Climbing
1525 BC e. - Thutmose II dies - the fourth pharaoh of the XVIII dynasty, heir to the glory of Ahmose, the liberator of Egypt and the creator of the empire. Having died, he left two daughters from his half-sister and holy wife, the ruler of Hatshepsut, and the young son of Thutmose from the concubine Isis. The boy, contrary to traditions requiring him to reach the age of 12, was named Pharaoh Thutmose III.
Hatshepsut did not interfere with the early coronation of the boy, for she herself actually ruled the country, but nevertheless achieved the title that was not assigned to her under the minor, but already intronated by the pharaoh - the ruler-regent. Most likely, there could have been a struggle between parties, as a result of which they agreed on a compromise - the young Thutmose would be declared a pharaoh, and the dowager Hatshepsut - the regent ruler.
Before the tragedies of Queen Nefertiti and Ankhesenpaamon, there are still centuries, before Cleopatra - one and a half millennia, but Hatshepsut had enough examples of Nitokris and Nefrusebek. The most venerable - this is how her name is translated - borrowed both positive and negative experiences from her predecessors on the throne of the great country Ta-Kem.
First of all, she was able to understand why the position on the throne of the two previous queens of Egypt was so precarious. After the death of the pharaoh and in the absence of an heir, the widow's right to absolute power is not formally challenged, but … The sacred ruler inevitably finds herself caught in the grip of court intrigues by the deceased pharaoh's close relatives - siblings and cousins holding the positions of high priests and military leaders. Each of them craves power, and the path to it lies through marriage to the ruler.
If she refuses to everyone, the warring representatives of the royal family will unite against her alone. If he agrees and accepts the offer of one, then he sets the others against himself, at the same time becoming an obstacle for the new husband on the path to absolute power.
Hatshepsut did not repeat Nefrusebek's mistake and did not remarry. Although, in principle, she had to a large extent more rights to this decision, and it threatened her with less consequences - because Nefrusebek was just a dowager ruler-regent, descended from a noble aristocratic family, but not from a royal family.
Hatshepsut, like her late royal husband and brother, was the daughter of Thutmose I, his direct heiress, as a result, her husband, had she decided to marry, might not have received the title of co-ruler. Nevertheless, Hatshepsut decided that she should not create another contender for the throne with her own hands, although the risk is small. At the same time, she organizes a magnificent ceremony, after which she acquires the title of the wife of God. Hatshepsut declared herself the wife of God after the death of her husband-Pharaoh. It is unheard of, but the origin of the ruler allows her this.
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Stele of Hatshepsut
Having received the necessary status, Hatshepsut enlisted the support of the priesthood. And she took the next step: in the third year of her reign, with practically no resistance from the priesthood, rather, with its support, against the will of the army (here its origin again plays a role), she declared herself the daughter of the god Amon-Ra. According to the ancient Egyptian myforreligious tradition (especially developed during the XVIII dynasty and later), at the moment of the conception of the heir, who in the future is destined to become a pharaoh, the god of the Secret Eternal Sun - Amon - takes the form of a pharaoh or (in different texts and interpretations) infiltrates him the body also comes to the wife.
"The name of the daughter (to be born) must be Hatshepsut … She will be a beautiful queen over this whole country", - says the greatest of the Egyptian gods Amon-Ra when parting with the queen Ahmose - this is written on the stele of the temple of Amon in Deir el-Bahri.
In general, the queen of Egypt Hatshepsut did not break the tradition, although earlier this mythopoetic image was used only in relation to male heirs, but the "quiet coup" of the fourth year of Hatshepsut's reign has already been prepared. She is the ruler-regent, the wife of God and the daughter of the Sun. And now comes the moment of climax, a moment that no one could have expected, except for a part of the high priesthood supporting Hatshepsut. 9-year-old Thutmose III is going to be deprived of the title of pharaoh, transferring to the status of heir and young ruler, and Hatshepsut is expected to be declared a sacred ruler, who also has the titles of the wife of God and daughter of Amon-Ra.
But the wise queen Hatshepsut understands that both with the status of a sacred ruler and with all titles, she will remain only a woman on the throne, the desired prey of the highest Egyptian nobility, which means that she will have to make a decision: to follow the path of Nitokris, losing her real power, sharing it with numerous advisers - representatives of the royal family from the priesthood and generals, or follow the path of Nefrusebek: get everything, but also risk everything, including life.
And the queen plays her main card, does what no one expected. Even under Thutmose I, she was given the male throne name Maatkara - "truth, spirit of the Sun". Contrary to the expectations of even her supporters, she did not declare herself a sacred ruler with the highest sacred titles. She abandoned them … and declared herself the Pharaoh Maatkar!
The amazed priests have no choice, and they crown Hatshepsut's head not with the crown of the sacred ruler and the pectoral of the wife of God, but with the double crown of the Pharaoh of Egypt! All the power of the strongest state in the world at that time is concentrated in the hands of one woman. Now the power of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut is lifelong, and the relatives of Thutmose II cannot claim her hand and the status of co-ruler. The female pharaoh Hatshepsut disarmed all her enemies.
Meanwhile, the boy Thutmose III remained the only full heir. Hatshepsut planned to take care not only of herself, but also of the country: after her death, there would be a legitimate change of power, the heir would calmly ascend the throne and there would not be many contenders fighting secretly or openly with each other, leading Egypt to disaster, as was the case after Nitokris and Nefrusebek.
Over time, the heir, gradually growing up and removed from power - a talented commander, scientist and politician - will turn into its worst enemy, the army and priesthood will enter into an ongoing ten-year conflict with the administrative aristocracy. But this will be later, but for now the woman-Pharaoh Hatshepsut won a brilliant victory, having achieved power that no woman had, neither before nor after her, including the English queens and Russian empresses of the 18th century. The victory that opened the way for Hatshepsut to creation.
Hatshepsut's greatest secrets
Saint-Muth was not only the first court architect of Pharaoh Maatkar. It is known for certain that he was selflessly in love with the queen and that the woman-pharaoh Hatshepsut to a certain extent responded to his feelings. This can be at least indicated by the fact that she allowed Saint-Muth to arrange a tomb for herself right under her tomb. But how deep was their connection? This is unknown.
Was the queen capable of taking such a risk, exposing herself to mortal danger - if their connection became known at least among the nobility, a military coup would not have been avoided, and the priesthood itself could legally depose her for sacrilege.
The experience of Cleopatra, who risked everything and lost everything because of love, speaks of what a woman in love is capable of …
But with deep regret, we are forced to disappoint the reader who accepts the version of the most daring historians and Egyptologists about the secret and insane passion and pure mutual love between the woman-pharaoh Hatshepsut and one of the greatest architects, who on the queen's steles was compared to the great Imhotep himself, the builder of the pyramid of Djoser and the founder of architectural science (like many others - applied and fundamental), deified during his lifetime and declared the son of the god Thoth.
The double crown of Horus Narmer, giving Hatshepsut full power, took away from her the original and unshakable right of any woman - the right to love. You have to pay for everything, and nothing is given for free. The pure mutual love of Saint-Muth and the queen, most likely, did not go beyond the platonic relationship. This is confirmed by many facts. First of all, after the death of Hatshepsut and the ascent of Thutmose III to the throne, Saint-Muth remained the court architect and prepared for the new pharaoh the projects of two of the greatest construction projects: the ancient dam on Aswan, the remains of which are hidden under the waters of the modern Aswan reservoir, and the ancient Suez Canal.
Even the secret, guarded by the personal guard of Hatshepsut and the priesthood devoted to her, the connection with Saint-Muth would certainly surface after her death, and the anger of the new pharaoh would fall on the architect. But Saint-Muth continued to serve the state, died a natural death and was buried with all honors in his crypt, right under the tomb of his beloved.
But the negligible possibility that their connection remained a secret or that Thutmose spared Saint-Muth remains: still, the pharaoh needed a talented architect. Perhaps his resentment against Hatshepsut, who usurped power and took away his rightful throne from the talented commander, did not extend to the great architect, guilty only of what he loved … But we will never be able to find out the secret of Hatshepsut's love.
Thutmose III, who ruled Egypt in 1479-1425 BC. e. and during his lifetime, nicknamed the Wise and Warrior, perhaps, became one of the greatest, if not the greatest pharaoh in Egyptian history. He made 17 military campaigns without losing any of his 82 battles. The Suez Canal was built under him, but it was filled up in the 9th century BC. e. the great Assyrian conqueror Ashurbanipal: in the first expedition to Egypt, he risked to sail his two hundred thousandth army across the canal - and lost a third of it from the arrows of the well-aimed archers Ta-Kem and crocodiles, tormenting horsemen and horses, and his landing fleet was simply crushed by formidable siege pentare which Thutmose III first began to build.
Thutmose the Warrior has captured Libya, Nubia and Syria. Hattie, Babylon and India paid him colossal tributes. Under him, the first circumnavigation of the African sea voyage was made, and the maps of Thutmose, thanks to the knowledge of astronomy by the Egyptian priests, excelled in accuracy the maps of Herodotus! His soldiers first reached the Pacific coast, 1200 years before Alexander the Great. Huge airborne combat pentarems crushed dozens of outposts of the peoples of the sea, in connection with which the Phoenicians, who were part of this union, founded a sedentary state in Palestine, renouncing piracy and opposition to Egypt, and became vassals of Thutmose.
Under him, the ships of Egypt for the first time were able to reach the shores of South America and after the campaigns brought tens of tons of gold and the sacred drug of local tribes, which was also used for local anesthesia during operations - cocaine, or rather, raw material - unrefined dried concentrated paste of coca leaves. After that, it was found in many tombs of priests and healers, and this is the main evidence of the sailing of Thutmose's sailors to South America, because coca does not grow anywhere else …
The glory of the Ramsesids, Necho II and Ankhshenshonk was provided by the conquests and peaceful labor of Thutmose the Wise Warrior. So Thutmose, contrary to popular belief, paid no less attention to construction and trade ties than to conquests. Military campaigns and the construction, in modern parlance, of strategically important facilities tripled the Egyptian treasury, even in comparison with the Ta-Kem treasury under Hatshepsut, which had doubled relative to its predecessors.
Let's remember the woman-pharaoh Hatshepsut. In terms of the number of good reforms carried out, her reign surpassed many pharaohs. And was it not she who, with her wise management, prepared the victories of Thutmose III?
Helena Roerich
Memory of Maatkar
In the middle of his reign (and not at all immediately after ascending to the throne, according to the popular version), Thutmose erased the cartouche of Pharaoh Maatkar from the chronological stele. By the way, on a completely legal basis: from the point of view of the Maat world order, Hatshepsut was not only a usurper, but also a blasphemer who encroached on the Eternal Harmony. Did not escape the revenge of the pharaoh and Deser-Dezer - the burial temple of Hatshepsut. Of course, Thutmose did not dare to commit blasphemy and destroy the great temple, but the Osiric statues of Hatshepsut were depersonalized, the bas-reliefs of the temple depicting the main deeds of Maatkar were knocked down.
Thutmose deprived the hated stepmother-usurper not only of her memory, but also of the afterlife worthy of the pharaoh. But … a stepmother? Another secret of Hatshepsut is the secret of her relationship with one of the greatest pharaohs. Thutmose III the Wise Warrior had another sacred name, like all pharaohs. Si-s-Aset-Ra is the son of Isis and the Sun.
Greek historians of late antiquity in their own way called him Sizostris, while mistakenly assigning this title to Ramses II the Great (who, by the way, had a completely different sacred name - Ram-zes-Meri-Amon-User-Maat-Ra), combining military victories and the peaceful construction of two great pharaohs, appropriating to Ramses the campaigns to Babylon and India, which Thutmose had made three centuries earlier, and dating the reign of Ramses to the 15th century BC. e. - the time of the reign of Thutmose III.
This mistake was not noticed by historians of the 17th-19th centuries, until Champollion deciphered the ancient Egyptian language, after which historical facts were restored from the translations of the steles and bas-reliefs.
The inscriptions on the surviving bas-reliefs of Hatshepsut called Thutmose the son of Isis. The bas-reliefs of Thutmose the Wise also call him Si-Aset (son of Isis), which is reflected in his sacred name. But the notorious and unknown concubine Isis, who, according to the official version, gave birth to Thutmose from his father, Thutmose II, might not exist at all! On the temple inscriptions of the reign of Thutmose II there is no mention of the "concubine Aset"! This raises many questions, but some of them can be answered.
First, it was profitable for Hatshepsut to declare Thutmose III the bastard son of her late husband, thereby undermining his right to the throne, especially if he was in fact her own son. It was no less advantageous, paradoxically, after the death of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III to renounce their apostate mother, the mention of which he tried to completely erase from history. After all, Si-Asset means first of all - the son of the goddess Isis, and not the son of an unknown concubine story. Thutmose declared himself the son of Pharaoh, into whom the spirit of the solar deity and the goddess Isis herself - the wife of Osiris and the mother of the great Horus - entered!
This is confirmed by the sacred intronational name of Thutmose: Si-s-Aset-Ra is the son of the goddess Isis and the Sun itself. This mystery is solvable only at the level of hypotheses, but still, most likely, Thutmose was the son of the queen and the pharaoh. First, Hatshepsut undermined the rights of the heir, inventing a non-existent concubine, and after her death, the new pharaoh, using the same legend, declared himself the son of a goddess, and not a cursed usurper who encroached on sacred traditions. But there is no reliable confirmation, as well as refutation of this hypothesis.
Ramses II the Great restored the cartouche of Hatshepsut on his new chronological stele, respecting her as a great ruler. He also restored the cartouche of Tutankhamun, erased by Aye, but the heretic Akhenaten and Aye himself - the blasphemer and regicide - were forever cursed. Ramses also restored the Most Sacred Temple, destroyed by the earthquake, but the knocked down faces and bas-reliefs were never restored.
The memory of the wise ruler survived for millennia, Cleopatra and Julius Caesar performed an act of worship of the "wisest of women" in her burial temple. It will soon be fully restored, including the bas-reliefs and the faces of the Osiric statues of Pharaoh Maatkar. This means that the woman-pharaoh Hatshepsut will remain in the memory of descendants not only as one of the great rulers of Egypt, but above all as the greatest woman.
S. Reutov