God's Afro
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The temple of ancient Egypt ruler Hatshepsut at Deir
El-Bahri, across the Nile from Thebes, is dated from
the fourteenth century b.c. and serves as evidence of her
success as the longest reigning female pharaoh Egypt ever
had. Credit for this achievement would not be given for the
best part of the millennia and a half for which the monument
has stood.
Born in approximately 1503 b.c. to the respected
Pharaoh Thutmose I, Hatshepsut had two brothers and one
half-brother, Thutmose II, who was also her husband. When
her brothers died, Hatshepsut had only one contender to the
throne: her young nephew, Thutmose III, the offspring of her
husband’s other wife, Isis.
Owing to the youth of her nephew, Hatshepsut reigned
as dowager queen, but, unwilling to give up her sovereignty
when Thutmose III came of age, Hatshepsut donned
the title of king . . . as well as the clothes and beard to
match. This worked, keeping her in power for around fifteen
to twenty years.
After Hatshepsut’s death, her mummy was stolen and
her tomb destroyed—only a canopic jar containing herliver was ever found. Similarly, the hard stone sarcophagus
of Senmut, her advisor, architect and lover, was found in
more than twelve hundred pieces. All cartouches formally
bearing her name were scratched out and replaced with
that of a Thutmose. This was easily done, since any image
of her was bearded. It is thought that these destructive acts,
and possibly the deaths themselves, were the work of Hatshepsut’s
frustrated and jealous nephew on reaching an age
when he should have been in power.
For centuries historians were baffled by the mystery of
the Thutmoses, who apparently ruled in a muddled order,
but these revealing theories have lifted the lid on an age old
conundrum.
El-Bahri, across the Nile from Thebes, is dated from
the fourteenth century b.c. and serves as evidence of her
success as the longest reigning female pharaoh Egypt ever
had. Credit for this achievement would not be given for the
best part of the millennia and a half for which the monument
has stood.
Born in approximately 1503 b.c. to the respected
Pharaoh Thutmose I, Hatshepsut had two brothers and one
half-brother, Thutmose II, who was also her husband. When
her brothers died, Hatshepsut had only one contender to the
throne: her young nephew, Thutmose III, the offspring of her
husband’s other wife, Isis.
Owing to the youth of her nephew, Hatshepsut reigned
as dowager queen, but, unwilling to give up her sovereignty
when Thutmose III came of age, Hatshepsut donned
the title of king . . . as well as the clothes and beard to
match. This worked, keeping her in power for around fifteen
to twenty years.
After Hatshepsut’s death, her mummy was stolen and
her tomb destroyed—only a canopic jar containing herliver was ever found. Similarly, the hard stone sarcophagus
of Senmut, her advisor, architect and lover, was found in
more than twelve hundred pieces. All cartouches formally
bearing her name were scratched out and replaced with
that of a Thutmose. This was easily done, since any image
of her was bearded. It is thought that these destructive acts,
and possibly the deaths themselves, were the work of Hatshepsut’s
frustrated and jealous nephew on reaching an age
when he should have been in power.
For centuries historians were baffled by the mystery of
the Thutmoses, who apparently ruled in a muddled order,
but these revealing theories have lifted the lid on an age old
conundrum.