Hatshepsut: The Story of a Female Pharaoh (Part 2)

Hatshepsut Sphinx from Deir el-Bahri

A stunning feat of Hatshepsut is no doubt her ability to convince the people of Egypt to accept her rule. After all, she is a woman, albeit one of pure royal blood. Even more surprising is the fact that her stepson and nephew, Tuthmosis III seemed to like this co-ruling arrangement. Busy as he always was with all the expeditions to the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia that he was known as the “Napoleon of Egypt”. A great expansionist ruler, he is consistently regarded as one of the greatest of Egypt's warrior pharaohs who made Egypt an international superpower whose empire stretched from southern Syria through to Canaan and Nubia. Indeed, when not engaged in fighting he was always busy with his military training.

Hatshepsut's Obelisk at Karnak

And thus, Tuthmosis III was more than happy to let Hatshepsut take over in all the administrative affairs of Egypt and to defer to her in almost all matters of a domestic nature. When Tuthmosis III was on a campaign, Hatshepsut would be the undisputed ruler at home. In managing all the country’s administrative affairs, Hatshepsut was assisted by Senmut, her chief architect and official. In fact, it was theorised that Senmut was Hatshepsut's lover. Indeed, throughout his life, Senmut was never married, which was not the norm for an ordinary ancient Egyptian man.  

One of Hatshepsut’s chief architectural projects was the construction of a pair of obelisks at the entrance to the temple of Karnak. The obelisks’ thirty-metre-high tips were covered in gold and were the tallest in the world at the time. The obelisks were carved from pink granite from the distant quarries at Aswan, but exactly how they were transported hundreds of miles and then erected remains a mystery. The most likely mode of transport was most likely by boat up the Nile River. Hatshepsut also built Karnak’s Chapelle Rouge (“Red Chapel”) intended as a barque shrine whose red quartzite wall scenes depict the rites of kingship and feature her centre stage, accompanied by Tuthmosis II and Neferura, conducting her duties as God’s Wife before the statues of Amen, Mut and their fellow gods. The overseer of the project was none other than Senmut himself.    

Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple at Deir el-Bahri

Like many Pharaohs before her, the masterpiece of her Hatshepsut’s building projects was a mortuary temple built in a complex at Deir el-Bahri. It was designed by Senmut at a site on the West Bank of the Nile River opposite the city of Luxor near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. The focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning "the Holy of Holies". It is a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony which sits atop a series of terraces reached by long ramps that once were graced with gardens. The complex is considered one of the greatest monuments of the ancient world, whose design is thought to be derived from the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II built nearly 500 years earlier at Deir-el-Bahri next to her mortuary temple. Unfortunately, most of the statue ornaments once standing in the complex are now missing - the statues of Osiris in front of the pillars of the upper colonnade, the sphinx avenues in front of the court, and the standing, sitting, and kneeling figures of Hatshepsut; these were destroyed in a posthumous condemnation of the pharaoh.

The sexual graffiti

It is at this mortuary temple complex that another clue as to the relationship between Hatshepsut and Senmut was discovered. Behind one of the main doors in Djeser-Djeseru the name and image of Senmut were found. There was also a piece of graffiti in an unfinished tomb used as a rest house by the workers of Djeser-Djeseru depicting a male and a hermaphrodite in pharaonic regalia engaging in an explicit sexual act. The hermaphrodite figure was widely believed to represent none other than Hatshepsut. Senmut also had a chapel and a tomb constructed for him near Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. They were both heavily vandalized during the reign of Thutmose III. Neither tomb was complete nor was it known where Senmut was buried. Nonetheless, the presence of the tomb near Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple indicates that both wanted to remain close to one another even in the afterlife. 

Hatshepsut's Statues at Deir el-Bahri

After Hatshepsut’s death, Tuthmosis III became sole Pharoah. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the end of his reign when suddenly an attempt was made to remove Hatshepsut from certain historical and pharaonic records.  Her cartouches and images were hacked off some stone walls, leaving very obvious gaps in the artwork.  At the Deir el-Bahari temple, Hatshepsut's statues were torn down, smashed or disfigured before being buried in a pit. At Karnak, there even was an attempt to wall up her obelisks. While it is clear that much of this eradication occurred only during the end of Tuthmosis III's reign, the reason was not at all obvious. However, it was commonly believed that such obliteration of Hatshepsut’s memory was not carried out purely out of sheer spite or malice. Surely if the determined and strong Tuthmosis III wanted to avenge himself on his stepmother for taking over the affairs of Egypt, he would not have waited until her death and another two decades to seize the opportunity or stage a coup (he was the head of the army after all!). On the contrary, it was believed to be necessary to maintain the natural balance of order where only male were expected to rule, or simply for Tuthmosis III’ self-promotion.  In any case, the eradication was only sporadic and no evidence of Tuthmosis III’s intention to carry out a full-scale obliteration was ever found.

Tomb of Senmut

Hatshepsut’s legacy was by no means ordinary. In comparison with other female pharaohs, Hatshepsut's reign was much longer, more prosperous, and saw a long period of peace. She reestablished lost trade routes and brought great wealth to Egypt, which enabled magnificent building projects to be completed and in effect significantly raised the standard of Egyptian architecture that would be surpassed by no other civilisations for another thousand years.