10 Facts About Queen Hatshepsut

Queen Hatshepsut is known as Ghenmat Amun Hatshepsut, and her name means the concubine of Amun, the pearl of princesses or Amun’s favorite concubine on the ladies, and she is considered the fifth in the line of kings of the eighteenth dynasty, and she took over after the death of her husband, King Thutmose II, and she is considered one of the most famous and powerful queens who ruled Egypt, and in this article we will introduce you to her more.

Queen Hatshepsut was born in 1508 BC, and she is the eldest daughter of Queen Ahmose, King Tuthmosis I, and her grandfather Ahmose I, the founder of the Eighteenth Pharaonic Dynasty, and the great victory in liberating Egypt from the Hyksos invasion, and is considered the sole and legitimate heir to the throne of the country, if there is no legitimate male heir.

Despite being part of the Tuthmosis dynasty, which held power during the New Kingdom, leading in Egypt was never easy, let alone for a woman. Hatshepsut is often remembered as one of the few females to reach the rank of pharaoh. She did so against all the laws and customs of the Egyptian state, taking advantage of a series of dynastic circumstances that allowed her to give way to her ambition for power.

Daughter of Thutmose I and his main wife, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, her marriage to her stepbrother Thutmose II made her queen-consort and, after soon becoming a widow, she assumed the regency until her stepson Thutmose III reached the age to rule.

Queen Hatshepsut enjoyed all the privileges of family power, although the matriarch was little respected. This situation awakened the instinct of survival in Hatshepsut, who from then on distinguished herself by her intelligence and cunning over her two brothers, called to occupy the throne when their father was absent.

Thutmose I died after thirteen years at the head of successful management, while his personal life was falling apart. Her two sons, who were brought up to take her place, also died, and in the absence of a first-born son to take over, she became the natural successor. When the political situation seemed to favor her, a conspiracy between the vizier and the royal architect succeeded in taking away her command and in her place, she gave it to Thutmose II, her illegitimate son.

Her character then led her to take action against the prevailing male chauvinism. The young woman gained popularity through favors to the great religious leaders and developed a close relationship with many of the Pharaoh’s servants, but an unexpected political movement forced her to become a Great Royal Wife and subordinate herself to the power of her half-brother.

After the sudden death of Thutmose II, her son took over the throne, but Hatshepsut prevailed and proclaimed herself as the Wife of God and Pharaoh of the two lands of Egypt. Young Thutmose III, barely twelve years old, could do nothing about it.

In his first years of regency, Hatshepsut planned the steps to be taken to change the traditional Egyptian society. Got rid of the powerful vizier Ineni and promoted his faithful followers Hapuseneb and Senenmut to political power. He unified the offices of Vizier and High Priest of Amon. Senenmut was an officer of plebeian origin who was always with her and some historians talk about that both were lovers and that even her daughter Neferure was the fruit of this relationship.

Senenmut was appointed as a Royal Architect. He was also his daughter’s tutor. He remained unmarried because in ancient Egypt it was something unusual. He was the only commoner to be buried in a royal sarcophagus. His temple was located in the middle of the mountains and is the most beautiful architecturally speaking in Egypt. Later, it was converted into a monastery. This temple is partly excavated into the rock.

Although she was the third pharaoh in history to hold the office, the possibility of a woman ruling was absurd to Egyptian society and Hatshepsut decided to do the unthinkable: after seven years she changed her name to Maatkare Hatshepsut and began to show herself as the only sovereign of Egypt, adopting the attributes of a pharaoh – the false beard and the nemesis headdress – and the male royal epithets of King of Upper and Lower Egypt and Lord of the Two Lands.

Not even when his stepson came of age did he relinquish power. Thus, for almost two decades the country had two pharaohs who reigned together without apparent conflict, although it was the sovereign who held the reins of Egypt. In addition, statues were created with male features, although she allowed some female ones to appear on them, such as the narrow waist.

This pharaoh never had any military training. In her 22 years of government, she had six military conflicts, three with the region of Nubia and three with the tribes of Syria and Palestine.

She was a peaceful ruler who preferred to spend state budgets on building and beautifying buildings and cities, rather than conquering territories. Among her main works are
– The temple of Salet on the island of Elephantina which is dedicated to the goddess Pakhet.
– He developed a great constructive work in Thebes, which was his city. He made the enclosure of the sacred boats of Luxor. He built inside the great temple of Amon in Karnak, the so-called Red Chapel.
– Using the quarries of Aswan, he ordered the construction of the largest obelisks ever made to celebrate the fifteenth jubilee of his ascension to the throne of Egypt, superior to those of his father Thutmose I. They were placed in Karnak and decorated with electrum, which is a natural alloy of gold and silver. An unfinished obelisk, which would have been the largest of them, is still preserved in Aswan. One of them, which is still standing, stands 27 meters above the Karnak temple.

It must be highlighted during his government, the two trips he made to the territory of Punt, current region of Somalia, from where the best frankincense and myrrh trees are obtained. He also brought ivory, ebony, panther skins and gold.

These expeditions were led by Nehesi, who was like the bearer of the royal seal,. On these journeys, not only was trade carried out, but also detailed studies were made of the flora and fauna of these territories, as well as their political and social organization. The expedition was commemorated in relief at the temple of Hatsepsut in Thebes.

At that time, the pharaohs had their tomb and a mortuary temple built somewhat far from it to protect it and serve as a reminder of their work during their reign.

In Deir el-Bahari he had a mortuary monument built, which would be the symbol of his reign. It is one of the most beautiful temples in Egypt. On its walls, are painted all his political and economic achievements as a pharaoh. Being one of the most visited by tourists today.

It was built next to the temple of Mentuhotep II. The above mentioned mortuary monument has a structure formed by long terraces with elongated ramps of little inclination, which make him fit perfectly to the rock and his environment. In this monument there is a sector that can not be seen, in it is the pharaoh Hatshesut and the royal architect Senenmut in an attitude of lovers, from which it follows, as we mentioned earlier that they should be lovers, but this was forbidden because of the difference in lineage of both.

The Deir el-Bahari monument was completed in the sixteenth year of the government and when Thutmose III already wished to gain prominence. The pharaoh wanted more power than Hatshepsut, but Hatshepsut would not let him. In the 17th year the two great supports of the pharaoh, Hapuseneb and Senenmut, died in strange circumstances

Suddenly Hatshepsut disappears from political and public life without it being known whether she was overthrown. It seems that she died in the palace of Thebes after twenty-two years of government, and it is estimated that she lived about fifty years.

She was removed from all records and from the list of kings. Her statues were destroyed and buried in the desert sand. Her image was erased from all the temples. The statues that preside over her temple are all decapitated. It may be the desire to rewrite history, dispensing with the figure of Hatshepsut, Egypt’s first female pharaoh.

Her tomb was discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in the spring of 1903. Hatshepsut’s tomb also features her wet nurse Sita.

Her body had her left arm bent in a position typical of deceased queens. Her mummy was surrounded by a large number of canvases.

Recent analyses of her mummy have revealed that she suffered from advanced osteoporosis in her hips, diabetes, arthritis, overweight, cancer and had a septic abscess in her mouth, which may be at the origin of her death.

Her tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings, next to her father’s tomb, and is symbolized by the number KV20.

Queen Hatshepsut is an ancient Pharaonic Egyptian queen, and her rank is the fifth in the sequence of kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and she is the only Egyptian queen who ruled Egypt in stable economic and political conditions, and many developments took place during her reign, so the Egyptian army became one of the strongest armies at the time, and there were many trips and trade missions that improved relations with neighboring countries, and revived Egypt’s economy.

We can say that, Hatshepsut was a great ruler during her reign. Egypt reached its peak laying the foundation for the great reign of Thutmose III.

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