Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for about two decades as pharaoh and had her name erased afterwards. Born around 1507 BC, she was the daughter of Thutmose I and the principal wife of her half-brother Thutmose II, and became regent for her stepson Thutmose III when he acceded as an infant around 1479 BC. Within about seven years she was no longer regent but king, taking the full royal titulary, and was depicted in the traditional regalia — the false beard, the kilt, the nemes headdress — because there was no iconography for a female pharaoh and the office was defined by the images. She justified the position with a divine birth cycle at Deir el-Bahri showing Amun visiting her mother, and with a claim that her father had named her. Her reign was prosperous and largely peaceful. Her outstanding achievement was the expedition to Punt, probably on the Horn of Africa, recorded in relief with its ships, its cargo of myrrh trees, ebony, ivory, gold, apes and leopard skins, and its inhabitants including the notably obese queen of Punt. She built enormously: the terraced mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri set against the cliff, obelisks at Karnak, and restoration of temples damaged during the Hyksos period. Thutmose III ruled alone after her death around 1458 BC and campaigned successfully for decades. Late in his reign her images and names were systematically chiselled out and her monuments reassigned. The delay of some twenty years suggests dynastic housekeeping rather than resentment. Her mummy was tentatively identified in 2007 from a tooth found in a box bearing her name.
- Lived: 1507 BCE – 1458 BCE
- Nationality: Egyptian
- Roles: pharaoh, regent, builder, diplomat
