Hatshepsut was not the first female pharaoh but apart from Cleopatra she is the most famous, she ruled in Egypt’s golden age and her mortuary temple on the west bank at Luxor is one of the main tourist attractions.
Very little is known about her childhood but she was the daughter of pharaoh Tuthmosis I and later married... her half brother Tuthmosis II and had a daughter Neferura.
No one is sure how long Tuthmosis II reigned for and there is debate between a short reign of around 3 years or a longer one of about 13 years.
Tuthmosis II had another wife called Iset who had given him a son and heir (Tuthmosis III) however Hatshepsut’s titles gave her prominence after all she held ‘Kings Daughter’, ‘Kings Sister’ and ‘Kings Great Wife’.
When Tuthmosis II died Tuthmosis III took the throne although he was still a child and we know from an inscription by Ineni (who was an architect and government official at the time) tells us Hatshepsut dealt with the affairs of the estate.
‘His son (Tuthmosis III) arose on the throne as king of the Two Lands and Ruled on the seat of the one who begot him. His sister, the god’s wife Hatshepsut, controlled the affairs of the land.’
At first Hatshepsut is seen standing behind Tuthmosis III on there relifs but before long she took the five names of an Egyptian king and had herself shown wearing the same clothes as the previous kings.
When Hatshepsut was crowned king she dated her reign at the same time as Tuthmosis III but later changed to say she was the heir of Tuthmosis I and was crowned before him, by doing this she skips Tuthmosis II reign.
She later secures her legitimacy by saying she had been chosen and conceived by Amun.
Some books or documentaries make Hatshepsut sound like the evil step-mum who kept Tuthmosis of the throne but there are no signs of civil war or anything else to suggest that her rule was a political take over.
Tuthmosis III would have had the backing of the military so why didn’t he declare war on his sister?
With Hatshepsut now secure in her position she concentrates on kingly matters such as building projects including her mortuary temple and the erection of two obelisks at Karnak (one still standing).
An inscription on her obelisk says…
'Let not him who shall hear this say it is a lie which I have said; but say "How like her it is," true in the sight of her father!'
After her death Tuthmosis III ruled alone and his skill on the battlefield suggests he spent a lot of his youth in the army trainning.
We have all heard that Hatshepsuts monuments were destroyed and her name erased by Tuthmosis III and the possible theory that it was out of revenge but the destruction of Hatshepsut's monuments did not begin to the later part of his reign.
There is also the fact that only references of Hatshepsut as king were destroyed, images and inscriptions that show her as king's great wife were spared.
Others have also questioned if it was Tuthmosis III and instead look to Horemheb and the early kings of the 19th dynasty, after all it was at this time when Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun and Ay were removed from the kings list.
Hatshepsut and Senenmut
Some Egyptologists have theorized that Senenmut was Hatshepsut's lover and the evidence they use is that Hatshepsut allowed Senenmut to place his name and an image of himself behind one of the main doors in her mortuary temple, and there is some graffiti in an unfinished tomb used as a rest house by the workers who built her mortuary temple.
The graffiti shows someone making love to a hermaphrodite in pharaonic regalia. The graffiti as far as i know is no longer accessible to the public to see a picture go to http://www.maat-ka-ra.de/e
It could be nothing more then a form of gossip and have no real truth in it at all. I don't believe they will ever find any real prove they were lovers because if they were I am sure a scandal like that would not of been made public or at least covered up.
Senemut disappears from record sometime after year 16 of Hatshepsut's reign did he fall out of favour of Hatshepsut, retire from public life or simply died?
With Hatshepsut's accession as king there seems to be a decline in Senemut's standing at court, he was replaced as tutor to Neferura, but kept his title Chief Steward of Amun.
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