Hatshepsut Trivia
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43 free Hatshepsut trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as a king for two decades, built more than almost any pharaoh before her, and was then chiselled out of history so thoroughly that early Egyptologists could not make sense of the walls she left behind. This quiz covers her whole story. The easy questions ask who her father, husband and stepson were, why she wore a false beard, what her famous temple looks like and where it stands. From there it moves into the reign itself: the Year 7 jars that prove she was already pharaoh, the Punt expedition and its 31 myrrh trees, the twin obelisks at Karnak, the Red Chapel, the Speos Artemidos and the divine-birth reliefs that justified her rule. The harder end is for Egyptology readers: Senenmut and his star ceiling, Neferure, KV20's curving corridors, the canopic box and molar in DB320, the KV60 mummy and the carcinogenic skin lotion, Manetho's Amessis, the jubilee celebrated in Year 15, the Unfinished Obelisk left cracked at Aswan, Champollion's confusion over a bearded king with feminine verbs, and the debate over whether Thutmose III or Amenhotep II ordered the erasure. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Hatshepsut, her temple, her officials and her tomb, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our ancient Egypt, Cleopatra and Tutankhamun quizzes next.
30 of 43 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Of which Egyptian dynasty was Hatshepsut a pharaoh?
Eighteenth
The Eighteenth Dynasty's later kings chiselled out her name and images, and she almost vanished from Egypt's records.
Q 02Who was Hatshepsut's mother, the Great Royal Wife of Thutmose I?
Ahmose
Ahmose, her temple reliefs claimed, was visited by the god Amun in Thutmose I's form, so Hatshepsut could call Amun her father.
Q 03What relation was Hatshepsut's husband, Thutmose II, to her?
Half-brother
Half-brother: Thutmose II was their father's son by a secondary wife, and some scholars think Hatshepsut already held the real power.
Q 04Hatshepsut was regent for the child king Thutmose III; what relation was she to him?
Stepmother
Stepmother to the boy, Hatshepsut was meant to rule only until he grew up, but instead had herself crowned pharaoh.
Q 05What did Thutmose III become once Hatshepsut was crowned pharaoh?
Her co-ruler
Her co-ruler in name only, Thutmose III is said to have been given command of her armies before her reign ended.
Q 06Who was the first confirmed woman to rule Egypt in her own right, before Hatshepsut?
Sobekneferu
Sobekneferu took the throne, perhaps because the king before her had left no male heir.
Q 07What did Hatshepsut wear in statues to present herself as a male pharaoh?
A false beard
A false beard was worn by male kings too, a badge of office she took on along with the king's kilt and headdress.
Q 08Hatshepsut's mummy joined 21 other royal mummies in a golden parade to a new museum in which city?
Cairo
Cairo put on the show hoping the mummies' new museum would help draw tourists back to Egypt.
Q 09Which foreign occupation had disrupted the trade networks Hatshepsut re-established?
The Hyksos
The Hyksos had been driven out before her reign, and she cast herself as the heir to that victory.
Q 10What does the name Hatshepsut mean?
Foremost of Noble Ladies
Foremost of Noble Ladies was a name she kept even as king, writing her titles in feminine grammar while her statues showed a man.
Q 11Which relative did Hatshepsut claim had publicly named her as his successor?
Her father
Her father, Thutmose I, was long dead, yet reliefs she commissioned show him naming her as his heir.
Q 12What did Hatshepsut claim had foretold her kingship during a festival of Amun?
An oracle
An oracle, she said, predicted her rule, one of several divine claims she carved on her monuments to justify a woman on the throne.
Q 13Where was the Land of Punt most likely located?
The Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa had the gold, ebony, ivory and incense that Punt sent to Egypt, which makes it the likeliest site.
Q 21Which official, of commoner birth, is often credited as architect of Hatshepsut's temple?
Senenmut
Senenmut also tutored her daughter, and some Egyptologists have wondered whether he was Hatshepsut's lover.
Q 22What is remarkable about the roof of tomb TT353, cut for Hatshepsut's chief steward?
Egypt's earliest star ceiling
Egypt's earliest star ceiling maps the northern and southern skies, yet some of its owner's figures in the tomb were later destroyed.
Q 23Which princess, Hatshepsut's daughter, held unusual prominence at court?
Neferure
Neferure took on a queen's ceremonial duties, since her mother now ruled as king and a royal woman was still needed.
Q 14Where does Hatshepsut's great mortuary temple stand?
Deir el-Bahari
Deir el-Bahari is also where Thutmose III, whose reign later saw her images erased, built his own temple beside hers.
Q 15What does the temple's Egyptian name Djeser-Djeseru mean?
Holy of Holies
Holy of Holies suited a temple whose central sanctuary went to the god Amun, pushing her own mortuary cult to one side.
Q 16What stands against Hatshepsut's top-terrace pillars?
Osiris statues
Osiris statues show her as the god of the dead, fitting a mortuary temple where her cult went on after her death.
Q 17Which king's neighbouring temple, six centuries older, inspired the design of Hatshepsut's temple?
Mentuhotep II
Mentuhotep II was revered for reuniting Egypt, and she had hers built right beside his on a grander scale.
Q 18Shrines to which two deities stand on the temple's middle terrace?
Hathor and Anubis
Hathor and Anubis both had shrines: Anubis, guide of the dead, suited a mortuary temple, and Hathor was long worshipped at these cliffs.
Q 19Which priestly title gave Hatshepsut a religious power base before she became pharaoh?
God's Wife of Amun
God's Wife of Amun came with real temple power, and once she became pharaoh she passed the title to her daughter.
Q 20Which creator god fashions Hatshepsut's body in the divine-birth reliefs at her temple?
Khnum
Khnum shapes her and her ka on his potter's wheel, a scene meant to prove she was born to rule.
Q 24Where did Hatshepsut erect twin obelisks that were then the tallest in the world?
Karnak
Karnak was the destination, and reliefs in her own temple show obelisks being transported there from the quarry.
Q 25What was Hatshepsut's Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, built to hold?
A sacred barque
A sacred barque bearing Amun's statue rested there; Thutmose III later took the chapel apart, and its blocks turned up inside other buildings.
Q 26Where does the Unfinished Obelisk, thought to have been ordered by Hatshepsut, still lie?
Aswan
Aswan's quarries were famed for hard, high-quality stone, so obelisks for temples across Egypt were cut there.
Q 27Had it been raised, the Unfinished Obelisk would have been Egypt's tallest; why was it abandoned?
Cracks in the granite
Cracks in the granite ended the job, so it still lies attached to the bedrock, about 42 metres long.
Q 28The Greeks named Hatshepsut's rock-cut temple to the lioness goddess Pakhet after which of their goddesses?
Artemis
Artemis was the Greeks' match for Pakhet, and there Hatshepsut boasted of restoring what foreign rulers had left in ruins.
Q 29Which ancient historian recorded a queen called Amessis, reigning about 22 years, now identified as Hatshepsut?
Manetho
Manetho's history survives only in later quotations, yet his division of Egypt's kings into 30 dynasties still frames its history.
Q 30Soon after Hatshepsut vanishes from the record, Thutmose III led his first great campaign against which city?
Megiddo
Megiddo: he reached it through a narrow mountain pass his generals had feared, catching the rebel coalition by surprise.