Ancient Egypt – Queen Hatshepsut
- dwworldhistory
- Aug 22, 2025
- 11 min read
DW | Ancient Egypt
14 – Queen Hatshepsut
Welcome to the DW World History Series. In the last episode we discussed the first four Pharaohs of the New Kingdom. We left off with the death of Tuthmosis II who had placed his 2-year-old successor, Tuthmosis III, on the throne. Within two years of co-regency, the wife of Tuthmosis II and step-mother to Tuthmosis III, began her policy to subvert his position. She placed key officials in high positions and began construction of her mortuary temple at Dier el-Bahari.
This biography highlights Queen Hatshepsut who was one of Egypt's greatest and least known rulers. She was more powerful than Cleopatra and created one of the most unique temples in Egyptian History.
Hatshepsut was born in 1507 BC, and is believed to have been the daughter of Tuthmosis I and his great royal wife, Ahmose. After her father's death, Hatshepsut was then married to Tuthmosis II, her half-brother and father's heir, when she was fourteen or fifteen years old. They were around the same age when they married.
Upon the death of Tuthmosis II in 1479 BC, his young son, Tuthmosis III, became the pharaoh of Egypt. Hatshepsut initially served as regent, but eventually assumed the position of pharaoh alongside him, by Year 7 of his reign, in c. 1472 BC; becoming queen regnant. With this new position, Hatshepsut thus shared Tuthmosis III's existing regnal count, effectively back-dating her accession as pharaoh to Year 1, when she had been merely regent.
Although queens Sobekneferu and possibly Nitocris may have previously assumed the role of pharaoh, Hatshepsut was the only female ruler to do so in a time of prosperity, making her the most powerful female ruler up to this point in Egyptian history.
14.1 - Queen Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple
Constructed under the supervision of her steward, Senenmut, Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple took its basic inspiration from the 12th Dynasty temple of Mentuhotep II, adjacent to the site on the south. When completed, it was unique to Egyptian architecture. As described by Peter Clayton:
“The Temple was built largely of limestone, it rose in three broad,
colonnade-fronted terraces to a central rock-cut sanctuary on the
upper terrace. The primary dedication was to Amun, but there were
also smaller shrines to Hathor and Anubis, respectively located on the
south and north sides of the second terrace.”
A feature of the Temple was its alignment to the east directly with the Great Temple of Amun across the Nile at Karnak. The site of her Temple had originally been a small cave shrine to the goddess Hathor.
The Birth Relief
Queen Hatshepsut legitimizes her rule through a propaganda relief on her temple, known as the 'Birth Relief''. This was located on the walls of the northern half of the middle terrace. It displays the god Amun, disguised as her father Tuthmosis I, who visits her mother. The results of this visit is that her mother is pregnant from Amun with Hatshepsut. The point of this depiction is that her father is really the god Amun. She is divine just like the pharaohs. All pharaohs state they are the 'Son of Ra'. She states the same thing, but in a different way. This relief also shows her with the false pharaonic beard.
Something to note about this depiction on the wall of her mortuary temple is that the sculptors got it wrong. Usually when the pharaoh tells his divine birth, they show the pharaoh and his soul, his Ka, being created on a potter's wheel. The myth is that the god Khnum (He-num), a ram-headed god, who was the potter, creates everybody out of clay on a potter's wheel – very similar to Adam from the Old Testament of the Bible. Adam means 'clay' in Hebrew. Khnum is always shown creating the Ka of the king and the king himself, two little doubles on a potter's wheel and its a standard scene. These sculptors worked to create this, but must have used a template because for Hatshepsut, they are both little boys. You can see that they are naked. They should have used little girls for Hatshepsut, but she must not have minded for the scene remains; the standard birth scene as with most other pharaohs.
On the Upper terraces of Hatshepsut’s Temple at Dier el-Bahari, the central sanctuary was dedicated to the god Amun-Ra, whose principal place of worship was the Karnak Temple. During the yearly festival, called the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, the god’s image was transported across the river to the West Bank. Carrying Amun-Ra in his Sacred Bark, the festival procession followed a roadway, lined with sphinxes that led to Hatshepsut’s Temple. On the middle terrace, the pathway was flanked by colossal kneeling statues that represented Hatshepsut as the ideal Egyptian king. Some of the statues were depicted wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt.
Portraits of the Pharaoh
Images in which Hatshepsut adopts this masculine attire coincide with her increased claims of power and seem to have been one of the several methods by which she sought to legitimize her rule. Unlike most representations of Hatshepsut as ruler, there is a statue that has a distinctly feminine air. In this life-size statue, Hatshepsut is shown wearing the nemes-headcloth while maintaining her feminine qualities. The kingly titles on the sides of the throne are feminized to read, "the Perfect Goddess, Lady of the Two Lands" and "Bodily Daughter of Re," a practice that was dropped later in her reign.
Traces of blue pigment are visible in some of the hieroglyphs on the front of the statue and a small fragment on the back of the head shows that the pleats of the nemes-headcloth were originally painted with alternating blue and yellow pigments.
The inscription on this statue indicates that Hatshepsut was offering Amun Maat (translated as order, truth, or justice). By making this offering, Hatshepsut affirmed that Maat was the guiding principal of her reign. She wears the nemes-headcloth and the false beard, that are part of the regalia of a king.
Expedition to Punt
With her title as 'King of Egypt' no longer contested, Hatshepsut re-established the trade routes that had been disrupted during the Hyksos Period, thereby building the wealth of the 18th Dynasty. The most famous expedition, as recorded on the walls of her temple, was sent to the Land of Punt, notably for frankincense and myrrh. The relief on the wall displays a realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Ati. The delegation returned with 31 live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the visit. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees, which were planted in the courts of her mortuary temple complex.
Karnak Constructions
Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders in Ancient Egypt, commissioning hundreds of construction projects throughout the country. At Karnak, she erected two twin red granite obelisks, which were, at the time, the tallest in the world. One still stands as the tallest surviving ancient obelisk; the other has broken in two and toppled. Their removal from the quarries at Aswan is recorded on the walls of her mortuary temple and is about the only scene we have of how they transported them. They were created at Aswan in seven months, then placed on a barge (end to end) and towed by 27 ships with three pilot ships leading until they are unloaded at Karnak.
At the base of her obelisk she called herself the 'Female Falcon'. Remember that the Falcon represented the Pharaoh. Although she sometimes depicted herself as a male ruler, she was not masquerading as one. She was proud to be female, but definitely a female who ruled Egypt.
Hatshepsut created the Red Chapel at Karnak. What is interesting, is that she is shown side by side with Tuthmosis III. The meaning behind this is unknown. During her reign, Tuthmosis III is silent. Did she usurp the throne against his will? Did he ever wish to take the throne from her? Or did he feel comfortable with her in power? He was most likely away training in the army and could have possibly taken power at anytime, but the details are unknown. He would later strive to erase her name during his reign, but this would occur 20 years after her death. We'll discuss more about this at the end.
14.2 - Royal Steward, Senenmut
Hatshepsut's closest adviser was her Royal Steward, Senenmut. Born as a commoner, his sudden rise in power would be controversial. He would hold numerous titles, including: Chief Architect and Overseer of Works, Chief Steward of Amun, Overseer of the Granaries of Amun, of the Fields of Amun, of the Cattle of Amun, of the Gardens of Amun, of the Weavers of Amun, and others. His most important position was that he was the tutor of Hatshepsut's daughter, Neferure. It's sad to know that she would die from unknown causes as a teenager. Her death would, without question, devastate her mother. Senenmut was unrivaled in power and only the Chief Priest of Amun could match him. It was rumored that he owed his privileged position to intimate relations with the Queen.
Evidence for an intimate relationship is considered when one looks at his sarcophagus. In his first tomb, there was a pink Aswan granite sarcophagus that was smashed to pieces. No piece was left bigger than a fist. However, after archaeologists reconstructed this, they discovered it was Hatshepsut's royal sarcophagus. She had given him her own royal sarcophagus to be buried in. What is in no doubt, is that they were very close.
Although it is not known for certain where he was buried, Senenmut had two tombs built for himself. One was in the tombs of the nobles in Luxor (known as TT71), and the other near Hatshepsut's mortuary temple (known as TT353). They were both heavily vandalized during the reign of Thutmosis III, perhaps during the later king's campaign to eradicate all traces of Hatshepsut's memory. Neither tomb by itself was complete as would be expected of an Egyptian tomb for a person of high standing. TT71 is a typical Theban Tomb chapel, but does not have burial chambers. TT353 is fully underground without any overground chapel. They complement each other and are, only together, a full burial monument.
The earliest known star map in Egypt is found as the main part of a decoration in the Tomb of Senenmut. This astronomical ceiling in TT 353 is divided into two sections representing the northern and the southern skies. Senenmut was most likely an ancient astronomer as well.
14.3 - Hatshepsut's First Tomb
Hatshepsut had begun construction of a tomb while the royal wife of Tuthmosis II, but the scale of this was not suitable for a pharaoh. This tomb, located 220 feet up a 350 foot cliff face in a remote valley west of the Valley of the Kings, was discovered by local people in 1916 and investigated by English Archaeologist Howard Carter in dangerous circumstances.
Carter had first been alerted to the fact that tomb robbers had located a previously undiscovered tomb. He and his workmen made their way to this new tomb during the night, moonlight guiding their way. On reaching the tomb, they discovered a rope leading down the cliffside and could hear the tomb robbers at work, in Howard Carter's own words:
"Listening, we could hear the robbers actually at work, so I first severed
their rope, thereby cutting off their means of escape, and then, making
secure a good stout rope of my own, I lowered myself down the cliff.
Shinning down a rope at midnight, into a nestful of industrious tomb-robbers,
is a pastime which at least does not lack excitement. There were eight at work,
and when I reached the bottom there was an awkward moment or two. I gave
them the alternative of clearing out by means of my rope, or else of staying
where they were without a rope at all, and eventually they saw reason and
departed. The rest of the night I spent on the spot, and, as soon as it was light
enough, climbed down into the tomb again to make a thorough examination."
A sarcophagus was found in the tomb - made of quartzite - which was reminiscent of the wooden coffins used for the burials of the Queens Ahhotep and Ahmose-Nefertari. The height of the sarcophagus was impressive; (6ft 6"). The sarcophagus was inscribed for Hatshepsut:
"The Great Princess, great in favor and grace, Mistress of All lands,
Royal Daughter and Royal Sister, Great Royal Wife, Lady of the Two
Lands, Hatshepsut"
The work in the tomb had halted before any decoration had started, and the tomb had never been used.
14.4 - Tomb KV20
As Pharaoh, Hatshepsut had her second tomb (KV20) dug in the Valley of the Kings by her vizier and High Priest of Amun, Hapuseneb. This tomb was originally quarried for her father, Tuthmosis I, and refurbished and taken over by Hatshepsut, who was most likely buried in this tomb upon her death. During the reign of Tuthmosis III, a new tomb was built for Tuthmosis I (KV38) and he was removed. At the same time, Hatshepsut's mummy was most likely moved into the tomb of her nurse, who had been given royal honors and buried in her own tomb in the Valley of the Kings in (KV60).
Standing in her original tomb cut for her as a royal wife, in 1916, Carter wrote:
“As a king, it was clearly necessary for her to have her own tomb
in the Valley like all other kings – as a matter of fact, I found
it there myself in 1903 – and the present tomb was abandoned.
She would have been better advised to hold to her original
plan. In this secret spot her mummy would have had a
reasonable chance of avoiding disturbance: in the Valley it
had none. A king she would be, and a king's fate she shared.” -Howard Carter, 1916
The precise date for Hatshepsut's death, January 16, 1458 B.C., is given on a stele found at Armant, a town located about 12 miles south of Thebes. No contemporary mention of the cause of her death has survived. The medical examination of her mummy indicates that she suffered from diabetes and died from bone cancer which had spread throughout her body while she was in her fifties.
14.5 - Reign Suppression
Toward the end of the reign of Tuthmosis III and into the reign of his son, an attempt was made to remove Hatshepsut from certain historical and pharaonic records. Her cartouches and images were chiseled out of stone walls. Her numerous statues were removed and buried in a pit in front of her temple at Deir el-Bahari. At Karnak, there was even an attempt to wall up her obelisks.
While it is clear that much of this rewriting occurred only during the close of Tuthmosis III's reign, it is not clear why it happened, other than the typical self-promotion that existed among the Pharaohs. For many years, the early modern Egyptologists presumed that the erasures were from Tuthmosis III acting out of resentment once he became pharaoh. But her accomplishments and images remained featured on all of the public buildings she constructed for 20 years after her death. He does not attempt to erase her images and name from the king lists until he sets his son up as successor.
Again, the reasons are unknown, but the most plausible answer is that they did not want to show that Egypt had been ruled by a woman. They wanted the previous status-quo to remain, nothing personal against Hatshepsut's rule, except the fact that a woman had been king. They did not want to establish the precedent for that to happen again, for tradition demanded that kings be male. Their attempts would be in vain, for history would remember her thousands of years later, and declare Hatshepsut as one of the most power female rulers in world history, greater than even the more famous Cleopatra.
In the next episode we'll feature Tuthmosis III and the Battle of Megiddo.
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