks, who associated the lion goddess Pakhet with their hunting goddess Artemis). In the temple was carved a text, where she denounced the Hyksos as evil invaders at length and described her actions in rebuilding all the monuments they destroyed during their occupation of Egypt.
When Thutmose III grew older, Hatshepsut reigned with him as co-monarchs and he became commander of the army. He undertook military conquests and expansions, while she ran the kingdom's civil administration and trade. She died in 1458 BC, likely from cancer, and he took the throne as the next pharaoh at the age of twenty-three. note Many years after Hatshepsut's death, someone (either Thutmose III or his son Amenhotep II) tried to erase her memory from history by removing her name from many inscriptions, defacing her monuments, and ascribing her accomplishments to his own reign. Neferure's name was similarly removed from numerous inscriptions and replaced with other royal women's.
This may or may not have been done out of maliciousness; Hatshepsut and Thutmose got along well as co-rulers, and evidence shows that her name was removed either very late in Thutmose's reign or very early in Amenhotep's. There's also the fact that only her public inscriptions were removed, and all the interior carvings and other places hidden from the public eye were left intact. Historians have suggested that Thutmose III erased Hatshepsut from the line of kings for the pragmatic reason of making his ascension to the throne smoother, as it would have been easier to enforce the succession that traditionally ran from father to son than to acknowledge any interference from his aunt-stepmother (or Amenhotep II might have done it instead for the same reason, to strengthen his claim as king). Neferure would have also consequently been erased for being her daughter.
Because of this, Hatshepsut fell into obscurity for centuries. In 1822, archaeologists deciphered the hieroglyphics at the Deir el-Bahri temple that spoke of her reign, contradicting prior records of the early Eighteenth Dynasty kings. Her tomb was eventually found in 1903, allowing archaeologists and Egyptologists to rediscover her contributions and achievements that shed light on her significant role in ancient Egypt.
Incidentally, Hatshepsut is theorized to be the reason why "pharaoh" became so widely used as the title for Egyptian kings, who traditionally went by nesu-bity ("of the sedge and bee", or "king of Upper and Lower Egypt"). The ancient Egyptian word that translates to "pharaoh" was per-a'a, literally "Great House", and referred either to the king's literal house of residence or the king's metaphorical household of attendants and government officials before Hatshepsut's reign. It was only during her rule that "pharaoh" became a title that referred to the king personally, and Egyptologists have suggested that this was an euphemism that male officials and scribes used to deal with taking orders from a ruling woman (so that they could say their orders were from the palace, rather than from the king). After Hatshepsut, "pharaoh" became more prominent as the title for ruling monarchs than "king".
Portrayals of Hatshepsut in fiction:
Anime and Manga
- Aoi Horus no Hitomi (The Blue Eye of Horus) by Chie Inudoh centers on Hatshepsut's life and struggles as pharaoh.
- Hatshepsut, a two-part manga by Ryoko Yamagishi
- Hatshepsut appears in Umi no Aurora by Machiko Satonaka.
Literature
- Child of the Morning by Pauline Gedge follows her life and ascension to the throne.
- Hatshepsut: Daughter of Amun by Moyra Caldecott
- Her Majesty the King by Patricia L. O'Neill
- King and Goddess by Judith Tarr
- Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise McGraw features the outdated portrayal of her as a Wicked Stepmother to Thutmose III.
- Pharaoh (also by Eloise McGraw)
- Time Warp Trio: She appears in Tut, Tut.
Live-Action TV
- Horrible Histories:
- She first appears in live action in Series 1 played by Sarah Hadland which describes her life. It ended up being Dated History due to the claim that Hatshepsut was poisoned by her brother.
- She appears again in the 2015 reboot played by Gemma Whelan in "Tips for Rulers No. 43"
- She and Amun-Ra are animated in the "Wake Like an Egyptian" song.
- The Secrets of Isis: Namedropped as the ancestor of Andrea Thomas.
Video Games
- Civilization: She is the leader of Egypt in III and IV.
