To my subjects, I am Khenemetenamen Hatshepsut, a strong leader who has brought stability and prosperity to Egypt. My name is Hatshepsut, born 1507 BCE into a rich family. However, I was not born prepared for such position. From my childhood, my mentor Nefertari taught me rituals preparing me to be the Queen of Egypt, wife of the god-king, and become the next God’s Wife of Amen. My father, Aakheperkare Thutmose I was the pharaoh of Egypt, and started his bloodline.
My mother, Ahmes, was the King’s Great Wife. Next, my brother, Thutmose II, was my husband and succeeded my father; finally, my sister, Neferubity, was my playmate in the royal nursery. I did not get to know my father at a young age because he spent much of his time fulfilling his duties as pharaoh; however, I spent most of my childhood learning how to be stoic and disciplined through formal meetings, while all of my half-siblings got to play.
In my teen years, my relationship with my father has improved and I was married to my brother. My agenda was to continue the Thutmosid line of my father.
Ever since I was eight or nine, I went to the office associated with the office of the God’s Wife of Amen. I hoped to become the King’s Great Wife and God’s Wife, which were the two most powerful titles an Egyptian female could hold. Once I became the God’s Wife, I had many responsibilities such as doing rituals, maintaining the God’s House, and bringing communication to Thutmose I with Amen of Karnak.
In those rituals, I had to wear certain dresses and wigs to maintain ritual purity. As I look back on this, it was great training to help me become the .
When I was twelve or thirteen, I became the King’s Great Wife to my younger brother, who was now the new king of Egypt. My mother became a regent for him and learned how to take control of the throne. For example, to help him with the succession and to improve the monarchy, she advised him to make temple reconstruction a priority, organize the army, and make gifts to Amen-Re. He did this because he was not trained for kingship as he should’ve been. His two elder brothers had died before they could take the throne. So, perhaps he was not fit for the job exactly, but we did our best to make my bloodline as strong as it is now.
When I was sixteen years old, I failed to produce an heir for the Thutmosid line. I felt ashamed of myself, because that was the only thing that I was trained to do, and I failed it. It seemed to me as an easy feat, but it was difficult. It was also hard for me to comprehend that my father’s line would end after only two generations. My husband was gravely ill all the time and eventually died from natural causes. I felt sad and worried because my brother died. My only daughter, Nefrure, was 2 years old at the time and she was not fit to rule. There was no one to take the throne. At the time, I did not care who the next king of Egypt was going to be, but it had to be one of Thutmose II’s sons. So, Amen-Re chose Menkhperre or Thutmose III (though he was only a child), to be the pharaoh of Egypt. Thutmose III was born from a lesser wife than me, but was still Thutmose II’s son. After he was chosen, I cast my frustrations away and put all of my focus to him. So, I became a regent for him, just like my mother to my brother.
Now, that I was a regent for the young king, Thutmose III, I was not the Great King’s Wife anymore; however, I was still the Great Wife of Amen. I felt it was my duty to teach Thutmose III about whom to trust, who not to trust, and how to become a great king. By doing this, I felt determined to keep my family bloodline alive. Anyway, as the God’s Wife, I had to be there for the rituals to guide Thutmose III, because he did not know how to do them. So, this allowed me to have some kingly powers and control Thutmose III, as my mother did before me. I acted like a king, but not said to be. When Thutmose III was nine or ten years old, I became the co-king of Egypt.
Since I was formally crowned as a king, I had no choice but to dress like a man to honor tradition and the divinity of the gods. To make the succession much smoother, I had to change the way I looked and my name. When I first started ruling, I had statues of myself standing bare chested like a man. My name Hatshepsut meaning, “the Foremost of Noble Women” was changed to Khenemetenamen Hatshepsut meaning, “Hatshepsut, United with Amen”. With this name, I can say that I have a relationship with Amen. When my statues were put up on display, I told the scribes to write in a hieroglyphic text so that, only the top class could read it. So when my subjects would see a statue of me, they would see a strong ruler. I did not care much about dressing up as a man, but I knew it was the will of the gods for me to be like this way. However, I did care about the ritual demands stating that the Egyptian King must need a Great Wife. The problem was that I cannot have a wife because I am a female and since I am the Egyptian King, I must have one. Fortunately, this did not affect my kingship too much.
One of my greatest achievements was when I went on an expedition to Punt, and brought back ship loads worth of trees, gum, ebony, woods, and flora. I used some of those resources to build ships and enriched the economy to its highest value. The tree gum was used to make kyphi, which was burned in temple rituals and used to make perfumes. My father would have been proud of me because I have proven myself worthy to the gods and to my people. This undeniable success of a mission made the succession a lot smoother and proved that I could bring glory, without going on a major conquest.
Another major accomplishment was building my mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. The temple had three layers with many statues of myself as the god Osiris. I called this the Djeser Djeseru, meaning “Holy of Holies.” I chose Deir el-Bahri to build my temple because of the mountains that surround the land. It was also a popular place to have festivals, such as the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. I was happy to see that the palace was done.
Even though I have used all my resources and knowledge to become one of the strongest people in the world, I could not have done it all by myself. The people who have helped me were from my core group of loyal courtiers and priests. The group included Senenmut and Ahmose Pennekbet. Senenmut was ambitious and can stimulate change. From living in a poor livelihood, he was running the economy in royal palaces. Senenmut also became a tutor for my daughter and a steward for me. For Ahmose, he was appointed treasurer and became a tutor for my daughter as well. These two men were essential to my rise to power because they were in charge of money. This is important because one way to make the officials happy is to be in be efficient with money. Also, they were essential to my daughter because they were teaching her into becoming the God’s Wife of Amen and a great queen, like me.
I believe that I have always had a deep connection to Amen. One day, while I was performing a ritual, I had a vision from him. After that, I said, “I acted under his command; it was he who led me. I did not plan a work without his doing. It was he who gave directions.” I owe all of my success to him.
Throughout my life, I realized that I can do anything, if I stay committed and determined on something. No matter how many obstacles that stand in my way, I can go through all of them, with the help of others. There are many creative ways to go through them peacefully. We have the power to change our own destiny, as long as it does not affect the gods.
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