Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut Maatkare (c. 1504 BC-1458 BC; sometimes spelled Hapshepsut, Hatchepsut or Hat-shep-set) was the fifth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. She ruled from 1473 BC to 1458 BC and is regarded as the first female monarch in recorded history.

She was the daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose. Hatshepsut was favored by the Temple of Karnak over her two brothers who did not live into adulthood. She apparently also had a loving relationship with her parents and assumed the prestigious title of god's wife of Amun before either parent died. After the death of her father in 1492 BC she married her half-brother Thutmose II and assumed the title of Great Royal Wife. Thutmose II ruled for only a few years, during which Hatshepsut had tremendous influence. Thutmose II had only two daughters with Hatshepsut, Nefrure and Meritre, but managed to father a male heir, Thutmose III, by a lesser wife named Isis before his death.

As Thutmose III's aunt and stepmother, Hatshepsut was selected to be regent until the boy king came of age. At first it seemed that Hatshepsut was patterning herself after the powerful female regents of Egypt's then recent history, but it soon became apparent that she had only one model in mind, Sobeknefru, the last monarch of the Twelfth dynasty, who ruled in her own right. She took one step further than Sobeknefru and had herself crowned Pharaoh in 1473 BC and took the throne name Maatkare. Pharaoh was an exclusively male title, at this point in Egyptian history there was no word for a female ruler (the closest equivalent, the one used by Sobeknefru, was King's Wife), thus Queen Hatshepsut became King Hatshepsut. Over time she slowly assumed all of the regalia and symbols of that office with many statues existing that show her in a form that is both feminine and masculine. However after this period of transission ended all depictions of her only showed her in a masculine form. The symbols she wore included the false beard, which was a symbol of Pharaonic power and by wearing it Hatshepsut was asserting her right and position as King or Ruler and not King's Wife or ruler's wife of Egypt. Historians who believe in traditional explanation of Hatshepsut believe her motivation for wearing men's clothing was sexual, however historians who typically believe in the alternative (and more recent theories) concerning Hatshepsut disagree and believe it was merely political.

The wealth of the 18th dynasty – so famous since the discovery of the burial of Tutankhamun – began to be collected under Hatshepsut. She organised for a mission to Punt in her name to buy myrrh, which was said to be her favorite fragrance, and other goods. Though her foreign policy was mainly peaceful, she did lead a successful military campaign in Nubia.

As Pharaoh, Hatshepsut initiated building projects that were grander and more numerous than any of her New Kingdom predecessors. She employed two great architects: Ineni, who had worked for both her husband and father, and her friend and presumed lover the royal steward Senemut. Hatshepsut, like most Pharaohs, had monuments constructed at the Temple of Karnak. She had twin obelisks, at the time the tallest in the world, erected at the entrance to the Temple of Karnak. One still stands today; the other broke in two and toppled centuries ago. Karnak's Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, was intended as a barque shrine and may have originally stood between the two obelisks. She later ordered for two more obelisks to be made to celebrate her 16th year as Pharaoh. However one of the obelisks broke while being made, causing for a third to be made to replace it. The broken obelisk was left in Aswan, where it was made, and is still there to this day.

The masterpiece of her building projects was her mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri. It was designed and implemented by Senemut on a site on the West Bank of the Nile close to the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. The focal point was the Djeser-Djeseru or "the Sublime of Sublimes", a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony nearly one thousand years before the Parthenon. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of terraces that once were graced with gardens. Djeser-Djeseru is built into a cliff face that rises sharply above it. Djeser-Djeseru and the other buildings of the Deir el-Bahri complex are considered to be among the great buildings of the ancient world.

After her death, many of her monuments have been defaced or destroyed. The traditional belief among historians is that Thutmose III did it, however an alternative belief is being put forward by many historians that it was in fact Pharaohs from after Thutmose's reign that defaced the monuments. As with quite a bit about Hatshepsut, historians have opposing views on who defaced her monuments. There is also much debate about whether and to what extent Thutmose III was motivated to deface the monuments by being denied the throne for so long and/or the belief that a female Pharaoh was against Maat. Replacing the names on older monuments with one's own was a common practice of Egyptian Pharaohs.

Table of contents

1 Further reading
2 See also
3 External link

External link

http://www.maat-ka-ra.de/ special homepage

Preceded by:
Thutmose II

Pharaoh of Egypt
Eighteenth Dynasty

Succeeded by:
Thutmose III