Hatshepsut, The Female Pharoah

“Hot chicken soup, Hotchicknsup”, our Egyptologist guide emphasized, pronouncing the words together and quickly. He was trying his best to get me to pronounce the word Hatshepsut, the name of the legendary queen who inscribed on stone the power of the woman pharaoh.

Like most of us raised on Shakespeare’s plays and English literature, I too associated Egypt with Cleopatra and the Nile river and of course the pharaohs, of whom Tuthankhamun and Ozymandias along with Ramases were the names uppermost in the mind.

I was therefore tremulous with a whole gamut of feelings as our car turned the bend and the Nile came into view, opposite our hotel in Luxor whose ancient name is Thebes. At once Oedipus and his adventures came to mind. At night the Nile seemed to quaver in the neon lights revealing a houseboat and few other boats that were docked. Unlike most other rivers, there were steps which led down and I could see that the water was on a level with the bank. I rose early next morning. Our sightseeing was supposed to begin at 7. Before that I wanted to take a walk along the promenade which was very impressive. It was at least five to six feet above the river. Day had not broken yet. I stared at the trembling river which for some reason looked fearful at night. I could not muster up the courage to descend down the steps and touch the water. There were guards, ordinary man on duty at the head of each stairway. I began to think of the barges that floated down the river once with Cleopatra, Antony and their friends.

I was quick to point that if Amenhotep was the grandfather of Tutankhamun, how was his name first on the billboard at the avenue of Sphinxes at Luxor.

Our tour began with a visit to the imposing Karnak temple with its thousands of years of history. We were shown the imposing statues of Ramases II at the Karnak temple, carved from a single block of granite. In the museum at Cairo we saw more statues of Ramases and his sons and grandsons. The other names mentioned were Hatshepsut and Amenhotep. I was quick to point that if Amenhotep was the grandfather of Tutankhamun, how was his name first on the billboard at the avenue of Sphinxes at Luxor. The guide Osama was equally quick in pointing out that it was B.C hence the time shown goes the other way so Tutankhamun would come before Amenhotep. The names of illustrious pharaohs are unending there being 30 dynasties in all, and three periods designated as old kingdom, middle kingdom and new kingdom.

The Nile was central to the life of the Egyptians. Hence, ancient hieroglyphics depict the river which runs through the middle of the country and the delta above it as the key of life. The guide interpreted the symbolism of the figures and it made sense. Earlier Egypt was divided into two halves, upper and lower Egypt. Strong rulers succeeded in unifying the land and to mark their success they built temples or added to the sprawling temple complex that Karnak was.

Alexander, who freed the Egyptians from the Persians was hailed as a Pharoah by them. To the Egyptians, the Macedonian warrior who dressed like them and adopted their customs was a representative of the God Amun. Alexander was crowned as Pharoah in accordance with the Egyptian rituals. To commemorate his coronation he built the sanctum sanctorum in the Karnak temple. His name and image dressed in Egyptian attire can be seen carved on the walls of that room.

Egypt was a meeting place of many cultures, Greek, Roman, Turkish and Egyptian. In the catacombs of Alexandria, the guide showed us figures of men and woman with Greco Roman features, but attired in Egyptian costumes. In the same way Gods too reflected this fusion of cultures. Features of Hermes mingled with the Egyptian Annubis to form a new God -Hermanubis.

Egypt has a sizeable Christian population and ancient churches.The guide pointed out that Christianity existed in Egypt before the advent of Islam in the country.

Alexander was crowned as Pharoah in accordance with the Egyptian rituals. To commemorate his coronation he built the sanctum sanctorum in the Karnak temple.

Coming back to the fascination of many for Cleopatra, it somehow seemed natural that her name did not come up when the ancient rulers were mentioned. One reason could be that her ascension is marked by a trail of blood and her preoccupation with Rome diverted her energies from other works of development.

The name which came up time and again was the name of Queen Hatshepsut Among the ancient monuments, the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE) at Deir el-Bahri stands out as one of the most impressive ancient monument. Seeing that I did not get the name quick enough, Osama came up with the sobriquet Hot chicken soup, which said together came close to Hatshepsut. She took the reins of power and the responsibility of administering Egypt as the regent of her stepson who was then but three years of age. How this queen crowned herself the actual monarch and effectively ruled the country leading it to prosperity and economic development is still alive in the minds of the people today. Her presence is felt all over the country. In Karnak temple she added halls and carvings besides building a funerary temple which is called Hatshepsut’s temple. The inspiration for her temple was an older temple built six centuries earlier by king Menuhotep II next to her temple which was destroyed and only the ruins remain. A new temple was built on its site by Hatshepsut.

When patriarchy seems to be the order of the day and the female a secondary gender relegated to play roles that were subservient to the male, out of the ruins come evidence of extraordinary feminine strength and brilliance. Such a shining example was Hatshepsut.

Our guide pointed out in one of his humourous quips that nothing much has changed today. In ancient times too it was easy to arouse people in the name of religion and the same thing works today also. Hatshepsut the daughter of Thutmose I and his queen Ahmose was married to her half-brother, Thutmose II, son of her father by his lesser queen,Mutnofret, sometime before she turned twenty. Hatshepsut and Thutmose II had a daughter called Neferu-Ra, and like his father before him, Thutmose II fathered a son by his lesser wife Isis. Thutmose second died when his son was but three years old, leaving Hatshepsut to act as the Queen Regent. Hatshepsut had all the abilities to rule but she was a woman. To circumvent this fact the priests of the time invented the story of how Hatshepsut was the daughter of the supreme God Amun who appeared in theshape of her father Thutmose I and impregnated her mother. With this one stroke, Hatshepsut was looked upon as a divine and exceptional being and acquired legitimacy to rule.  In the seventh year of her reign her statues and portraits show her dressed like a male pharaoh even to the extent of donning a false beard.

It was customary for Egyptian rulers to commission monuments and temples in their name. Having the statue of a sphinx with the face of the emperor was also a tradition. Associating the sphinx with an evil force that must be vanquished as depicted by Sophocles in Oedipus was a misconception because the sphinx with the body of a lion and the face of the ruling monarch was considered a symbol of strength and wisdom, a representative of balance between the forces of passion and animal instincts and the wisdom considered to reside in the head. The ancient Egyptians recognized the importance of both.

Hatshepsut, in the seventh year of her reign, took the reins of power into her own hands. She proved to be one of the greatest of pharaohs of Egypt. She is famed for her trade with the fabled land of Punt. Modern historians are divided in their opinion on the exact location of the place. From ancient times trade with this mysterious land of Punt (pronounced Poont) was undertaken and though there are extensive references to the trade with Punt throughout Egyptian history, the exact location has been hidden. Hatshepsut’s Punt expedition is the one whose record has been engraved in stone in a bas relief in her temple at Deir Al Bahri. There are pictures of some animals which offer a clue to where Punt could possible have been located- in the horn of Africa, in modern day Ethiopia and Somalia. The most sought after good by the Egyptians was the aromatic resin myrrh used to make incense sticks required for their temple rituals. Wood was another item which was imported from there besides live animals and slaves. Hatshepsut traded in exotic items bringing myrrh resin, gold and silver from there. For the first time trees were brought in rush baskets, to keep them alive and in good condition and transplanted to Egypt.Exotic trees like myrrh and planted them on Egyptian soil.

 Prosperity and peace increased manifold in the country. The elaborate trade with Punt bears testimony to Hatshepsut’s foresight and acumen as a ruler as trade with Punt significantly augmented the economy of Egypt.

Associating the sphinx with an evil force that must be vanquished as depicted by Sophocles in Oedipus was a misconception because the sphinx with the body of a lion and the face of the ruling monarch was considered a symbol of strength and wisdom

Like most Egyptian Pharoahs, Hatshepsut commissioned buildings and statues to commemorate her reign. The most impressive of all the buildings is the funerary templeat Deir el-Bahri .On one side of the temple is a room which was used for mummification. The picture of the Egyptian God Annubis is depicted on the walls as Annubis is the god who is entrusted with the task of conveying souls from this world to the next. There is also a chapel to Hathor, the goddess of learning and wisdom whom the queen was exceptionally fond of.

Thutmose III was a great warrior and after Hatshepsut’s death, systematically destroyed her statues and defaced her images from temple walls. Historians think that this destructive action is not due to any personal enmity between him and his stepmother but to show the continuity of male rule so as not to leave any precedent for female rule, which was anathema to the ancient Egyptians.

Recent excavations have once again reinstated the Queen as one of the greatest of Egyptian pharaohs. Like Hatshepsut, her mummy too had been lost for centuries until a tooth kept in a box with the name Hatshepsut fitted a gap in the tooth of an abandoned mummy and left no doubt in the minds of the researchers that the mummy belonged indeed to the once powerful, subsequently forgotten queen. Her mummy now lies in the museum in Cairo.

It is interesting to note that Hatshepsut’s chart house and images of success were ruthlessly erased. She traded with Punt whose location is debated by scholars. However it has been found out that Hatshepsut ruled Egypt, first as co-regent and then as pharaoh, for a total of 21 years during the eighteenth dynasty She was one of the few women in Egyptian history to retain power for so long.

A myriad of temples and shrines, four giant obelisks at the Temple of Amun at Karna

Note- Some interesting Facts.

Our Egyptologist university educated guide told us that the Egyptians owe a debt of gratitude to the French, namely Napoleon for unearthing hidden treasures and identifying Egypt as a country with buried artefacts. Since then the Egyptian government issued an invitation to archaeologists from all over the world to come and excavate, and they flocked to the country from all over the world. The more famous ones and those who stayed on for research and studies built their houses sometime close to the site. to come and explore. Indeed we saw Howard Carter’s huge house in the Valley of the Kings, the largest necropolis in the world. The guide showed us the houses of the workers who built the tombs on the hillside, now derelict as the UNESCO moved them from the site. It is assumed, assumption being based on some proof that they knew the secret entrance to these tombs which was passed on from generation to generation and many of their descendants orchestrated the vandalism and raid of the tombs and became immensely rich in no time. This is why the tombs were all devoid of treasures. When Howard Carter found the tomb of king Tut intact with all the treasures, he created a sensation.