History knows many famous women, but this one was the first who managed to take the royal throne and become the first woman pharaoh in history.
After she achieved her goal, she was given a name worthy of the Great ruler of Egypt: Maat-Ka-Ra. This significant event happened during the time of Ancient Egypt in 1479 BC. She went ahead to power and the most interesting thing is that Egypt at that time was not going through the best times in its history.
Foreign invaders - The Hyksos have ruled over almost the entire territory of the country for a hundred years. It would seem that a woman can do, even if she had the power of the pharaoh with this difficult situation, but she could and more than that, it was she who expelled the invaders and freed the country from their oppression, and after that was able to make Egypt a prosperous and strong power of the ancient world.
But all this was much later, and at the very beginning, when the daughter of Thutmose the First and his beautiful wife, Yahmes, was born, nothing foreshadowed such drastic changes in her fate. Moreover, her mother had the right to the throne, but she was only a woman and her husband took the royal throne, and she simply stepped aside allowing him to rule.
Thutmose and Yahmes had several children in marriage, but it so happened that only Hatshepsut survived, whom the high priests named the Spouse of the Sun God Amon-Ra. This honorary title made the girl the high priestess of the cult of the sun god. And that's all, She could not even dream of any throne at that time.
Just imagine that time, feel its atmosphere. Ancient Egypt, the daughter of Pharaoh, the only one of all children to come of age, what awaited her ahead was the same that her mother received. to be just a wife, yes - a queen, but essentially a powerless being. To be the wife of an unloved husband, give birth to children - heirs to the throne, and at this time you are not even the first wife, but only one of many.
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And these "many" also sleep with your husband, or maybe he even spends most of the nights with them, and you sleep alone in a cold bed and think that your only daughter is waiting in the future. Will she be able to become a queen, or will there be more penetrated half-sisters born of concubines who will do anything to get out of the shadows and take the most honorable place on the royal throne.
Thutmose was a loving man and had children from other wives. They were not listed as queens, but had the right to give birth to additional heirs. Time passed and the father, in the calculation of strengthening his power, gave his daughter in marriage to his half-brother. This was a son from the king's minor wife and his name was Thutmose II.
When Thutmose the First reached his advanced years, he tried to prepare his son for the fact that he would ascend the throne after his death, but the son turned out to be frail and weak-willed, which allowed his wife Hatshepsut to take the reins into her own hands, essentially becoming a "Gray Eminence" in the royal palace.
Thutmose the First was already of advanced age, and the question of who would take the throne after his death arose more and more acutely. Hatshepsut, married to her half-brother, gave birth to two daughters, but alas, they did not live long, unlike the children of the concubine of Thutmose the Second, who bore him a healthy son.
Can you imagine the state of Hatshepsut at that time? She was married to a half-brother, morally weak and physically weak. She did not love him and did not choose him as her husband. So the father decided and his word was the law. She gave birth to two daughters from her unloved, but their fate turned out to be sad, and at this time her husband received from his concubine a son - the heir to the throne as a gift. This meant that she would spend the rest of her life on the sidelines, and remained just one of the women who slept with the pharaoh.
But she had one very effective weapon - beauty and purposefulness. And in those days it was already quite a lot to embark on the warpath in the pursuit of power.
The son of Thutmose II, born of his concubine Isis, was born physically strong and soon his father proclaimed him heir to the throne. By the way, he also named his son Thutmose. This is the tradition. It was already Thutmose the Third. He did not have to wait long for the long-awaited royal throne, since Thutmose II went to heaven three years after the announcement of the heir.
It is not known for certain from what Thutmose II died. He was very frail and sickly from birth, so there is no reason to suspect that someone helped him go to the gods, most likely it happened naturally.
"The king is dead - long live the king!"
Here came the hot time of the battle for the throne. The priests took the side of Hatshepsut, and the generals were on the side of Thutmose the Third. It is worth noting that the priests in Ancient Egypt were no less influential force, and maybe even more influential than the army.
Thutmose the Third at that time was not yet twelve years old, and according to the laws of Egypt, the heir who was at least twelve years old could become the Pharaoh. The generals and priests had to come to a compromise solution - Thutmose the Third was proclaimed pharaoh, but only nominally, since Hatshepsut was appointed the real ruler of Egypt, regent of the juvenile pharaoh.
The situation was precarious also because the mother of the pharaoh was a concubine, and this did not add to his popularity. Hatshepsut, in turn, was a "purebred" contender for the throne. The situation became so tense that in order to calm the people of Egypt, the priests proclaimed Thutmose a pharaoh even before he reached the required age, and explained this by the fact that “this is what the Oracle said and this is the will of the gods,” which means it is not discussed.
I must say that the very role of "concubine" was not considered something base. It's just that the heir born from the concubine could not compare with the rights to the throne of the direct heir born from the "first" wife of the Pharaoh.
In those days, being a concubine was considered normal, just like it was normal to walk naked. This is important for understanding the role that women played in Ancient Egypt.
These were the roles of mistresses, concubines, maids, priestesses, but not pharaohs. The role of women in those days was reduced to the satisfaction of men - visual and carnal, as well as to housekeeping and the birth of children.
Ancient Egypt in terms of freedom of relations and freedom of beauty of the female body was strikingly different from what we see in Egypt in our time. In ancient times, the naked body was not considered something forbidden, on the contrary, the demonstration of the beauty of the body was strongly encouraged.
Being nude or nude was not considered something beyond the bounds of decency. Ancient murals in burial tombs, drawings in ancient papyri and bas-reliefs give us a good idea of the matter in those days.
Nude dancers at a feast. Painting from the tomb of the nobleman Nebamon. 15th century BC. Lodon, British Museum
For example, you can see completely naked fishermen fishing in the sacred river Nile and not hiding this nakedness, but simply doing their job in a routine way.
Ostrakon with the image of a lute player. 13-12 centuries BC. Cairo, Egyptian Museum
You can see young and beautiful maidservants who are shown completely naked, like the so-called "mourners" mourning their dead husbands and relatives, they are also naked.
Fragment of the statue of Queen Teie. Yellow jasper, 14th century BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Girls dance on holidays and play musical instruments and do not hide their natural beauty behind thick clothes.
Fragment of Egyptian papyrus.
Ancient Egypt, which was ruled by the pharaohs, was not at all puritanical; on the contrary, it was much more liberated than the modern world with its "sexual revolutions"
Egyptian women in those days knew a lot about love pleasures and fully used this to get what they wanted from influential males.
Hatshepsut was young and beautiful, and presumably she knew a lot about the art of love and used this skill to achieve her goals. Her goals were neither more nor less - to become a pharaoh.
An unprecedented event for Ancient Egypt, which even no one could have imagined. It's one thing to be a regent with a young pharaoh, and being a pharaoh to a woman, it was truly unthinkable, but Hatshepsut set herself precisely this, unattainable and incredible goal.
But Hatshepsut was not going to spend her entire life on the sidelines and give up the power that belongs to her by right, to some bastard. The young Pharaoh Thutmose the Third was sitting on his throne and in a mustache, as they say, did not blow, and at this time Hatshepsut was preparing the ground for overthrowing him from the throne.
18 months Thutmose the Third ruled Egypt, or rather pretended that he ruled it, because due to his small years and lack of life experience, he certainly could not really rule. Others did it for him, but he only took the place of the pharaoh.
This could not last long, and Hatshepsut, who did not at all like the role of the "behind-the-scenes ruler" prepared a quiet palace coup as a result of which Thutmose was thrown from the royal throne, removing him from power.
Who took his place and became the Pharaoh of Egypt? Of course - Hatshepsut! She became the first female pharaoh in history! This has never happened before and never will be after her, but she achieved her goal. But how could she do all this if it was simply impossible in those days, well, a woman could not take the place of the pharaoh!
Hatshepsut. Lawrence Alma-Tadema 1904
All ingenious is simple, and in ancient Egypt the word of the oracle was - the law. The priests conducting the usual ceremony in the temple of the god Amun, as usual, carried out his statue which was worshiped by the inhabitants of Egypt who had gathered for this celebration, but this time the ceremony did not go as usual. The priests, having caught up with Hatshepsut, unexpectedly put the statue on the ground and fell down in front of the queen.
And then it was announced that the Theban oracle, who communicates directly with the gods, was instructed to appoint Hatshepsut as the queen of Egypt. The most interesting thing is that the priests did not intend to make her the pharaoh, they only wanted to proclaim her the Holy Ruler, but they probably did not know who they were dealing with.
Hatshepsut, hearing the words of the priests, raised her hands to the sky and declared herself a pharaoh, calling herself the male name Maat-Ka-Ra! It's finished!
Hatshepsut became the first woman pharaoh and no one could remove her from this royal place. We must pay tribute to the queen Pharaoh, she did not plot against the young heir and declared Thutmose the Third Young ruler and sent him "to be raised" to the priests in the temple.
Many were surprised at this at the time, since everyone would have understood if the queen got rid of the “competitor,” but she was not cruel and later Thutmose was even appointed commander-in-chief of the entire Egyptian army.
Moreover, the queen married him to her daughter Nefrura. Moreover, this was her second daughter and the story is silent who exactly was their father. Probably everything, as usually explained by the "will of the gods." True, Nefrura did not live long, but Thutmose was immediately married to the second daughter of Queen Meritra.
So Hatshepsut received power equal to which no one in the whole world had at that time. However, not only in those days, but also in the future, no king or queen could compare with this power.
Of course, the fact that a woman became Pharaoh, to put it mildly, surprised all subjects and the people began to grumble. This is understandable, because only a man could be a pharaoh - the earthly embodiment of the sky god Horus, who was a man. But here, too, the priests came up with an excuse, saying that everything is the will of the gods, but nevertheless, so as not to irritate the citizens of Egypt once again, the Queen Pharaoh appeared before the people with a false beard and in men's clothes.
Hatshepsut inherited a full treasury from the previous rulers and thanks to this she was able to quietly rule for eight whole years, but time passed and the treasury was empty.
The military were the first to grumble. They refused to recognize Hatshepsut as ruler if she did not have a "gold reserve". To solve the situation, as usual at all times, they used a decisive trump card - they started a war. Those who are especially noisy there will lay down their heads in battles, and in case of victory, you can replenish the leaky treasury.
Fragment of the cult statue of Hatshepsut. Marbled limestone. The statue was originally painted. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This is where the use was found for the commander-in-chief of the army Thutmose, who was given to subordinate 5,000 soldiers, ships for their transportation, diplomats - priests for negotiations, merchants for establishing trade, a detachment of scouts for reconnaissance and sent to the country of Punt.
As you can see, the operation was prepared and thought out to the smallest detail. The soldiers did not go anywhere, but to a country that was considered the ancestral home of all mankind and the homeland of the Gods themselves.
However, this statute did not help the king of Punta and a detachment of the Egyptian invasion forces successfully achieved their goal, forcing the king to admit defeat and agree to become a servant of Egypt. The new vassal, in order to placate the Egyptians, presented them with a lot of gold, what was required and what the queen sought by sending her "paratroopers" to the kingdom of Punt.
The treasury was filled with countless treasures and Hatshepsut was able to strengthen her influence and power thanks to this. No one else dared to question her "divine right to be Pharaoh." She ruled Egypt until 1468 and only death from illness could deprive her of the throne.
The millenniums proved to be powerless over the female pharaoh and in 2007 archaeologists announced. that the mummy discovered back in 1903 is indeed the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut.
Interestingly, this mummy was found in a very modest one in comparison with other tombs of the pharaohs located in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. Scientists have suggested how it could happen that the queen was buried in a small tomb on the walls of which they found inscriptions indicating that the mummy of the nurse of the queen Hatshepsut, and not herself, should have been buried here.
Most likely, due to the order of Thutmose the Third, to destroy everything connected with the queen, her mummy was also under threat of destruction. In order to protect their mistress, the priests secretly transferred the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut from the royal tomb to the tomb of her nurse and placed it in a modest sarcophagus, which, in addition, turned out to be smaller than her body, and the priests had to bend the legs of the mind of Queen Hatshepsut to squeeze it into it.
Now the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut is kept in the capital's Egyptian Museum.
Thutmose the Third ascended the throne and then he recalled to all those who helped Hatshepsut to take the place of the pharaoh by pushing him away from ruling the country. "Repressions" began, many were executed, many were forced to flee the country.
Thutmose the Third hated Hatshepsut so much that, by his order, her images on drawings and bas-reliefs of temples, palaces and obelisks were cut down, erased and destroyed.
But attempts to erase the image of the great woman-pharaoh from the memory of the people were not crowned with success. It is possible to destroy a fresco or a bas-relief, but it is impossible to destroy the memory of the people who remembered and passed on their knowledge from generation to generation about the great woman who became the pharaoh and made Egypt the greatest country of that time.
In addition to the memory of the great woman and her deeds, the majestic Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, erected in the Deir el-Bahri valley, remained for descendants. The queen herself began its construction, which lasted nine years.
The huge architectural structure is cut right into the rock and consists of three levels (terraces), which are interconnected by special ramps. The temple is guarded by the divine Sphinxes, of which 140 were placed in the complex and many sculptures of other deities.
The temple has several shrines dedicated to different gods - Hathor, Anubis and Amon. Of course, the order of Thutmose the Third to destroy the memory of the woman-pharaoh also touched this temple. The bas-reliefs were smashed, the statues were broken and buried near the temple complex in the desert.
But time passed and archaeologists have found these broken sculptures, restored bit by bit, parts, fragments, and today tourists from all over the world can enjoy the indescribably majestic temple and its sculptures.
Queen Hatshepsut achieved her goal, she was able to overcome centuries and modern humanity learned about her, about her path to power and how she was able to achieve her goal.