2023

Hatshepsut, Queen of Egypt

Egypt, in its history, was ruled by a large number of queens who ruled the world and achieved the greatest achievements and victories, and history still talks about their names in letters of light, thousands of years ago until today, before many civilizations and nations disappeared from the scene.

Queen Hatshepsut is the fifth of the Eighteenth Dynasty kings. She ruled after the death of her husband, King Thutmose II, first as regent for King Thutmose III, who was just a child, and then as queen and daughter of the god Amun after proclaiming a story inscribed in her temple in Deir el-Bahri that she was the result of a love affair between Amun and her mother Queen Ahmose.

Hatshepsut is the favorite concubine of Amun among the women, or the concubine of Amun, princesses' treasure, and she is the most famous queen who ever ruled Egypt, and the most powerful one; her reign was a highlighting point not only in the history of the Eighteenth Dynasty, but in the history of whole ancient Egypt. Hatshepsut was the rightful heir to the throne as there was no real male heir, though she did have a half-brother through her father, Thutmose II, by a second wife, Mot Nefert.

The reign of Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut's reign was one of peace and prosperity, and her reign was characterized by the strength of the army, construction activity, and the great naval expeditions that she sent to trade with the surrounding countries, and under the female pharaoh's sceptre, Egypt was able to enrich and prosper, for she reopened the mines and quarrying that had been closed for so long, especially the copper and malachite mines in the Sinai Peninsula, for work in those mines had stopped during the Hyksos occupation, and after that, and we still see a plaque in Sinai with writing documenting this work and praising what she had done.

Hatshepsut also renewed the movement of trade with Egypt's neighbors, as trade was in a poor condition, particularly in the reign of King Thutmose II, and repurposed a canal between the Nile at the end of the Delta and the Red Sea, where she cleared this canal after the Egyptians excavated it during the Middle Kingdom, to lead Egypt's naval fleet to the Gulf of Suez and then the Red Sea waters.
She ordered the construction of several buildings in the Karnak Temple, as well as the construction of her temple at Deir el-Bahari in Luxor. Hatshepsut was interested in the Egyptian merchant navy, so she built large ships and used them in inland transport to transport the obelisks which she ordered to be erected in the Karnak Temple for the glorification of the god Amun, and in trade missions with her neighbors, and her reign was characterized by prosperity in Egypt, and by the demand for leisure goods imported from the surrounding countries, the most important of which were incense, perfumes, spices, tropical trees and plants, predators, and hides.

Hatshepsut Temple

Queen Hatshepsut (circa 1473-1458 BC) built a magnificent temple at Deir el-Bahri, on the West Bank of Luxor, across from Karnak Temple, the main sanctuary of Amun on the East Bank. Hatshepsut's temple was called in ancient Egyptian "Jisro Jisro," the most sacred of sacred places, and was designed by Senenmut, a man of many titles, among them director of the estates of Amun.
The temple is in three tiers, with a row of columns at the rear of each tier, and on the top tier, an open courtyard is placed behind the row of columns, with statues of Hatshepsut as Osiris, god of the dead.
Jisro is a temple of funeral for Queen Hatshepsut, where rituals are performed after her death when she becomes the state of idol Uzir, and the temple was not dedicated to her alone, as the temple contained parts for her father King Thutmose I, the goddess Hathor, and the goddess Anubis.

The walls of the temple are decorated with reliefs showing temple ceremonies and religious festivals, as well as the quarrying and transportation of obelisks from the quarry to the temple of Karnak.
Perhaps the most unusual scene is that in the central balcony and shows Hatshepsut's expedition to the land of Punt, which is perhaps located today close to Eritrea, and its people are represented. its architecture and the environment surrounding it, together with the exotic riches and animals that the Egyptians had fetched from it, and, on the other, how Hatshepsut was the legitimate king of the country, not only by confirming that her father Thutmose I designated her as his rightful successor, but that her father was none other than the god Amun himself.