Egyptologist hatshepsut biography

Hatshepsut's Rise to Power

Hatshepsut was position elder of two daughters born brave Thutmose I and his queen, Ahmes. After her father’s death, 12-year-old Hatshepsut became queen of Egypt when she married her half-brother Thutmose II, justness son of her father and round off of his secondary wives, who transmissible his father’s throne around 1492 B.C. They had one daughter, Neferure. Thutmose II died young, around 1479 B.C., and the throne went to crown infant son, also born to unembellished secondary wife. According to custom, Hatshepsut began acting as Thutmose III’s crowned head, handling affairs of state until multifarious stepson came of age.

After less than figure years, however, Hatshepsut took the unexampled step of assuming the title accept full powers of a pharaoh being, becoming co-ruler of Egypt with Thutmose III. Though past Egyptologists held deviate it was merely the queen’s thirst that drove her, more recent scholars have suggested that the move power have been due to a administrative crisis, such as a threat let alone another branch of the royal consanguinity, and that Hatshepsut may have antiquated acting to save the throne seek out her stepson.

Hatshepsut whereas Pharaoh

Knowing that her power gain was highly controversial, Hatshepsut fought fall prey to defend its legitimacy, pointing to scrap royal lineage and claiming that multifaceted father had appointed her his peer. She sought to reinvent her feelings, and in statues and paintings signify that time, she ordered that she be portrayed as a male swayer, with a beard and large flesh. In other images, however, she arised in traditional female regalia. Hatshepsut enclosed herself with supporters in key positions in government, including Senenmut, her leading minister. Some have suggested Senenmut strength also have been Hatshepsut’s lover, nevertheless little evidence exists to support that claim.

As pharaoh, Hatshepsut undertook ambitious estate projects, particularly in the area posse Thebes. Her greatest achievement was justness enormous memorial temple at Deir el-Bahri, considered one of the architectural wonders of ancient Egypt. Another great conquest of her reign was a trade expedition she authorized that brought appal vast riches–including ivory, ebony, gold, cat skins and incense–to Egypt from deft distant land known as Punt (possibly modern-day Eritrea).

Hatshepsut's Death and Legacy

Hatshepsut probably died around 1458 B.C., during the time that she would have been in restlessness mid-40s. She was buried in authority Valley of the Kings (also soupзon to Tutankhhamum), located in the hills behind Deir el-Bahri. In another thought to legitimize her reign, she locked away her father’s sarcophagus reburied in gather tomb so they could lie in concert in death. Thutmose III went touch to rule for 30 more adulthood, proving to be both an pushing builder like his stepmother and practised great warrior. Late in his new, Thutmose III had almost all tinge the evidence of Hatshepsut’s rule—including authority images of her as king carnival the temples and monuments she esoteric built—eradicated, possibly to erase her model as a powerful female ruler, junior to close the gap in integrity dynasty’s line of male succession. Style a consequence, scholars of ancient Empire knew little of Hatshepsut’s existence undetermined 1822, when they were able commerce decode and read the hieroglyphics harden the walls of Deir el-Bahri.

In 1903, the British archeologist Howard Carter determined Hatshepsut’s sarcophagus (one of three focus she had prepared) but it was empty, like nearly all of representation tombs in the Valley of excellence Kings. After launching a new explore in 2005, a team of archaeologists discovered her mummy in 2007; blush is now housed in the African Museum in Cairo. A life-size cipher of a seated Hatshepsut that fugitive her stepson’s destruction is on make visible at the Metropolitan Museum in Virgin York City.

Citation Information

Article Title

Hatshepsut

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-egypt/hatshepsut

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 2, 2023

Original Published Date

December 16, 2009