The Woman Who Was Pharaoh

Who was the first female Pharaoh?

Hatshepsut

    Long excluded from the top rung of power, women have pressed hungrily into history's leadership vacancies when circumstances have been ripe. Few have been as successful as the great ruler Hatshepsut, whose reign brought Egypt 22 years of peace and prosperity and some of its finest monuments.
    The pharaoh of Egypt was an icon, much as the Queen of England or even the president of the United States sometimes appears to be.
    But, how far can icons be stretched? Pharaoh could have been anything: he could be old, lazy, incompetent, boring, alcoholic or insane, but he would still be pharaoh.
    Examples of all these types are known, or hinted of in many text and records. So naturally this question arose: could he be female? The answer to this question just may be yes.
    Female rulers are indicated in the long history of dynastic Egypt, and later tradition puts the names of queens near both the ends of the Old Kingdom and surprisingly the middle kingdom, some five centuries later.
    Egyptian society gave many remarkable freedoms and legal rights to women--far more than the rest of the Near East or in the classical world--but limits were limits. . .even by the Nile.

Deir el-Bahri

Once having proclaimed herself king, Hatshepsut had a tomb excavated for herself in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes (Luxor).

    Deir el-Bahri, opposite Luxor on the west bank of the Nile River, is the site of two ancient temples of Upper Egypt. The site's name is derived from the Coptic monastery built there in the 7th century but long since dismantled in the course of modern excavations. Cliffs at the site form a natural semicircle into which Mentuhotep II of the Middle Kingdom built his mortuary temple.
    Elaborate colonnade terraces and ramps were erected at the entrance to the chamber tomb, which is sunk deep into the side of the cliffs. During the New Kingdom the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, designed by the architect Senenmut that includes the famous series of reliefs of Hatshepsut's trading expedition to the land of Punt.
    After her death her memory was execrated by Tutmose III, who caused her name to be erased from the monuments wherever it could be found.
    The bodies of the New Kingdom Pharoahs survive, and are now on display at the Cario Museum. As far as we know, hers is not among them. But what we do know about her has been gained by excavation and careful research over the past 100 years. Perhaps this is how it should be, since the late 20th century is a better time than most to think about the importance and meaning of her reign.

Here is a great book about Hatshepsut, it is titled: Hatchepsut By Joyce Tydsley

Look for it for more information on this interesting female figure in history!