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Hatshepsut

Female Pharaoh of the Egyptian New Kingdom, One of the Most Successful Women Rulers in Egyptian History

Those Who First Drew the Borders on the Map · Founders of Civilizations

The New Kingdom of EgyptThe Female PharaohTrade Expeditions

Who they are

Hatshepsut (reigned c. 1479–1458 BC) was a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, who first held power as regent for her young stepson Thutmose III and thereafter was formally crowned pharaoh, one of the few women in Egyptian history to rule with the full title of pharaoh. During her reign Egypt was relatively peaceful and prosperous; she sent the famous "expedition to Punt," a fleet to the Horn of Africa to trade, bringing back myrrh trees, gold, and rare animals, and built the temple of Deir el-Bahri at Thebes, an architectural masterpiece. After her death her stepson Thutmose III ordered the systematic removal of the elements marking her female identity from her statues and inscriptions (deliberately erasing her name, defacing her statues), and this history was for a time buried, until modern archaeology gradually restored her historical standing.

Primary sourcesThe Deir el-Bahri mortuary temple inscriptionsAncient Egyptian king listsModern archaeological research on the identification of her mummy

Key stories

The Expedition to Punt

Hatshepsut sent a fleet on a trading expedition to the fabled "land of Punt" (the Horn of Africa region of present-day Eritrea and Somalia), bringing back myrrh saplings, ebony, gold, ivory, and rare animals; this expedition is recorded in detail in the relief murals of the temple of Deir el-Bahri, the most important historical imagery for the study of ancient Egyptian foreign trade and seafaring capacity.

Portrayed in the Image of a Male Pharaoh

Though a woman, Hatshepsut’s official statues and reliefs mostly portray her, in the traditional pharaonic image, as male, wearing the false beard symbolizing royal authority — this treatment reflects the cultural background of ancient Egyptian royal ideology in which the role of "pharaoh" itself was highly bound to the male gender, and she needed to use visual symbols to affirm the legitimacy of her rule.

Version differences

After Hatshepsut’s death, in the later reign of her stepson Thutmose III, her statues and inscriptions were defaced on a great scale, and the exact motive (political reckoning, gender ideas, anxiety over royal legitimacy) is still an unsolved puzzle debated in Egyptology.

Relationships

Ally

🏺Ramesses II　Both among the most representative rulers of the Egyptian New Kingdom

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

A study case of "the erased woman ruler"Hatshepsut’s historical image has changed several times through ancient political erasure, the fragmentary nineteenth-century archaeological discoveries, and rediscovery by modern feminist historiography, a classic case in the study of the politics of historical memory.

Appears in

The Dawn of the Bronze AgeHatshepsut and Nefertiti: Women Rulers of Egypt

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