Pharaoh Hatshepsut

Pharaoh Hatshepsut (1508–1458 B.C.), Egyptian monarch. Hatshepsut was born the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I; her name means “foremost of noble ladies” in ancient Egyptian. When her father died, Hatshepsut and her half-brother Thutmose II became co-rulers of Egypt. Her brother also died several years later, leaving a young son. Following Egyptian tradition, Hatshepsut continued to rule Egypt as its regent until her nephew was old enough to take the throne, but while he was still young she took the unprecedented step of declaring herself pharaoh. Although several other women had also ruled Egypt, Hatshepsut was the first to take power in a time of stability rather than during a crisis. She also reigned much longer than any woman before her: more than twenty-two years. Under her leadership, Egypt entered a new era of peace and stability. Hatshepsut renewed trade with the nation of Punt (now Somalia), which no Egyptian had visited for more than 500 years, and her agents brought back ivory, leopard skins, and myrrh trees. The increased wealth from trade led to hundreds of building projects that made Egyptian architecture among the best in the world. These achievements included the world’s tallest obelisks and her burial temple Djeser-Djesru (“sublime of sublimes” or “holy of holies”), which was built into the side of a cliff. These buildings, along with the accompanying art pieces, were also used to defend Hatshepsut’s right as a woman to rule the country. Carvings on temple walls, for example, declared that her father and the gods had intended for her to become pharaoh since the time that she was conceived, and statutes of Hatshepsut depicted her in the same clothes that male pharaohs wore, including a false beard. Although Egypt was largely at peace, there were also successful military campaigns in Syria, Nubia (now the Sudan) and the eastern Mediterranean, with Thutmose III serving as the head of her armies. After Hatshepsut’s death, though, subsequent pharaohs tried to take credit for her accomplishments or erase her from the historical record, even destroying her statues and chiseling her name and images from her buildings. Some scholars have concluded that they were concerned about “future generations of potentially strong female kings...not remaining content with their traditional lot as wife, sister and…mother.” These efforts were successful. Hatshepsut’s story was largely unknown for many centuries, and many people believed that Cleopatra had been Egypt’s only long-ruling female leader until new artifacts surfaced in the 1800s, more than 3000 years after her death. In recent years, some scholars believe that they have identified her mummy, although this is still being debated.

©David Brodnax, Sr.