ot much is known about Queen Hatshepsut, only that she was the most powerful woman during Ancient Egyptian times. Although she was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, her short life span was not very well written down, or at least that is what some historians think, whilst others have their suspicions that an alternating group from the time tried to delete her from history.
Born in 1479 B.C., she was quick at understanding the way things work and the importance of Egypt in the Ancient world. Rules as in any middle eastern country were severe but important to the prosperity of the empire. Besides becoming pharaoh at a very young age, she is considered to have been the most powerful woman pharaoh.
A woman with no match
Interestingly enough, James Henry Breasted who is an absolute expert when it comes to Ancient Egypt history mentioned that she is considered the first woman in the history of humankind to behold so much power. The power that Cleopatra had many years later didn’t make up even a quarter of the power that Queen Hatshepsut had during her reign.
Many historians also argue that she became too powerful for her own good and they surely are right due to her end. After her reign, the leaders that followed to rule in Egypt tried to delete from history every bit of information about her as they were probably jealous of how much she achieved in such little time, putting most of them to shame.
Archeologists had found in recent years some relics that represent information from the past about her. The German Institute of Archeology found a big rock with hieroglyphs that point to be from the same era that Queen Hatshepsut ruled. The rock was found on Elephantine Island on the Nile river.
This would make sense as she was named before by historians as the Queen of the Nile for the prosperous trade routes she had created during her reign.
Although she had only lived for 21 years, she had made major positive changes to Egypt and its people. The cause of her death is still not known. Historians consider that she was murdered by someone, but whom exactly is difficult to say as her power and successful reign came with many enemies. Her Tomb was discovered in the 1920s, however, her sarcophagus was empty. This is just another sign of people wanting to delete her from history.
Someone wanted her gone so bad that even in the sculpture found (dated by experts as from her reign) that they removed her name from the sculpture and changed the body presented in the sculpt from a woman’s to a man’s, trying to show future generations that she had never existed and during her time a King ruled Egypt (as seen in the sculpture above).
Historians talk about the misogynism present in the Ancient Egyptian culture where most women were controlled and below men. Even if she did have many enemies, I believe that Thutmose III (her stepson) was the one to have killed her. He was always envious of how much power she had, however so were many others. What makes me think that is the campaign Thutmose III begun in 1458 B.C. to destroy every last piece of history that held the name Hatshepsut, destroying most of the monuments representing her.
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