Hatchepsut

by Joyce A. Tyldesley

Queen - or, as she would prefer to be remembered, King - Hatchepsut was a remarkable woman. Born the eldest daughter of King Tuthmosis I, married to her half-brother Tuthmosis II, and guardian of her young stepson-nephew Tuthmosis III, Hatchepsut, the Female Pharaoh, brilliantly defied tradition and established herself on the divine throne of the pharaohs to become the female embodiment of a man, dressing in male clothing and even sporting the pharaoh's traditional false. beard. Her reign was a carefully balanced period of internal peace, foreign exploration and monumental building, and Egypt prospered under her rule. After her death, however, a serious attempt was made to obliterate Hatchepsut's memory from the history of Egypt. Her monuments were either destroyed or usurped, her portraits were vandalized and, for over two thousand years, her name was forgotten. The political climate leading to Hatchepsut's unprecedented assumption of. power and the principal achievements of her reign