The Mystery of Queen Hatshepsut

Katrina Mckissick
Professor Jenna Thrasher- Sneathen
Writing Assignment 4.1
July 30, 2012

It is believed that Queen Hatshepsut dressed as a man to gain support of the Egyptians. After her death her successor removed as many remnants of her rule as possible. Although a pharaoh, her mummified remains and tomb have never conclusively been found.

During Queen Hatshepsut’s rule the economy is Egypt was flourishing for about twenty years. She expanded trade routes and built many temples. She began a line of strong female Egyptian rulers. It is believed that she dressed like a man even wearing a false beard, which the Egyptian people seem to accept. Hatshepsut is generally regarded by Egyptologist as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other women of indigenous Egyptian dynasty.
Hatshepsut was said by modern early scholars as only having served as a co- regent from 1479-1458 B.C.
Today Egyptologists agree that she assumed her position as pharaoh and her reign was approximately twenty two years. Hatshepsut’s temple was built on three levels, it is modeled on the two level funerary temple of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II next to which it stands.
According to Manetho he writes his epitome saying that no contemporary mention of the cause of death has survived. If recent identification of her mummy is correct, then medical evidence would indicate that she suffered from diabetes and died from bone cancer which spread throughout the body. While she was in her fifties. It also suggest that she had bad teeth and arthritis.
The mystery is that she may have been interred in the tomb along with her father. Because she quarried her father. During the reign of Thutmose III, a new tomb was provided for Thutmose I. Who was removed from his original tomb and reinterred somewhere else. At the same time Hatshepsut’s mummy might have been moved in the tomb of her wet nurse Sitre-Rep in KV60.
“Hatshepsut” Dictionary.com Retrieved the 27th day of July 2007
Clayton Peter, The Chronicles of the Pharaohs, Thomas & Hudson pg. 104