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Pharaoh Hatshepsut

Ancient Egypt

1479-1458 BCE

“Foremost of Noble Women”

Hatshepsut was the first female ruler to reign as a woman with the full authority of a Pharaoh. She led one of the most successful monarchs in Egyptian history. Hatshepsut built projects of grand stature that employed people and cemented beautiful statues that attest to her prosperous reign, where her temple became centerpiece of the Valley of Kings.

Although she is a woman, in order to maintain Maat after she became ruler, Hatshepsut had herself depicted as a male. She was still referred to in the femmine in grammatical form. However, her statues, head pieces were depicted as that of a man. In her regent years, her statues were that of a female. 

Further, her name was erased from monuments, most likely by Thutmose III, following her death to remove all evidence of a woman securing the title of Pharaoh. A female pharaoh, no matter how successful her reign, was outside of the accepted understanding of the role of the monarchy and so all memory of that pharaoh had to be erased.

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