Hundreds of offerings to ancient Egyptian goddess are found in 3,500-year-old ...

Hundreds of offerings to ancient Egyptian goddess are found in 3,500-year-old ...
Hundreds of offerings to ancient Egyptian goddess are found in 3,500-year-old ...

As a woman living in Egypt's golden age, Hatshepsut was not destined for kingship.

She was prohibited by her gender from ascending the throne even though she was of royal lineage.

Egypt's gods had supposedly decreed that the king's role could never be fulfilled by a woman and although a pharaoh needed a queen to reign with him, she could never rule alone – although later there were notable exceptions.

Hatshepsut refused to submit to this and, to get round the rule, claimed she was married to the king of the gods and therefore had as much right to sit on the throne as any previous pharaoh. 

Her brazen approach worked and she had herself crowned in around 1,473BC, changing her name from the female version Hatshepsut - which means Foremost of the Noble Ladies - to the male version, Hatshepsu.

As a woman living in Egypt's golden age, Hatshepsut (pictured) was not destined for kingship. She was prohibited by her gender from ascending the throne even though she was of royal lineage

As a woman living in Egypt's golden age, Hatshepsut (pictured) was not destined for kingship. She was prohibited by her gender from ascending the throne even though she was of royal lineage

She reinforced her power by decorating the temples of the gods with portraits of herself in the pharaoh's traditional kilt, wearing all his symbols of office including the black pointed royal beard.

While conducting affairs of state surrounded by male courtiers, she may even have worn men's clothes.

However, previously-found statues show that early in her reign she liked tight-fitting gowns which showed off her figure and is said to have had a habit of bedding her cabinet ministers.

Hatshepsut was the first but not the only woman ruler of male dominated ancient Egypt.

Nefertiti followed her and then Cleopatra took power 1,500 years later, but neither took the title pharaoh like Hatshepsut.

She showed ruthless ambition and exceptional tenacity for the times in

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