50 Fun Facts About Hatshepsut

Of which Egyptian dynasty was Hatshepsut a pharaoh?

She was its sixth ruler, in the New Kingdom's opening dynasty.

Who was Hatshepsut's mother, the Great Royal Wife of Thutmose I?

Hatshepsut was their eldest daughter, born between 1505 and 1495 BC.

What relation was Hatshepsut's husband, Thutmose II, to her?

They married when she was fourteen or fifteen and had at least one daughter.

How old was Thutmose III when he inherited the throne and Hatshepsut became regent?

He was her stepson, the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife.

By which regnal year had Hatshepsut assumed the full position of pharaoh?

She then shared Thutmose III's regnal count, back-dating her kingship to Year 1.

Who was the first confirmed woman to rule Egypt in her own right, before Hatshepsut?

She reigned briefly at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty and named herself for the crocodile god Sobek.

What did Hatshepsut wear in statues to present herself as a male pharaoh?

Ram's horns and the shendyt kilt appear too; scholars read the imagery as symbolic, not cross-dressing.

What was Hatshepsut's throne name, used in her royal inscriptions?

Amun's carved proclamation calls her 'my sweet daughter, my favorite, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt'.

Which foreign occupation had disrupted the trade networks Hatshepsut re-established?

Her Punt mission of about Year 9 was the showpiece of the revived trade.

How many live myrrh trees did the Punt expedition bring back?

Hatshepsut ground charred frankincense into kohl eyeliner, the first recorded use of the resin.

Which official led the five-ship voyage to Punt, according to the temple texts?

The texts pretend he went to extract tribute, but it was really a trading mission to a familiar port.

The Punt reliefs are famous for a realistic portrait of which foreign ruler?

Her unusual figure has been read as steatopygia or even elephantiasis.

Where does mainstream scholarship place the Land of Punt?

Its exports of gold, resins, ebony and ivory match what the Horn produced; Puntland is named after it.

Where does Hatshepsut's great mortuary temple stand?

It sits opposite Luxor, beneath the cliffs and the peak of El Qurn.

What does the temple's Egyptian name Djeser-Djeseru mean?

Hatshepsut described the temple as 'a garden for my father Amun'.

How many terraces does Hatshepsut's temple have?

Each was reached by a ramp splitting the porticoes; the upper one is fronted by 26 Osiride statues.

Whose neighbouring temple, six centuries older, heavily influenced the design?

The layout of chambers is nonetheless unique, with the barque sanctuary of Amun-Re on the central axis.

Shrines to which two deities stand on the temple's middle terrace?

The porticoes there carry the Punt and divine-birth reliefs.

Which priestly title gave Hatshepsut a religious power base before she became pharaoh?

A later king stripped royal women of such titles; Thutmose IV restored some.

Which god of the potter's wheel forms Hatshepsut's body in the birth reliefs?

He works alongside Heket, the frog goddess of fertility.

Which official, of commoner birth, is often credited as architect of Hatshepsut's temple?

He rose from steward to Overseer of Works; the High Priest Hapuseneb is the other candidate.

What is remarkable about the roof of tomb TT353, cut for Hatshepsut's chief steward?

It maps the northern and southern skies.

Which princess, Hatshepsut's daughter, held unusual prominence at court?

Block statues show her cloaked tutor with the child, who may have been the pharaoh's only one.

Where did Hatshepsut erect twin obelisks that were then the tallest in the world?

One still stands, the second-tallest ancient obelisk upright anywhere; the other broke in two.

What was the Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, built to hold?

It may originally have stood between her two obelisks.

Where does the Unfinished Obelisk, cracked during quarrying, still lie?

It was to mark her 16th year as pharaoh and shows how obelisks were cut from bedrock.

How does the Unfinished Obelisk compare with any obelisk the Egyptians ever raised?

Cracks appeared in the granite and it was abandoned still attached to the bedrock.

What did the Greeks call Hatshepsut's rock-cut temple to the lioness goddess Pakhet?

They likened Pakhet to their huntress Artemis; the temple carries her famous denunciation of the foreign rulers she despised.

In which regnal year did Hatshepsut announce her first Heb Sed jubilee, not the usual 30th?

Some think she was marking 30 years since her father's death or her own 30th birthday.

Under what name did Manetho and Josephus record a queen who reigned 21 years and 9 months?

Historians later identified this Amessis or Amensis with Hatshepsut.

In which regnal year of Thutmose III does Hatshepsut disappear from the record?

That is when he undertook his first major foreign campaign, to Megiddo.

Which tomb, first cut for Thutmose I, did Hatshepsut extend to hold herself and her father?

It was probably the first royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and its corridors curve clockwise.

Which archaeologist cleared Hatshepsut's tomb of its rock-hard fill in 1903-04?

He was tipped off by two items with her cartouches in the tomb of Thutmose IV.

Whose tomb, KV60, may Hatshepsut's mummy have been moved into?

Carter found two female mummies there in 1903; one was unidentified for a century.

What object from a canopic box in DB320 was used in 2007 to identify the KV60A mummy?

Zahi Hawass matched it to a gap in the mummy's jaw, though a 2011 study said the jaws did not match.

What cause of death has been proposed for Hatshepsut, based on a cosmetic found with her?

She may have poisoned herself soothing an itchy inherited skin disease.

Why did the Cairo Museum refuse a DNA test to confirm the mummy?

Extracting DNA from the molar would require destroying it.

Which son of Thutmose III is suspected by some of ordering Hatshepsut's erasure?

His claim to the throne was shaky, and he usurped many of her achievements in his own reign.

What happened to Hatshepsut's temple statues during the erasure?

At the great temple across the river, her monuments were walled up instead.

Who called Hatshepsut 'the first great woman in history of whom we are informed'?

He founded the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

Which decipherer of hieroglyphs was baffled by a bearded king described with feminine verbs?

He read the name as 'Amenenthe' and could not find it in any king list.

What colour were Hatshepsut's later, fully masculine depictions painted?

Early images used the yellow of women; a mixed phase used orange.

How is the mortuary temple linked to the great temple across the Nile?

The Beautiful Festival of the Valley procession departed from that pylon.

Which team has restored the temple since 1961, reopening it in March 2023?

Édouard Naville had first fully excavated it for the EEF between 1893 and 1906.

What tragedy struck Hatshepsut's temple on 17 November 1997?

Militants killed over 60 tourists, dealing a severe blow to Egypt's tourism.

Which nickname did an American Egyptologist give Thutmose III for his conquests?

He is credited with at least 16 campaigns in 20 years and the capture of 350 cities.

Hatshepsut is counted as which pharaoh, by number, of the Eighteenth Dynasty?

She ruled first as regent and then as queen regnant from about 1479 to 1458 BC.

Hatshepsut ground charred frankincense from Punt into what, the first recorded use of the resin?

The Punt delegation also brought back 31 live myrrh trees among its luxuries.

Shortly after the Punt expedition, Hatshepsut sent raiding expeditions to the Sinai and which Levantine port?

Very little is known about these forays, and some scholars think she also campaigned in Nubia and Canaan.

Besides Senenmut, which High Priest is a candidate for architect of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple?

The temple sits opposite Luxor at Deir el-Bahari and is considered a masterpiece of ancient architecture.