Statues of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III Karnak. Pharaoh Hatshepsut woman. The mystery of the disappearance of the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut

Regent for an adult pharaoh. In the summer of the year before last, sensational news spread around the world: the mummy of Hatshepsut, the first woman in history who can be called famous, was found. The search for her was the solution to the greatest mystery, a mixture of thrilling Indiana Jones-esque adventure and crime drama. In ancient Egypt, royal power was transferred in a rather original way: inheritance went through the female line - but at the same time, men were pharaohs. That is, the son-in-law of the pharaoh, the husband of the princess, the daughter of the main royal wife (also, in turn, the bearer of royal blood), became king. That is why the sons of the pharaohs were forced to marry their sisters - in order to inherit the throne. Through marriage, a dignitary or commander could also become a pharaoh. In this way, power was passed through daughters - but bypassing daughters, since tradition and religion claimed that women could not rule. Therefore, the story of Hatshepsut, a woman who became pharaoh, is completely unique. Hatshepsut's grandfather, probably (there are still many blank spots in the history of the New Kingdom, and therefore it is difficult to say anything for sure), was the founder of the XVIII dynasty, Ahmose I, who expelled the formidable Hyksos from Egypt, who had captured the north of the Nile Valley two centuries before. The son of Ahmose Amenhotep I had no sons, and therefore the next pharaoh was a certain commander Thutmose, who married the princess Ahmose, probably the daughter of Ahmose I. From this marriage, Thutmose had a daughter, Hatshepsut, and from his second wife, Queen Mutnofret daughters) - the heir of Thutmose II.

It is difficult to understand how Hatshepsut managed to keep her adult stepson from power for twenty years, who had an undeniable advantage over her stepmother from the point of view of the ancient Egyptians - gender.

Having married his sister Hatshepsut, Thutmose II received the right to the throne. And she seemed to repeat the fate of her mother - the royal couple had only a daughter, while the second wife of Pharaoh Isis gave birth to an heir. But then this story, still quite traditional, ceases to be such. For a long time it was believed that when Thutmose II left this world (from heart problems, as a CT scanner established thousands of years later), his heir Thutmose III was still very young. And because Queen Hatshepsut, by tradition, became the regent for the child. However, today it is known from ancient inscriptions: even during the life of his father, Thutmose III was already a priest of Amun-Ra in the Karnak temple in Thebes. That is, when the pharaoh died, the heir was hardly a child. However, his stepmother somehow mysteriously managed to become a regent under, probably, a young, but by no means a minor king. Her Majesty the King. This was only the beginning - then the traditions began to crumble like a house of cards. At first, Hatshepsut still ruled on behalf of her stepson - but soon the reliefs begin to depict how the regent performs purely royal functions: she brings gifts to the gods, orders red granite obelisks. And after a few years, she officially becomes the pharaoh. Thutmose III was reduced to the status of co-ruler and, it seems, was not admitted to real power. Hatshepsut was the full mistress of Egypt for 21 years. What made the Egyptian abandon the traditional role of regent? A crisis? Will of Amun-Ra? Thirst for power? It is difficult to understand her motives today. But it is no less difficult to understand how Hatshepsut managed to keep her adult stepson from power for twenty years, who had an undeniable advantage over her stepmother from the point of view of the ancient Egyptians - sex. It seems unlikely that Hatshepsut usurped the throne by force. Although Thutmose III did not take part in public affairs, it was he who was "thrown" to resolve military conflicts. And it is unlikely that the queen would risk putting at the head of the army the one from whom she took power against her will. This situation could be explained by the weakness and passivity of the opponent - but no! After the death of his stepmother, Thutmose III showed himself to be an extremely active ruler, he actively erected monuments and fought so successfully that he was later nicknamed the ancient Egyptian Napoleon. In 19 years, Thutmose III conducted 17 military campaigns, including defeating the Canaanites at Megiddo, in what is now Israel - an operation that is still studied in military academies! So, most likely, peace and harmony reigned between the stepson and stepmother - but one can only guess how Hatshepsut managed to make the defeated rival her ally. Probably, this woman was very good at getting along with people, and manipulating them, and intriguing. And her talents, willpower and motivation were certainly outstanding. “No one knows what she was like,” says Egyptologist Katharina Roerig. “I think she was an excellent strategist and knew how to pit people against each other so that they would not be killed, and she herself would not die.” One way or another, Hatshepsut solved the problems with the co-ruler, but there was a more serious problem. Tradition and religion unanimously asserted that the pharaoh is always a man, and this probably made the position of the queen very unsteady. Pharaoh Hatshepsut tried to solve this issue in different ways. Royal PR campaign. In written texts, the pharaoh did not hide her gender - we see many female endings. But in the images, she clearly tried to combine the images of the queen and the king. On one sitting statue of red granite, Hatshepsut has female body shapes, but on her head are symbols of male kings: nemes - a striped headdress and uraeus - a forehead figurine of a sacred cobra. On some reliefs, Hatshepsut appears in a traditional strict dress below the knees, but with legs wide apart - this is how the kings were depicted in a walking pose. Hatshepsut planted visual images of a female pharaoh, as if accustoming the Egyptians to such a paradox. But either the method did not bring the desired results, or Hatshepsut was persuaded - one way or another, over time, she changed tactics. The pharaoh began to demand that she be portrayed in a male guise: in the headdress of the pharaoh, the pharaoh's loincloth, with the royal false beard - and no female features. Trying to justify her strange position, the female pharaoh calls in allies ... the gods. On the reliefs of the funerary temple, Hatshepsut says that her accession to the throne is the fulfillment of the divine plan and that her father Thutmose I not only wanted his daughter to become king, but even could attend her coronation! The reliefs also tell how the great god Amun appears before mother Hatshepsut in the guise of Thutmose I. He addresses the creator god Khnum, who creates a man from clay on a potter's wheel: “So create her better than all other gods, mold her for me, this is my daughter, born of me.” Khnum echoes Amon: “I will see her image when she takes great post king, they will worship more than the gods ... ”- and immediately gets to work. Interestingly, on the potter's wheel of Khnum, little Hatshepsut is clearly a boy. Pharaoh Hatshepsut became a great builder. Everywhere, from Sinai to Nubia, she erected and restored temples and shrines. Under her, masterpieces of architecture were created - four granite obelisks in the huge temple of the god Amon-Ra in Karnak. She ordered hundreds of her own statues and immortalized in stone the history of the whole family, her titles, events. own life, real and fictional, even their thoughts and aspirations. Her statement, carved on one of the obelisks in Karnak, strikes with sincerity and piercing: “My heart trembles at the thought of what people will say. What will those who look at my monuments years later say about my deeds?

Almost all the statues, images and inscriptions look like a well-thought-out PR campaign designed to legitimize the rule of a female pharaoh.

But who was this powerful propaganda aimed at? For whom did the pharaoh write her sincere confessions and create myths? For priests? know? Military? Officials? Gods? future? Humanist and vandal. One of the answers suggests Hatshepsut's habit of referring to the lapwing, an inconspicuous swamp bird. In ancient Egypt, the lapwing was called "rekhit", which in hieroglyphic texts usually means "common people". They, ordinary, like lapwings on the Nile, were not taken into account by any of the pharaohs and did not influence politics in any way, although the word is often found in inscriptions. But Kenneth Griffin of the University of Swansea in Wales noticed that Hatshepsut used it much more often than other pharaohs of the 18th dynasty. A unique phenomenon, the scientist believes. Hatshepsut often used the form "my rehit", referring to ordinary people for support... Saying that her heart trembles at the thought of what people will say, the queen may have had in mind just rehit - mere mortals. After the death of Hatshepsut, her stepson came to power. And he took up not only conducting successful military campaigns. Thutmose III was unexpectedly carried away by the methodical deletion from the history of the period of the reign of his stepmother. Almost all images of Hatshepsut and even her name were systematically chipped from temples, monuments and obelisks. Pharaoh pounced on the traces of the existence of King Hatshepsut no less zealously than on the Canaanites in Megiddo. Its inscriptions on the obelisks were laid with stones (which had an unplanned result - the texts were perfectly preserved). In Deir el-Bahri on the west bank of the Nile, opposite modern Luxor, is the memorial temple of Hatshepsut Djeser Djeseru - "the most sacred of the sacred." The three-level structure, porticoes, wide terraces connected by ramps, the avenue of sphinxes that has not come down to us, T-shaped pools with papyrus and myrrh trees providing shade - all this makes Jeser Jeser one of the most beautiful temples in the world and the best building of Hatshepsut. According to the project of the architect (probably Senmut, presumably a favorite of Hatshepsut), the temple was to become the central place of the cult of the queen. But under Thutmose III, her statues were broken here and thrown into a pit. It would seem that Thutmose III acted in full accordance with the popular ancient Egyptian tradition - to erase the names of unloved predecessors from the monuments. Well, how can one not recall the version of the unfortunate orphan, who was bullied by the evil stepmother for many years? And historians succumbed to the temptation - the hypothesis that Thutmose III destroyed the memory of Hatshepsut in retaliation for her shameless usurpation of royal power became very popular for many years. Conclusions about the personality of Hatshepsut herself made the appropriate ones. In 1953, archaeologist William Hayes wrote: "Soon... this vain, ambitious, unprincipled woman showed herself in her true light." Who was disturbed by the dead queen. However, in the 1960s, the sentimental story of family squabbles ceased to seem indisputable. It was established that the persecution of Hatshepsut Pharaoh began at least twenty years after her death! Somewhat strange is such anger - twenty years of exposure! There is another mystery - for some reason, the "avenger" did not touch those images where Hatshepsut appears as the king's wife. But on all those where she declares herself as a pharaoh, his workers walked with chisels. Neat such vandalism, pinpoint. “The destruction was not made under the influence of emotions. It was a political calculation,” says Zbigniew Szafranski, head of the Polish archaeological mission in Egypt, who has been working in the memorial temple of Hatshepsut since 1961. Indeed, today it seems more logical to assume that Thutmose III acted on the basis of the interests of politics. Might have to confirm legal right his son Amenhotep II to the throne, which was also claimed by other members of the royal family. Descendants of Hatshepsut? Women? Runaway Mummy. In 1903, the famous archaeologist Howard Carter discovered in the twentieth tomb from the Valley of the Kings (number KV20) two sarcophagi with the name of Hatshepsut - apparently from among the three that the queen herself prepared in advance for herself. However, the mummy was not there. But in a small tomb next door, KV60, Carter saw "two heavily naked female mummies and several mummified geese." One mummy, smaller, lay in a sarcophagus, another, larger, right on the floor. Carter took the geese and closed the tomb. Three years later, the mummy from the sarcophagus was transported to the Cairo Museum, having established that the inscription on the coffin points to Hatshepsut's nanny. And the second mummy remained on the floor. It was, it seemed, a simple slave - too uninteresting to be placed somewhere. KV60a (under this number the mummy was entered into the registers) went on an eternal journey, having no coffin, no clothes, no figurines of servants, no headdress, no jewelry, no sandals - nothing that a noble woman should have taken. Arm bent at the elbow. As the years passed, everyone completely forgot about the mummy left on the floor, and even the road to the KV60 tomb was lost. It was found again in 1989 by the scientist Donald Ryan, who came to study several small, undecorated graves. He also included the KV60 in the application. Having descended into the tomb, the scientist immediately realized that in ancient times it had been savagely plundered. “We found a broken fragment of a coffin with an image of a face and grains of gold that had all been scraped off,” he recalls. That is, thieves could easily take away the sarcophagus and all the decorations of the mummies, if any. And in the next room, Ryan found a huge pile of cloth and a pile of "edible mummies" - food folded into knots, which was given to the deceased with them on their journey through eternity. But Ryan was most interested in left hand mummy, still lying on the floor. The arm was bent at the elbow - and some scholars believe that only royal people were buried like this in the era of the 18th dynasty. And the longer Ryan studied the mummy, the more he became convinced that it was an important person. “She was superbly mummified,” he recalls. “But there were no leads to somehow identify her.” And yet, it seemed wrong to the scientist to leave the mummy, whoever she was, lying on the floor in a pile of rags. Ryan and a colleague tidied up the tomb, ordered a modest coffin from the carpenter, lowered the stranger into a new bed, and closed the lid. In the tomb and in obscurity, the mummy spent almost another two decades - until a new study began on the secret of Hatshepsut. It's all about the tooth. The study was initiated by Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Mummies Program and Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. First, Hawass collected all the unidentified female mummies of the 18th dynasty, presumably related to the royal family. There were four of them, among them - both inhabitants of the tomb KV60. The scientist, however, was sure that the KV60a mummy had absolutely nothing to do with it. She did not have a regal posture at all and, as the archaeologist wrote, “a huge chest hung down” - rather, it could be a nurse. But still, she, along with others, was examined on a CT scanner, establishing the age and cause of death.

And then Hawass remembered a wooden box with the name of Hatshepsut found in a cache in Deir el-Bahri back in 1881. It was believed that her liver was there. However, after scanning the box, the scientists found... a tooth.

Dentists have determined that this is the second molar, which is missing part of the root. And a large mummy from the floor of the KV60 tomb had a root without a tooth in the upper jaw on the right. Measurements were taken - the root and the tooth completely corresponded to each other! Today, the KV60a mummy is on display at the Cairo Museum. On the tablet it is written in Arabic and in English that this is Hatshepsut, Her Majesty the King, who is finally reunited with her large family - the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. In the era of the XXI dynasty, around 1000 BC, the high priests of Amon could transfer her body to the tomb of the nanny in order to protect the mummy from thieves - members of the royal family were often hidden in secret graves. CT scans have already disproved the hypothesis that Hatshepsut killed her stepson. A large KV60a woman died of an acute and severe infection caused by a tooth abscess; in addition, she probably suffered from bone cancer and possibly diabetes. And if the tooth from the box still did not belong to Hatshepsut? The first DNA tests are not yet certain. But new research should come up with a more precise verdict.

In the desert valley of Deir el-Bahri, not far from Thebes, one of the most remarkable monuments of ancient Egyptian architecture is located - the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The temple is the main part of the whole complex, which also includes the temples of Mentuhotep II and Thutmose III.

Queen Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut is one of the five sovereign rulers of Egypt in its entire history. She belonged to the 18th dynasty and reigned at the beginning of the 15th century. BC e.

Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I, and after his death she became the wife of her sibling, Pharaoh Thutmose II. She enjoyed great influence at court, being the high priestess of Amon and, in fact, co-ruler of her husband.

The new pharaoh ruled for less than 4 years. After his death, his son from a concubine, 12-year-old Thutmose III, ascended the throne, and Hatshepsut became regent. However, after 18 months, with the support of the priesthood, she removed the young pharaoh from power and began to rule independently. Thutmose III was sent to the temple for education.

Looking ahead, we note that this involuntary imprisonment and training in the temple of the future great pharaoh subsequently turned into considerable benefits for Egypt.

Temple construction

The queen had to work hard to convince everyone of the legitimacy of her reign. The priests spread the legend that her father was Amun, who came to her mother Ahmes in the guise of Thutmose I. In gratitude for the support of the priesthood, Hatshepsut restored many temples destroyed by the Hyksos conquerors, and granted considerable privileges to the priestly communities.

Hatshepsut's foreign policy was not very active. She had to send troops to suppress uprisings in the Egyptian Asian possessions, but Hatshepsut did not conduct large-scale campaigns.

A significant achievement was the restoration of the broken trade links with the country of Punt (probably in present-day Somalia). Hatshepsut organized a large-scale sea expedition to Punt, which returned with a large amount of valuable goods - gold, incense, ivory, valuable breeds wood, slaves and skins of exotic animals.

The era of Hatshepsut's reign was a time of unprecedented rise in Egypt, the growth of economic and commercial activities. But the main thing that the pharaoh woman became famous for was the construction activity, grandiose in scale. Only Ramses II the Great built it, but many scientists dispute this, since Ramses II often cut off the names of his predecessors from buildings and carved his own name.

By order of Hatshepsut, new sanctuaries were erected throughout the country and old ones were restored, they were decorated with new murals and wonderful reliefs. The giant granite obelisks erected during this period exceeded in their height all similar structures of the queen's predecessors. But the most outstanding monument of the era of Hatshepsut was Jeser-Jeseru, the Most Holy of the sacred, the memorial temple of the queen, erected not far from the outskirts of Thebes.

The Parthenon of Ancient Egypt

The Temple of Hatshepsut, which is the main part of the Deir el-Bahri complex, was built for 9 years. The temple is partially carved into the rock; its width along the facade is about 40 meters.

The construction of the temple was carried out under the direction of Senmut, whom scholars consider the most outstanding architect of Egypt since the time of Imhotep, the builder of the first pyramid. Senmut supervised all the royal work, was the main adviser to Hatshepsut and the tutor of her daughter Nefrura.

Senmut managed to perfectly fit the temple into the rocky landscape. The monumental structure includes three successively rising terraces, cut through by a ramp leading to the main sanctuary. The terraces are decorated with white sandstone colonnades. With their monumentality and at the same time harmony, the columns resemble much later Doric ones. On each terrace, ponds were once built and trees were planted.

An alley led to the beginning of the ramp, along which sphinxes depicting Osiris with the face of Hatshepsut were installed, and myrrh trees, taken out of Punt, grew. The alley stretched from the border of cultivated fields and the desert, its beginning was marked by a majestic pylon.

Porticos of all tiers are decorated with wonderful wall paintings and reliefs. The murals of the portico of the lower tier tell about the delivery of stone blocks along the Nile, campaigns, construction work. Often there are images of a falcon and a snake. These are Horus and Wadjet, the patrons of Upper and Lower Egypt. Thus, the audience was inspired by the idea of ​​the inseparable unity of the country. Numerous statues of Hatshepsut stood on the terrace, both in ceremonial attire and in the usual women's tight-fitting dress.

The reliefs of the second tier told about the expedition to Punt and other deeds of the queen. Along the stairs were sculptures of cobras with falcons on their backs, reminiscent of the unity of Egypt. On the sides of the terrace are the sanctuaries of Anubis, one of the judges of the kingdom of the dead, and Hathor, who personified beauty, femininity, motherhood and fertility. The porticoes of both sanctuaries have 12 columns, behind which underground halls begin.

The main religious ceremonies were held on the upper terrace. On its sides are the sanctuaries of the queen's parents, Thutmose I and Ahmes, in the center of the tier is main temple of the entire complex, dedicated to Amon-Ra.

The central temple of the ensemble consists of many rooms carved into the rock, in which there were numerous statues of the queen, depicting her in the form of sphinxes and in an anthropomorphic style. Huge statues of Hatshepsut, installed at the entrance, were visible from the Nile itself. Wall paintings depicted religious rites and scenes of meetings between the queen and the patron gods. The underground halls were richly decorated valuable materials, a main entrance closed the door of black copper with inlays of gold and silver.

In total, according to archaeologists, about 200 statues were installed in the temple. However, the temple did not please the parishioners with its beauty for long. After the death of Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, wanting to avenge his removal from power, made great efforts to destroy the memory of the queen. Her images were partially erased, the statues were thrown off their pedestals and buried nearby. Only many centuries later, archaeologists managed to partially restore the original appearance of the temple.

Nevertheless, Thutmose III ordered to build his funerary temple here, next to the creation of Senmut.

The temple ensemble of Deir el-Bahri gives the impression of completeness and harmony, which gave grounds to many researchers to consider it one of the most beautiful buildings of the ancient world. For the uniqueness of the architectural solution and the perfection of the lines, the temple of Hatshepsut is sometimes put on a par with the masterpiece of ancient architecture - the Athenian Parthenon.

The name Hatshepsut was not included in any of the ancient lists of kings who ruled Egypt. Her images with attributes of royal power and cartouches with her names were subsequently destroyed. The existence of a female pharaoh was contrary to the traditional notions of the Egyptians, and they wanted to hide this fact in order to eliminate the precedent. But it is impossible to destroy the memory of a great woman who devoted her life to the revival of her country.

The sculptural portrait of Hatshepsut cannot be confused with anyone else: a royal crown, a false beard, and suddenly a woman's face, so beautiful that it is difficult to look away.

"The great and beautiful Law (Maat), beloved by the hidden God. I know that I live by it, eat it like daily bread, and quench my thirst with the freshness of its dew. We are one soul with him."
Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut, whose name means "first among the noble", was the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I and the "great wife" of Pharaoh Thutmose II. Her husband was not destined to reign for long. He dies, leaving an heir - the boy Thutmose III. Since the child is still too young, Hatshepsut assumes the duties of regent.

But the country needs a Lord. The one who will be an intermediary between the world of the gods and the world of people, who will be responsible for the prosperity of Egypt, for the existence of order and the observance of divine law. In the meantime, there is no pharaoh - chaos will reign in the country.

And Hatshepsut becomes pharaoh, king of Upper and Lower Egypt. From now on, in sculpture and reliefs, she is depicted in men's clothing and with all the attributes of royal power.

Statue of Hatshepsut from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Hatshepsut (1490/1489-1468 BC, 1479-1458 BC or 1504-1482 BC) - female pharaoh of the New Kingdom ancient egypt from the 18th dynasty. Before accession, she had the same name (Hatshepsut, that is, “She who is in front of the noble ladies”), which was not changed upon accession to the throne (although sources call her the throne name of Maatkara - Maat-Ka-Ra). She had the titles "Great wife of the king" and "wife of the god Amun."

Hatshepsut completed the rebuilding of Egypt after the Hyksos invasion and erected many monuments throughout Egypt. She is one of the first famous women in world history and, along with Thutmose III, Ramesses II, Akhenaten, Tutankhamen and Cleopatra VII, one of the most famous Egyptian rulers. In addition to Hatshepsut, among the sovereign rulers of Ancient Egypt before the conquest by Alexander the Great, one can meet only four women - Merneit (Meritneit), Nitocris (Neitikert) at the end of the Old Kingdom, Nefrusebek (Sebeknefrura) at the end of the Middle Kingdom and Tausert at the end of the 19th dynasty. Unlike Hatshepsut, they all came to power at critical periods in Egyptian history.

"I went down to the Great Green Sea in a ship one hundred and twenty cubits long and forty wide. It had one hundred and twenty sailors from among the best in Egypt. They saw the sky, they saw the earth, and their hearts were more courageous than those of lions."
From the fairy tale "Shipwrecked"

According to a quote by an Egyptian priest-historian of the 3rd century BC. e. Manetho according to Josephus Flavius, she ruled for 21 years and 9 months, but Sextus Julius Africanus cites the same quote, which reports that Hatshepsut ruled all 22 years. In the surviving extracts from the Annals of Thutmose III, the annals of the court military chronicler Tanini, the first campaign of Thutmose III as sole ruler (during which the famous Battle of Megiddo took place) refers to the spring of the 22nd year of the nominal reign of the pharaoh, which clearly confirms the information of Manetho .

The long and middle chronologies of ancient Egyptian history, common in Soviet scientific literature, date the reign of Hatshepsut to 1525–1503 BC, respectively. e. and 1504-1482 BC. e. The short chronology accepted in modern studies refers the reign of Queen Hatshepsut to 1490/1489-1468 BC. e. or 1479-1458 BC. e. The difference of 10 years is explained by the fact that the reign of Thutmose II in the royal lists is estimated at 13/14 years, but is practically not displayed in material monuments, on the basis of which its duration is reduced to 4 years (respectively, the time interval between the ascension to the throne of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut can be estimated at 25 or 14 years old).

Before accession

Queen Hatshepsut was the daughter of the third pharaoh of the XVIII dynasty Thutmose I and Queen Ahmes (Ahmose). Thus, she was the granddaughter of the founder of the New Kingdom, Pharaoh Ahmose I. During the life of her father, Hatshepsut became the "Wife of God" - the high priestess of the Theban god Amon.

Hatshepsut had only one sister Nephrubiti, as well as three (or four) younger half-brothers Wajmos, Amenmose, Thutmose II and, possibly, Ramos, the sons of her father Thutmose I and Queen Mutnofret. Wajmose and Amenmose, Hatshepsut's two younger brothers, died in infancy. Therefore, after the death of Thutmose I, she married her half-brother Thutmose II (the son of Thutmose I and the secondary queen Mutnofret), a cruel and weak ruler who ruled for only less than 4 years (1494-1490 BC; Manetho counts as many as 13 years of his board, which is most likely erroneous). Thus, the continuity of the royal dynasty was preserved, since Hatshepsut was of pure royal blood. The fact that Hatshepsut later became pharaoh is explained by experts by the rather high status of women in ancient Egyptian society, as well as by the fact that the throne in Egypt passed through the female line. In addition, it is generally believed that such a strong personality as Hatshepsut achieved significant influence during the lifetime of his father and husband and could actually rule in place of Thutmose II.

Thutmose II and the “main royal wife” Hatshepsut had a daughter, Nephrura, who bore the title of “Wife of God” (high priestess of Amun) and was portrayed as the heir to the throne, and, possibly, Meritra Hatshepsut. Some Egyptologists dispute that Hatshepsut was the mother of Meritra, but the opposite seems more likely - since only these two representatives of the XVIII dynasty bore the name Hatshepsut, it may indicate their blood relationship. Images of Neferura, tutored by the favorite Hatshepsut Senmut, with a false beard and a curl of youth are often interpreted as evidence that Hatshepsut was preparing an heiress for herself, the “new Hatshepsut”. However, the heir (and later co-ruler of Thutmose II) was still considered the son of her husband and concubine Isis, the future Thutmose III, married first to Nephrur, and after her early death, to Merithra.

"Hatshepsut took care of the country. Both lands (lived) according to her plans, worked for her. Egypt is in great zeal! The useful seed of God (that is, Hatshepsut) that came out of it! of the excellent land of the North. The mistress of orders, excellent in her designs: she, according to whose speech Both Shores are constantly (stay) satisfied.
From the autobiography of the architect Ineni

accession

Some researchers believe that Hatshepsut concentrated real power in her hands during the reign of her husband. The extent to which this statement is true is unknown. However, we know for sure that after the death of Thutmose II in 1490 BC. e., the twelve-year-old Thutmose III was proclaimed the sole pharaoh, and Hatshepsut the regent (before that, Egypt had already lived under female rule under the queens Nitocris from the VI dynasty and Sebeknefer from the XII dynasty). However, after 18 months (or after a year and a half), the young pharaoh was removed from the throne by the Legitimist party, led by the Theban priesthood of Amun, which enthroned Hatshepsut. During the ceremony in the temple of the supreme god of Thebes, Amon, the priests who carried a heavy barge with a statue of the god knelt down right next to the queen, which was regarded by the Theban oracle as Amon's blessing to the new ruler of Egypt.

As a result of the coup, Thutmose III was sent to be raised in the temple, which was planned to remove him from the Egyptian throne, at least for the time of Hatshepsut's regency. However, there is evidence that later Thutmose III was allowed to govern the state.

The main forces supporting Hatshepsut were the educated (“intellectual”) circles of the Egyptian priesthood and aristocracy, as well as some of the prominent military leaders. These included Hapuseneb, the chati (vizier) and the high priest of Amon, the black nobleman Nehsi, several veterans of the Egyptian army who still remember the campaigns of Ahmose, the courtiers of Juti, Ineni and, finally, Senmut (Senenmut), the architect and educator of the queen's daughter, as well as the courtier (Senmut's brother?) Senmen. Many tend to see Senmut as a favorite of the queen, since he mentioned his name next to the name of the queen and built two tombs for himself in the likeness of the tomb of Hatshepsut. Senmut was by origin a poor provincial, who at the court was at first considered a commoner, but his outstanding abilities were soon appreciated.

Limestone sculpture of Hatshepsut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Although the queen is depicted on the statue without a false beard, it contains the rest of the symbols of the pharaoh's power; in particular, she is wearing a nemes headdress topped with a royal uraeus.

After ascending the throne, Hatshepsut was proclaimed the pharaoh of Egypt under the name of Maatkara Henemetamon with all the regalia and the daughter of Amun-Ra (in the form of Thutmose I), whose body was created by the god Khnum himself. The power of the queen, based primarily on the priesthood of Amon, was legitimized with the help of the legend of theogamy, or "divine marriage", during which the god Amon himself allegedly descended from heaven to the earthly queen Ahmes in order to, taking the form of Thutmose I, conceive "his daughter" Hatshepsut. In addition, ceremonial inscriptions stated that the queen was chosen as the heir to the Egyptian throne during the life of her earthly father, which was not true. Subsequently official propaganda constantly used the legend of the divine origin of Hatshepsut to justify her tenure on the throne.

Osiric head of Hatshepsut from the temple at Deir el-Bahri. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Having adopted the title of pharaoh, Hatshepsut began to be depicted in a headdress of huts with a uraeus, with a false beard. Initially, the statues and images of Hatshepsut represented her with a female figure, but in male clothes, and in later analogues, her image was finally transformed into a male one. The prototype of such images of Hatshepsut can be considered a few surviving statues of Queen Nephrusebek, which are also characterized by a combination of male and female canons. Nevertheless, in the inscriptions on the walls of the temples, the queen continued to call herself the most beautiful of women and refused one of the royal titles - “The Mighty Bull”.

Since the pharaoh in Egypt was the incarnation of Horus, he could only be male. Therefore, Hatshepsut often wore men's clothes and an artificial beard at official ceremonies, but far from being mandatory: individual statues of the queen, like those exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, continue to depict her in her original form - in tight women's clothing, but in a nemys cape and without a false beard.

pharaoh builder

The reign of Hatshepsut marked the unprecedented prosperity and exaltation of Egypt. Of all the spheres of her state activity, Hatshepsut showed herself, first of all, as a pharaoh-builder. More than it was built only by Ramesses II Meriamon (who, by the way, put his name on the monuments of his predecessors). The queen restored many monuments destroyed by the Hyksos conquerors. In addition, she herself actively led the construction of temples: in Karnak, the so-called. "Red Sanctuary" by Hatshepsut for the ceremonial boat of the god Amun; relief images on the walls of the sanctuary, recently completely restored from scattered blocks, are dedicated to the co-reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, as well as the legitimization of her sole power. Here, in Karnak, by order of the queen, giant granite obelisks were erected, the VIII pylon was erected in the temple of Amon, the sanctuary of Amon-Kamutef was built, and the temple of Amon's wife, the goddess Mut, was significantly expanded. Two obelisks of Hatshepsut (29.56 m high) next to the pylon of the temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak were the highest of all built earlier in Egypt until they were laid with masonry by Thutmose III (one of them has survived to this day).

Pair of Osirian statues of Hatshepsut in front of the temple at Deir el-Bahri.

Nevertheless, the most famous architectural monument of Hatshepsut's time is a beautiful temple in Deir el-Bahri in the remote western part of Thebes, which in ancient times bore the name Dzheser Dzheseru - "Most Sacred" - and was built over 9 years - from the 7th (presumably, 1482 BC) to the 16th (1473 BC) year of the reign of the queen. Its architect was Senmut (?), and although the temple largely repeated the nearby temple of the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Mentuhotep I, its majestic columns amaze the imagination even today. At one time, this temple was unique in many ways, demonstrating the impeccable harmony of the architectural complex 1000 years before the construction of the Parthenon in Athens.

Djeser Djeseru consisted of three large terraces, decorated with porticos with snow-white limestone protodoric columns. The temple terraces in the center were divided by massive ramps leading up to the temple sanctuary; they were decorated with numerous brightly painted osiric pilasters of the queen, her kneeling colossal statues and sphinxes, many of which are in the collections of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A long avenue of polychrome sandstone sphinxes of the queen, lined with myrrh trees brought from Punta, led to the first of the terraces. The sphinxes were on both sides of the road, approximately 40 meters wide, leading from the lower terrace of the temple to the border of the desert and irrigated fields of the Nile Valley, where a giant pylon was erected. In addition to the queen herself, the complex in Deir el-Bahri was dedicated to Amon-Ra, the deified father of Hatshepsut Thutmose I, Anubis the guide to the underworld, and Hathor Imentet, the mistress of the necropolises of Western Thebes and the great protector of the dead. In front of the temple itself, a garden of exotic trees and shrubs was laid out, T-shaped pools were dug.

The unique reliefs of the temple in Deir el-Bahri, amazing with the highest level of their execution, tell about the main events of the reign of Hatshepsut. Thus, on the walls of the portico of the lower terrace, the delivery of the obelisks of the queen from Aswan to Karnak and ritual scenes associated with the idea of ​​uniting Upper and Lower Egypt are depicted. The reliefs of the second terrace tell of the divine union of Hatshepsut's parents - the god Amun and Queen Ahmes, and of the famous military-trading expedition to the distant country of Punt, equipped by the queen in the 9th year of her reign. The idea of ​​the unity of the two lands is found once again on the railing of the ramp connecting the second and third terraces of the temple. The lower bases of this staircase are adorned with sculptures of a giant cobra - the symbol of the goddess Wajit - whose tail rose up the top of the railing. The head of the snake, personifying the patroness of Lower Egypt, Wadjet, is framed by the falcon Khor Behdetsky, the patron god of Upper Egypt, with its wings.

Along the edges of the second terrace are the sanctuaries of Anubis and Hathor. Both sanctuaries consist of 12-columned hypostyle halls located on the terrace, and interior spaces extending deep into the rock. The capitals of the columns of the sanctuary of Hathor were decorated with gilded faces of the goddess, directed to the west and east; Hatshepsut herself is depicted on the walls of the sanctuary drinking divine milk from the udder of the sacred cow Hathor. The upper terrace of the temple was dedicated to the gods who gave life to Egypt, and to Hatshepsut herself. On the sides of the central courtyard of the third terrace are the sanctuaries of Ra and Hatshepsut's parents - Thutmose I and Ahmes. In the center of this complex is the sanctuary of Amun-Ra, the Holy of Holies, the most important and most intimate part of the entire temple of Deir el-Bahri.

Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri. The architect is Senmut.

Near Deir el-Bahri, also west of Thebes, Hatshepsut ordered the construction of a special sanctuary in Medinet Abu on the site of the sacred hill of Jeme, under which the serpent Kematef, the embodiment of the creative energy of Amun-Ra, rested at the beginning of time. However, Hatshepsut was actively building temples not only in Thebes, but throughout Egypt. There is a rock temple erected by the queen in the future Speos Artemidos in honor of the lion-headed goddess Pahet, as well as the temple of the goddess Satet on the island of Elephantine; in addition, architectural fragments with the name of the queen were found in Memphis, Abydos, Armant, Kom Ombo, El-Kab, Germopol, Kus, Heben. In Nubia, by order of the queen, temples were erected in the fortress of the Middle Kingdom of Buhen, as well as in a number of other places - in Sai, Dhaka, Semne and Kasr Ibrim, while many of Hatshepsut's monuments may have suffered during the sole reign of Thutmose III.

"I did this with a loving heart
for my father, Amon,
Initiated into the mystery of his beginnings,
Knowing about the power of his beneficent,
Not forgetting his orders.
...
I will tell the people of the times to come,
For those who see the monument
dedicated to my father
To those who will speak and argue,
Those who turn to their descendants -
Here, it was when she sat in the palace,
Thinking about my creator
My heart told me to create for him
Two obelisks that are (covered) with electrum,
whose height reaches the heavens,
In the sacred pillared hall."

From the inscription of Queen Hatshepsut
at the base of the obelisk at Karnak.
Thebes, 16th century BC.

Female statue of Hatshepsut

Expedition to Punt and military activities

Under Hatshepsut, Egypt prospered economically. Classical slaveholding relations were established, active trade was carried on. About 1482/1481 BC. e. she was equipped with an expedition consisting of 210 sailors and five ships under the command of Nekhsi to the country of Punt, also known as Ta-Necher - "Land of God". The location of the country of Punt has not been precisely established (most likely, the coast of East Africa in the Horn of Africa - the modern peninsula of Somalia). Contacts with Punt were interrupted during the Middle Kingdom, but they were vital, since Punt was the main exporter of myrrh wood. During the expedition, the Egyptians purchased ebony wood, myrrh wood, a variety of incense, including incense (Tisheps, Ihmet, Hesait), black eye paint, ivory, tame monkeys, gold, slaves, and skins of exotic animals from Punta. The reliefs of the temple at Deir el-Bahri present all the details of this campaign. The artists depicted Hatshepsut's fleet in detail, the features of the landscape of Punt with forests of fragrant trees, exotic animals and stilt houses. Also on the walls of the temple is a scene of recognition by the rulers of Punt (King Parehu and Queen Ati) of the formal power of Hatshepsut.

Double stele of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, Vatican

For a long time, it was believed that Hatshepsut, as a woman, could not conduct military campaigns, and her reign was extremely peaceful, which allegedly caused discontent among the army. However, recent research has shown that she personally led one of the two military campaigns made during her reign in Nubia, and also controlled the Sinai Peninsula, the Phoenician coast, southern Syria and Palestine. In particular, the conduct of military campaigns by the queen is confirmed by the inscription in Tangur - a victory report carved on a rock in the region of the Second Nile Threshold. Moreover, it is possible that Hatshepsut commanded the Egyptian troops in a number of campaigns against the rebellious Syrian and Palestinian cities. It is known that Hatshepsut admitted her stepson Thutmose to military service, which opened the way for him as the first great warrior in history.

Hatshepsut died around 1468 BC. e., in the 22nd year of his reign. Since she had not yet reached old age, versions of both the natural death and the violent death of the queen were put forward. For example, Thutmose III, in order to get rid of the power of his stepmother, he also ordered the destruction of all images, references, altars of Hatshepsut. However, a 2007 analysis of the mummy, identified as Hatshepsut, showed that at the time of her death she was over 50 years old, she was an obese woman and she died solely from diseases (bone tumor and liver cancer, exacerbated by diabetes). In addition, the pharaoh woman had arthritis and dental problems. A 2011 analysis of the mummy found that Hatshepsut had used a drug for short-term pain relief (option: cosmetic for the skin), which included a carcinogenic substance, and for several years of use she could poison herself with poison. The lotion contained benzpyrene, an aromatic and highly carcinogenic hydrocarbon. According to scientists, this makes it extremely likely that the female pharaoh accidentally killed herself.

Granite sphinx with the face of Hatshepsut

Queen Hatshepsut as a Sphinx, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Literature
History ancient east. The origin of the oldest class societies and the first centers of slave-owning civilization. Part 2. Western Asia. Egypt / Under the editorship of G. M. Bongard-Levin. - M .: The main edition of the eastern literature of the publishing house "Nauka", 1988. - 623 p. — 25,000 copies.
Ancient East and antiquity. // Rulers of the World. Chronological and genealogical tables on world history in 4 vols. / Compiled by V.V. Erlikhman. - T. 1.
Bolshakov V. A. Accession of Hatshepsut: a new version // Vostok (Oriens). 2009. 1. S. 14-21.
Bolshakov V.A. Daughter of Ra Hatshepsut. - M.: RUDN, 2009.
Mathieu M.E. Art of Ancient Egypt. New Kingdom of the 16th-15th centuries. // History of art of the Ancient East. Volume I. Ancient Egypt. Issue. III. - L., 1947.
Mertz B. Ancient Egypt: Temples, tombs, hieroglyphs. / Translated from English. - M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2003.
Desroches Noblecourt Ch. La Reine Mysterieuse: Hatshepsout. Paris, 2002.
Ratie S. La Reine Hatschepsout. Sources and Problems. Leiden, 1979.
Tyldesley J. Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh. — Penguin Books, 1998.
Wells E. Hatshepsut. — Double Day, 1969.

3 . Death, mummy, tomb of Hatshepsut

Did you manage to find the mummy of Hatshepsut?

Today we certainly have the mummy of Hatshepsut. She was discovered by examining various hiding places where the mummies of unknown great royal wives were buried. And thanks to scientific analysis, answers to the most burning questions were obtained. From the cache in Deir el-Bahri, where the Temple of Hatshepsut was built - directly opposite the Temple of Karnak, a curious female mummy was recovered. However, at first they could not establish whose body it was. It did not rest in a sarcophagus. However, an empty sarcophagus was found in the same place along with a wooden casket, on which the name and titles of Hatshepsut appeared. The casket contained mummified organs. This female mummy was not alone in that cache - other mummies of representatives of the XVIII dynasty lay nearby, and some of them were identified - Thutmose I, Thutmose II and Thutmose III (we will return to the study of these bodies).

In another burial, sixteen bodies dating back to the New Empire era were recovered from the tomb of Amenhotep II. Among the mummies found, the bodies of two women were described, conventionally designated as "girl" and "woman", but it was not easy to determine whose bodies these were. Perhaps one of them was the body of Hatshepsut. Nevertheless, the age of the “girl” did not allow her to be the queen-pharaoh, who died when she was forty or forty-five years old, in the sixth month of the twenty-second year of her reign. The identity of another woman, probably forty years old, seems to have been established: this body could belong to Queen Teia, the wife of Amenhotep III, who ruled after Hatshepsut and belonged to the same XVIII dynasty. However, radiographs of the body (although they do not allow us to determine the exact age of the mummy) cast doubt on premature conclusions. The so-called "woman" seems to have died at the age of thirty - too early for Teye (she lived a long time) and even more so for Hatshepsut, who reigned for more than twenty years! Therefore, the mummy of the queen-pharaoh had to be looked for elsewhere ...

Tomb No. 60, in the Valley of the Kings, discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter, contained two female mummies. One, it seems, corresponded to the image of Hatshepsut's nurse - Satra. The other, rather large in appearance, could be the body of the queen-pharaoh. However, there is not a single documentary evidence that the queen was a fat woman, besides, she looks slender in all the images ... However, the kings used to ennoble themselves, including in their own stone sculptures. Then how did Hatshepsut's body end up in the tomb of her wet nurse? Perhaps it was transferred from the nearby royal tomb to tomb No. 60 in order to protect it from robbers? Or, perhaps, it was Thutmose III's nephew who ordered the aunt to be reburied in order to deprive her of all her virtues in retaliation for the fact that she had once deprived him of sole power? But in this case, it would be necessary to prove that Thutmose III really hated his aunt and, thus, ordered to destroy any memory of her, and this seems unlikely.

The body found in the tomb of the nurse Hatshepsut was about 1.55 meters long. And it really was a royal mummy, because her left hand lay on her chest, which was in full accordance with the tradition of burial of royal offspring from the XVIII dynasty. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the mummification of obese bodies, including those found, was not carried out in the usual way. The embalmers involved in the processing of the deceased representatives of the royal family were far from newcomers in their field. They most often adopted the intricacies of the craft from their parents and then passed it on to their children. They used the same methods, and so at all times. When the fact of death was established, the master embalmers transferred the body to the workshop and carried out its thorough mummification in seventy days. Not all Egyptians were destined to go through this unusual embalming. There were three ways of mummification - from the simplest to the most sophisticated. Be that as it may, it can be unmistakably stated that the royal person had the pre-emptive right to the most exquisite treatment even after death ... For this, embalmers needed plants and incense, for which they sometimes had to go to distant lands. In addition to rare and expensive incense, they needed soda - for drying and better preservation of the body, and for it they went to the north of Egypt. First of all, the masters removed all the insides from the body (then some organs were also embalmed and placed in burial vessels - canopies, which were installed next to the sarcophagi). The technique used in this case is the same. After extracting the brain - through the facial openings - an incision was made on the body and evisceration was performed.

Then the incision was healed with the help of the leaves of a certain plant and certain jewelry. Such techniques, it should be noted, perfectly healed wounds.

In the case of the so-called "complete" mummy, the incision was made on it in the wrong place where it was customary. Why? Should this be seen as a sign or symbol? And what was hidden behind such strangeness? Indeed, an unusual case - there was something to think about. Who performed the mummification - masters or amateurs? Perhaps this mummy was consecrated and processed in a hurry? Or, perhaps, someone deliberately ordered to do with her without unnecessary ceremonies? The answer was as disappointing as it was obvious: the entrails were not removed from the usual place, and the incision was not made in the middle of the body, because it was too fat!

Howard Carter left the mummies from tomb No. 60 in the ground where they lay, and they were taken into custody only a few years later: it is quite obvious that neither Howard Carter nor Lord Carnarvon, the financial director of his expeditions, were interested in them. Carter and Carnarvon were looking for more impressive burials, where truly innumerable funerary treasures could lurk. However, at first the discoveries made by them did not justify their hopes. In a word, Howard Carter did not linger at the place of this burial.

In 1906, the body of Satra's nurse, along with the sarcophagus, was transferred to the Cairo Museum. And the second mummy was left on same place. The entrance to the tomb was walled up, as was customary in the days of Howard Carter, in order to protect it from would-be robbers. There the mummy of the "fat woman" lay until 1989, until one American archaeologist transferred it to the sarcophagus. He did not find anything of interest in that burial. And he again locked the tomb in such a way that no robber could enter it. "Full woman" and this time kept all its secrets. Then the question naturally arose: what kind of fat woman from the royal family could be under the tutelage of Satra?

Now we can say with almost complete certainty that the body of Hatshepsut has been found. In fact, the queen's mummy was neither in her first tomb, nor in her second. One of her sarcophagi, from the second tomb - at number 20, in the Valley of the Kings (DC-20), turned out to be quite large, from which it could be concluded that Hatshepsut prepared it for her father Thutmose I, so that his body rested in it. Hatshepsut rejected the first - wooden - sarcophagus of Thutmose I as unworthy of her father, to whom she was going to give up one of her quartzite bowls. This bowl was inscribed with the name of the queen, and it was intended for her, before it passed as a gift to her father ...

The lid of her own sarcophagus was damaged. It was not easy to do this with quartzite. Who committed such blasphemy? Perhaps she suffered when the sarcophagus was lowered into the burial chamber? It turned out to be quite difficult to get into this room: it was the last and deepest hall in the tomb - in front of it there was a whole suite of rooms. But what if the artisans, dissatisfied with the way the queen-pharaoh ruled, deliberately damaged it, thus expressing their dissatisfaction with the ruling king? Some even suggested that Hatshepsut's body was not buried in DC-20 at all, since the lid of her sarcophagus lay on the ground where it was found. They didn’t put it in its place because there was simply no burial as such! A bold assumption, however. If there is no evidence that the queen was buried in accordance with the generally accepted tradition, there is no evidence that she did not have a traditional funeral!

Could Thutmose III arrange for the traditional burial of his aunt? And did he do it?

And why is there no evidence for this?

The ruling pharaoh had to pay the last honors to his predecessor, even if the policy of the latter was not to his liking. As for Hatshepsut, here, on the contrary, everything indicates that her nephew supported her transformations, works, aspirations and projects. They ruled the country together. Thutmose III completed some of the structures laid down under Hatshepsut. In a word, even if Thutmose III did not like the reign of his aunt at all, he nevertheless could not help organizing a decent burial for her. A few years later, Eye, while engaged in the burial of Tutankhamun, personally performed the ceremony of “opening the mouth”, restoring the ability to feel to the deceased young pharaoh, although, of course, he considered him a worthless ruler. So, despite the impartial opinion about the forerunner, Aye did not forget to fulfill his last duty towards him. The people and the priesthood had to be appeased. The change in the Order and the shaking of the goddess of balance, Maat, aroused universal fear. The Egyptians were afraid of the revenge of the gods, so it was necessary to do everything possible to avoid Chaos, return to the beginning of the beginnings and the death of civilization.

Whatever Thutmose III thought of Hatshepsut, no matter how he condemned her, Egyptian traditions obliged the young pharaoh to pay the last honors to the queen-pharaoh on the highest level. That is why Hatshepsut was certainly awarded a majestic burial. But what if she was not buried in the second tomb, but somewhere else? Is it possible to imagine that the queen-pharaoh, dissatisfied with the tomb prepared for her, ordered to build another one for herself, the whereabouts of which we know nothing?

Hatshepsut, who highly valued herself and her role in governing the state, believed and was even sure that she would be buried in the Valley of the Kings. And therefore, there should be her third tomb. Yes, but this place has already been dug up a hundred times from end to end, and in the most thorough way. So are we still waiting for interesting discoveries there?

The Valley of the Kings is far from being an ordinary necropolis. There are so many tombs that sometimes they are located on top of each other and even crosswise. Meanwhile, in this funerary labyrinth, where it is very easy to get lost, no, no, and they find something new, and this invariably causes new controversy, fueling interest in this truly fabulous and inexhaustible treasury. Recently, for example, they discovered a new tomb, several royal mummies and grave goods dating back to the epoch of the 18th dynasty, all in the vicinity of the tomb of Tutankhamen. Good luck, hopes and disappointments succeeded each other. Excavations in another place, not far from the tomb of Horemheb, could not be completed, although they promised many new discoveries ... Among other things, a number of curious details revealed that some tombs previously attributed to one king actually belonged to completely different rulers. This was the case, for example, with the tomb of Setnakht, which until then was thought to have belonged to Tausert. After the marble plaster crumbled from the walls of the tomb, the queen appeared in all her splendor. Since by the time Setnakht died, his tomb had not yet been completed, it was necessary to hastily decide where to bury him, even to the detriment of the queen! That is why today it is impossible to say with complete certainty that it will never be possible to find another tomb of Hatshepsut. At the same time, however, we must keep in mind: we have no evidence that it really exists.

In the second tomb of the queen-pharaoh, nothing - neither the decoration, nor the texts, nor the inscriptions - indicates that she was buried in this particular place. It seems that neither Thutmose I nor his daughter were buried there.

Did Thutmose really begin to wage wars as soon as the ashes of the queen-pharaoh were buried? And is it true that if she were alive, this would threaten Thutmose with excommunication from power?

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, let us assume that Hatshepsut was buried quite adequately and that she died of natural causes. However, before she had time to breathe her last breath, her nephew went to Asia to suppress the rebellion under the leadership of the ruler of Kadesh and Mitanni. Thus, his thirty-three-year reign begins with wars that allowed him not only to conquer the enemy, but also to expand the lands of Egypt. Thutmose crosses the Euphrates and wins victories that earned him the fame of the greatest conquering pharaoh in the history of ancient Egypt - the so-called "Egyptian Napoleon".

Hatshepsut's death coincided with the end of a long period of peaceful life. That is why it is quite possible to assume that the queen voluntarily withdrew from power, yielding it to the pharaoh, who was ready for war. Even if she died at the wrong time, her role was still not as significant as in peacetime. From now on, Egypt needed a powerful king and a formidable military leader, capable of giving a decisive rebuff to the enemy.

Who was the mysterious Satra whose tomb was found by archaeologist Howard Carter? And what connected her with Hatshepsut?

Satra, also called Inet, was the nurse of the pharaoh queen. She, as it was possible to establish, was captured in sculpture along with Hatshepsut. In this rather damaged ceramic statue, intended for the temple at Deir el-Bahri, it is not difficult to recognize the little Hatshepsut Pharaoh, sitting on the lap of the wet nurse. Satra tramples on the enemies of Egypt. These traditional images symbolized the superiority of Egypt and its power over other lands, such as, for example, Asia. Satra is depicted in the same pose as the mentor Senmut, holding Princess Neferru on his lap. Hatshepsut must have loved her nurse very much if she ordered such a sculpture and ordered it to be installed in her temple of Millions of years. Despite the poorly preserved inscription, one can make out that this is a laudatory word addressed to the nurse of Satra: “What a blessing that King Hatshepsut Maatkara and the god Osiris of Abydos can bestow pleasant and pure gifts on the soul of the nurse of the One who rules the Dual Country, Satra, by name Inet, Righteous-voiced.

So, the nurse Hatshepsut was buried in the Valley of the Kings (or rather, in Biban el-Muluk, the Valley of the Royal Doors), and this, in turn, proves that the nurses were held in high esteem at court and that they did not come from the poor. Mothers, sisters or daughters of high dignitaries or influential and eminent courtiers often became breadwinners. One of the two mummies found in the mentioned tomb fits the description of the nurse. She rests in a wooden sarcophagus, on which the name Inet appears. Offerings are laid out around the sarcophagus, and among them is a mummified bull's leg and various jewelry.

After the mummy was discovered for the first time - in 1903 - it was left in situ, and the tomb was immediately resealed. In 1906, the Inet sarcophagus was transferred to Cairo, and the second mummy remained in DC-60. No inscriptions were preserved on the walls of this tomb, and not a single thing of Hatshepsut was found there. However, items marked with her name are very rare. So, one of the alabaster vases that belonged to her and a bracelet were found in the tomb of the princess, one of the daughters of Thutmose III.

Did Hatshepsut's first tomb really hide important artifacts that shed light on the mystery of her burial?

And did you manage to find the corresponding inscriptions on the island of Sehel?

Sehel Island, located a few kilometers south of Aswan, turned out to be a treasure trove of numerous written records of various dynasties. And one of them even mentioned a connection between Senmut and Nefrura. However, this is no longer a secret. However, none of the texts mentioned the burial of Hatshepsut or Senmut. And what about the first tomb of a female pharaoh, built in Wadi Sikket Taka el-Zeid, about two kilometers from the Valley of the Kings and more than five hundred meters above the Valley?

Getting to this place, lost in the middle of a mountainous, ravine-carved area, was not at all easy. Even among the Egyptians, few people know him ... To get there, the first transition has to be made by jeep (there are no roads there - only rare whitish stripes-paths on the sand, beaten by mules), then - riding a donkey, and then - about an hour on foot, under pitiless sun. In the summer there is unbearable heat: the temperature sometimes exceeds 50 degrees. In this remote corner, nothing was found except the tombs of Hatshepsut, her daughter Neferura, and the tombs of the three daughters-princesses of Thutmose III. It is not easy to find the entrance to the queen's tomb, since her tomb was carved right into the rock. The ramp, which once could go up there, collapsed long ago. So there was only one way to get into the mysterious royal tomb, where Howard Carter, who discovered it, was the first to visit - by climbing to the top of the rock on one side and descending four hundred meters down to the tomb along a rope - from the opposite.

First, it was necessary to slip into the crevice and descend to the first ledge, and then - to make your way along another crevice, narrower and more dangerous. Having ventured into such an adventure, Howard Carter found out that robbers had beaten him to it. He cut their ropes and left them his own so they could get away as soon as possible.

The tomb made a depressing impression. From the decoration - nothing new and unusual. The absence of wall paintings indicated that it had been abandoned before being completed. It has never been buried. And therefore, Hatshepsut was buried not here. A bare corridor led to the hall, and from there to the burial chamber with a well. To top it off, the tomb was badly damaged by flooding.

In this, the first tomb, a sarcophagus about two meters long was found. So the queen seems to have had three in total. A lid was attached to the sarcophagus. It read the name of Hatshepsut, "the mistress of two countries, the great royal wife, daughter and sister of the king." On the lid were also inscribed lines in praise of Nut. It was more like a prayer that the queen offered to the goddess, so that she would help her move to heaven and gain eternity.

Obviously, Hatshepsut chose this remote place in order to protect herself from tomb robbers. Despite the dangers associated with the descent to the entrance to the tomb, the robbers have already managed to visit inside it before the archaeologists. The fact that the ancient builders had wasted so much labor suggested that Hatshepsut, when she became pharaoh, abandoned this first tomb, believing that the tomb in the Valley of the Kings was much more befitting of the queen that she now was.

On the contrary, the fact that the queen did not choose a more worthy tomb for herself, being the wife of Thutmose II, shows that she probably was not yet filled with ambitious aspirations to become a pharaoh someday! She did not boast of her title and did not claim the first roles ...

Today, only the rays of the October sun illuminate the entrance to this almost inaccessible tomb. When Howard Carter stumbled upon the tomb, he found heaps of construction debris and stones that fell from the top of the mountain straight into an abandoned tomb. “Having put the Arab robbers to flight,” wrote Howard Carter in his diary, “I noticed that they dug holes, like rabbit holes, right up to the burial chamber. Then I realized that they managed to get out on a small ledge and descend by a rope to the entrance; I just had to follow their example. But, although my equipment was of good quality, not like theirs, my head was spinning, which caused the business to stall. Climbing did not scare me at all, but when descending, you will have to use a grid.

On Wednesday, June 27, 2007, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities announced to journalists from around the world who had gathered in Cairo that the mummy of Hatshepsut had finally been identified! In a vessel marked with the name of a female pharaoh, a fragment of a molar tooth was found, which exactly matched one of the broken teeth of the “full” mummy from DC-60 - the tomb of Satra ...

At the same time, the question arose again about the mummy of Thutmose I, the authenticity of which, during identification, also caused a lot of controversy.

Was it possible to determine the dating of other tombs using the tomb of Hatshepsut?

The first tomb of Hatshepsut was very similar to tomb No. 42 in the Valley of the Kings, which was believed to belong to Thutmose II. Since it was erected between the tombs of Thutmose I and Thutmose III, everything really suggested that this was the tomb of Thutmose II, the son of Thutmose I and his first wife Mutnofret. But the burial chamber in it differed in shape from the others ... It looked more like the burial chamber of Amenhotep II, the son of Thutmose III, than the chambers of the pharaohs, his predecessors. For all that, however, not a single item from the funeral utensils belonging to Thutmose II was found there. And not a single text mentioned the burial of the king. In addition, this tomb seems to have belonged to the era of Amenhotep II!

A little further on, I will talk in more detail about this mysterious tomb and explain why I do not believe that Thutmose II rests in it and that the mummy found there most likely has nothing to do with the son of Thutmose III.

Having studied the plan, structure and appearance of the first tomb of Hatshepsut, I somehow thought: what if DC-32 is the tomb of some other woman, also a queen or princess? ... And then the name of Meritra-Hatshepsut II, who may have been the second daughter of Hatshepsut. This conjecture in itself is of great importance, since the bodies of the great royal wives from the 18th dynasty have not yet been found anywhere. And they were looking for them in the north of Egypt, and in the vicinity of Amarna, in Central Egypt. For my part, I suggested that they could be buried next to their husbands, or, more simply, in the Valley of the Kings.

The mystery of Meritra-Hatshepsut: who is this mysterious woman? Could she be Hatshepsut's daughter? And will images make our search easier?

The life of this woman has turned out rather strangely. She was the wife of Thutmose III, possibly after Nephrure, who was her sister. At the same time, however, there is no evidence that Meritra-Hatshepsut was the daughter of Hatshepsut. In that case, who could be her father? Thutmose II, half-brother and husband of the queen-pharaoh? In the same way, the question arises about Nefrura's legal father. If Hatshepsut really had a connection with Senmut, who became the Guardian of Amun, he could very well be the father of Hatshepsut's two daughters.

But then why are there no images of Meritra-Hatshepsut II either on the walls of temples or on bas-reliefs, where all members of the queen's family and her relatives are represented? An image of Nephrure with Senmut is available on the Azure Mountain in Sinai, where the Hathor Chapel was discovered. Numerous cubic statues depict her as a very young girl in Senmut's arms. There are many assumptions explaining such an "alienated" attitude towards Meritra. Perhaps Queen Hatshepsut did not like her and removed her from herself, giving all her love eldest daughter who would someday take power from her. Or maybe Meritra had a bad temper, which alienated her from her mother?

Be that as it may, the drawings cannot clarify anything else for us. Therefore, one has to come to terms with the rather strange idea that the queen-pharaoh did not allow her youngest daughter to be depicted on the walls of buildings in her honor, except because Meritra was not her daughter.

Why did Hatshepsut nominate Nephrure when she became pharaoh in the seventh year of her reign?

And is it true that her daughter died at a young age, as various sources report?

Around the daughter of Hatshepsut, too, there are many secrets. In the absence of any evidence, it has long been believed that she died in childhood. However, recently found images, where she appears as a teenage girl, prove that she lived for a long time and her mother gave her a proper education and upbringing in the hope of seeing her as her successor. But did Hatshepsut want to introduce her daughter to politics, because she intended to raise her to the Egyptian throne purposefully, or because of the fear that Thutmose III might die prematurely, as happened with Thutmose II and Thutmose I? Or maybe Hatshepsut tried to take revenge on Thutmose, who did not belong to the royal family, and create a dynasty of female pharaohs, in whose veins royal blood would flow? It is hard to imagine that the one who called herself "Maatkara" and worshiped Maat, the goddess of the approved order, would wish to break the established traditions.

Nevertheless, Nefrura received an exemplary education, since her mentors were not the last - such as Senmut and Senmen. And one of her nurses, Ahmes-Pennekhbet, whose tomb was found, was one of the most enlightened women in the royal court. However, Nefrura not only received an excellent education, as befits a future great royal wife. She was also raised as a prince. Because Hatshepsut, quite likely, believed that her daughter was worthy of the throne more than Thutmose III, who had a very modest origin. Defending her right to the title and making it clear that she is the sister and daughter of the pharaoh, Hatshepsut, it is possible, took revenge for the fact that men of non-royal blood were preferred to her. But did she really suffer from this: after all, according to tradition, women always gave way to the first roles to men? To talk about that era from the point of view of modern ideas is a thankless task, especially since in those days our current ideas were simply unthinkable. The fact that Queen Hatshepsut removed Thutmose III from power because he was not of royal blood might seem unlikely if this extraordinary woman did not have an unusually ambitious character that equaled her with other pharaohs.

Why did Neferura bear the title of "divine wife"? And what did this title mean?

Neferura was neither a mother nor a wife, except perhaps the wife of a very young Thutmose III. Certainly, no other woman could compare with her position and candidacy for the role of the great wife of Thutmose III. But did she bear a ritual title that did her honor to serve the gods? During some of the religious ceremonies that took place in Karnak, Queen Hatshepsut was apparently accompanied by a certain "divine wife" ... It is not known whether it was her daughter, or a priestess who helped in worship. The “king-pharaoh” Hatshepsut as a woman, of course, could not have a spouse. However, when Hatshepsut took on a male form, completely transforming into a king, she may have believed that she, like all previous pharaohs, needed a great wife. And who better than his own daughter was suitable for this role, especially since she gave her the most excellent education and upbringing?

In the Karnak temple, the "divine wife" is depicted in various scenes. Here she participates in divine rituals, accompanies the priest and burns the enemies of Egypt. He watches as Hatshepsut presents gifts to the deities. But he follows the priests in order to take a bath in the temple reservoir, and helps Hatshepsut, who kneels before the statue of Amon. In a word, she always finds herself next to Hatshepsut when the queen-pharaoh performs traditional rites.

Who is the mysterious Sathya? And what does she have to do with Neferura?

Oddly enough, the title of "divine wife" is indicated on the bas-relief, where Thutmose III is depicted along with a mysterious woman named Satya. Is it possible to recognize Neferru under the features of this unknown? If so, then in this case, Neferura should not only outlive her mother, but also become the great wife of Thutmose III before Meritra-Hatshepsut, who may have been her sister.

Everything would become clear if Satya did not have the same titles as Neferur, otherwise they could easily be distinguished. But do we have evidence that Neferura lived for more than eleven years? No one has ever found any evidence that Neferura survived Hatshepsut. And then, with the exception of the above image, there is no mention of Hatshepsut's daughter after the death of the queen-pharaoh on any stele, in any temple or in any text.

The image of Neferura is also found on a stone block in Serabit el-Khadim - in Sinai, where her father and Thutmose III worshiped the goddess Hathor. It is also possible that she herself visited there with her mother in the eleventh year of her reign. The name Nefruru, moreover, appears on the first tomb of her mentor Senmut, although it is no longer indicated on the second tomb of this courtier, belonging to the sixteenth year of the reign of Hatshepsut. Which suggests that Nefrura was probably no longer alive when Senmut built his tomb at Deir el-Bahri. Neferuru was buried near the first tomb of her mother, and this, in turn, suggests that Hatshepsut still wanted to be buried in Wadi Sikket Taka el-Zeid when her daughter died. On the other hand, all this suggests that Satya and Nefrura were two completely different personalities and that Nefrura most likely died at a young age, frustrating her mother’s plans with her death, who hoped that she would ascend the throne in the event that if Thutmose III dies.

As for Meritra-Hatshepsut II, which is not on any of the bas-reliefs depicting Nefrura, the conclusion suggests itself that it was simply the namesake of the queen and no family ties connected them. Indeed, many Egyptians used to name their daughters after the ruling queen! Such an assumption seems quite justified even though the same Meritra-Hatshepsut II was not the great wife of Thutmose III ...

Was Hatshepsut the first pharaoh to adopt some form of monotheism?

So we come to the main question. To understand how the politics, religion and economy of the country developed in the era of the beginning of the 18th dynasty, it is necessary to tune in to the way of life and thoughts of the pharaohs, who were clearly more humane than their predecessors. In all the images of that time, the kings are already standing closer to the people and look less pompous.

Being open to the perception of the world known to her and passionately desiring to know everything that was unknown in Egypt, Hatshepsut expands trade with overseas countries. Thutmose III would later pursue the same policy. It is possible that, under the influence of other religions, Hatshepsut is already gradually striving to worship only one supreme god - Amun, moving away from other major gods, such as Osiris. Therefore, it is possible that the high priests of Abydos condoned all sorts of attempts to erase her name from history.

Pharaohs at all times chose their gods, who were revered more than others. Depending on the cities in which their residences were located, they preferred Ptah (Memphis), Min (Gebt), Osiris (Abydos), Thoth (Hermopolis) or Amon (Thebes) ... Moreover, the most important god at all times Ra remained among them. The Egyptians believed that it was he who gave life and prosperity to everything and everyone. Therefore, they prayed to him at dawn in gratitude for the fact that he gave them the opportunity to see the light again and live on. At sunrise, the pharaoh first of all offered prayers to the god Ra, along with the priest assigned to accompany him. In the eyes of the Egyptians, Ra was invariably above everything - like the sun for the Syrians, the emperor Heliogabal and the Roman Aurelian ... In addition to the sun god, the Egyptians had other older gods, whom they distinguished from the younger ones. But Hatshepsut overturned the traditional belief system, rejecting some of the main gods and bringing the Theban god to the fore. In her commitment to Amon, Hatshepsut went so far as to ignore the displeasure of even the most influential priests. So gradually it assumed a certain form of monotheism. From the book of Lenin. Book 2 author Volkogonov Dmitry Antonovich

From the book 100 great mysteries of the history of France author Nikolaev Nikolai Nikolaevich

"The Pygmy who became a giant", or the Mummy who found rest When Bonaparte took power, the day after the coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire, he intended to finish well the revolution, of which, in fact, he was the product, and this attributed to him some legitimacy

From the book Ancient Egypt author Zgurskaya Maria Pavlovna

Mysteries of Queen Hatshepsut

From the book 100 great intrigues author Eremin Viktor Nikolaevich

Hatshepsut - the female pharaoh Hatshepsut (throne name of Maat-Ka-Ra) - the first non-legendary woman in the history of mankind who actually existed, who happened to ascend the royal throne. Historians have three versions about the years of the reign of the famous empress:

From the book World History in Gossip author Baganova Maria

Hatshepsut Merneit, Nitocris and Nefrusebek came to power in difficult times for Egypt. The throne was given to them almost by force, since there was no male heir or this heir was too small. However, in the XIV century BC. e. Egypt was ruled by a woman who

From the book 100 great secrets of archeology author Volkov Alexander Viktorovich

From the book 100 great secrets of the ancient world author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich

Operation Mummy How did the Egyptians mummify their dead? It would seem that this issue has been studied quite well. However, two American experts - Egyptologist Bob Breer and anatomist Ron Wade - tried to answer it again. They themselves undertook to make a mummy

From the book Egypt. Country history author Ades Harry

Hatshepsut, female pharaoh Thutmose I was already in mature years when he became pharaoh, and his royal wife Ahmose gave birth to his daughter - the famous Hatshepsut (c. 1479–1458 BC), but not a son. Fearing a succession crisis, the pharaoh chose a successor, also Thutmose, the child of one of

From the book The Curse of the Pharaohs. Secrets of Ancient Egypt the author Reutov Sergey

Stele of Hatshepsut Having received the necessary status, Hatshepsut enlists the support of the priesthood. And she takes the next step: in the third year of her reign, practically without the resistance of the priesthood, rather, with his support, against the will of the army (here again her origin plays a role) she

From the book Famous Mysteries of History author Sklyarenko Valentina Markovna

The tomb that sows death The discovery by the famous English archaeologist Howard Carter in 1926 of the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh of the XVIII dynasty Tutankhamen was one of the greatest archaeological achievements since the discovery of the legendary Troy by another great

author Team of authors

Sax Rohmer THE MYSTERIOUS MUMMY (1903)(7) At five o'clock on a hot August afternoon, a tall, thin man with an untidy, disheveled beard, whose ill-fitting frock coat and tattered silk top hat involuntarily conspicuously entered the lobby of the Great Portland Museum

From the book The Secret of the Mummy. Mummies stories. Volume II author Team of authors

Charles Cutliff Hein THOMPSON-PRATT MUMMY (1904)(10) Gargrave was a member of Clare College(11), lived on the college grounds and lectured twice a week on structural Egyptology, usually to empty pews. He was one of the most knowledgeable Egyptologists of modern times and

From the book The Secret of the Mummy. Mummies stories. Volume II author Team of authors

Charles Bump THE DISAPPEARED MUMMY (1906)(26) A very flattering opinion of my sleuthing abilities was erroneously formed at the headquarters of detectives of the city police. Personally, I have always believed that the help that I was able to give the detectives on two or three occasions was largely the result of

From the book The Secret of the Mummy. Mummies stories. Volume II author Team of authors

The New York Times, April 7, 1923 MUMMY ACCUSED OF STRANGE ACCIDENTS BEAUTIFUL BUT SPINE PRINCESS IS SAYED TO DO NOT LIKE HER COFFIN LID TO BE TOUCHED

"The best of nobility" or "The first of the venerable"- female pharaoh of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt from the XVIII dynasty - Maatkara Hatshepsut Henmetamon - Queen Hatshepsut

Queen Hatshepsut was the daughter of the third pharaoh of the XVIII dynasty Thutmose I and Queen Ahmes, the granddaughter of the founder of the New Kingdom, Pharaoh Ahmose I. During the life of her father, Hatshepsut became the "Wife of God" - the high priestess of the Theban God Amun. Hatshepsut was the only female pharaoh in the history of Egypt who managed to hoist the double crown of Lower and Upper Egypt on her head.
Hatshepsut was given all the secular and religious honors appropriate to the pharaohs, she was depicted, as it was supposed to be for a real pharaoh, with the attributes of Osiris, with a beard tied under her chin. After the death of her father, Thutmose I, she married her half-brother Thutmose II. When he died at a fairly early age, the young Thutmose III, the son of one of the younger wives of the pharaoh, became his only heir. Hatshepsut ruled the state on his behalf for 22 years.

The Egyptian pharaohs were considered the earthly incarnation of the god Horus and could only be men. When the female pharaoh Hatshepsut ascended the throne, for the legitimacy of her power, a legend was invented, according to which the god Amon himself descended to earth in order to conceive his daughter in the guise of Thutmose I.

In the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut - Jeser-Jeseru or "Holy of Holies" in Deir el-Bahri, built by her favorite and court architect Senmut, hieroglyphic inscriptions have been preserved, which are descriptions of events associated with the birth of Hatshepsut, as well as ritual formulas . The translation of each inscription is preceded by a brief description of the relief image to which it refers. On one of the reliefs, Amon informs the gods (Mont, Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Set, Hathor) about the upcoming conception of a new "king" who will be given power in the country.

Amon's words to the gods:

“Behold, I loved the wife chosen by me, the mother of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Maatkar, endowed with life, Khnumit-Amon Hatshepsut ... I will be the protection of her flesh ... Here, I gave her all the countries of Egypt and all foreign countries ... She will lead all the living... I connected both lands for her in contentment... she will build your temples, she will sanctify your houses... she will make your altars prosperous...»

The reign of Hatshepsut marked the unprecedented prosperity and exaltation of Egypt. Of all the spheres of her state activity, Hatshepsut showed herself primarily as a pharaoh-builder. The queen restored many monuments destroyed by the Hyksos conquerors. Two obelisks of Hatshepsut with a height of about 30 meters next to the pylon of the temple of Amon-Ra in Karnak were the highest of all built earlier in Egypt, until they were laid with masonry by Thutmose III (one of them has survived to this day).

Hatshepsut actively led the construction of temples: in Karnak, the “Red Sanctuary” of Hatshepsut was erected for the ceremonial boat of the god Amun. Her name is associated with a sea expedition to the distant country of Punt, also known as Ta-Necher - “Land of God”. The location of the country of Punt is not exactly established, possibly the northern coast of Somalia, according to other sources - India.

As Irina Darneva writes in the book The Silence of the Sphinx, these obelisks resemble the Gates to Heaven through which an invisible beam passes. distant worlds and pink granite gives them an unearthly quality. The pink color was not chosen by the queen by chance, because pink pearls are considered a symbol of Venus and correspond to the morning dawn. "Light morning dawn"- so they addressed Venus in antiquity.

Hatshepsut was considered the daughter of the Solar dynasty of the pharaohs, as well as a dedicated priestess with a high spiritual position, the Priests of the Karnak Temple knew her destiny.

The greatest buildings of the New Kingdom era were the temples, or "houses" of the gods, as the ancient Egyptians called them. The waters of the Nile divided Ancient Egypt into the Kingdom of the Living and the Kingdom of the Dead. On the east bank of the Nile, palaces of the pharaohs and huge temples glorifying the gods were erected; on the west bank, pyramids, tombs and mortuary temples were built in honor of the dead and deified pharaohs.

In Luxor, at the very foot of the rocks of Deir el-Bahri, there is the most unusual monument of ancient Egyptian architecture - the memorial temple of Queen Hatshepsut, dedicated to the goddess Hathor. The temple stands at the foot of the steep cliffs of the Libyan plateau, it was erected in the middle of the second millennium BC next to the memorial temple of Pharaoh Mentuhotep I, the founder of the dynasty to which Hatshepsut belonged.

The construction of the mortuary temple began during the lifetime of Queen Hatshepsut. Djeser-Djeseru or "Holy of Holies" - this is how Hatshepsut called her mortuary temple. On the border of the desert and irrigated land, a giant pylon was erected, from which a procession road went to the temple itself, about 37 meters wide, which was guarded on both sides by sphinxes made of sandstone and painted with bright colors. Directly in front of the temple was a garden of outlandish trees and shrubs brought from the mysterious country of Punt. Two sacred lakes were also dug here.

The temple itself was truly an engineering marvel of the ancient Egyptians. Carved into limestone rocks, it consisted of three huge terraces, located one above the other. On each of the terraces there was an open courtyard, covered rooms with columns and a sanctuary that went into the thickness of the rock. This grandiose idea was embodied by the hands of the architect Senenmut, the favorite of the queen and the tutor of her daughter Neferur.

Almost three and a half thousand years have passed. The book of Daniel says: “And many of those sleeping in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to everlasting reproach and shame.” Archaeologists managed to find a statue of Hatshepsut with an intact face. In 2008, it was officially announced that the mummy of Hatshepsut was buried in the Cairo Museum.

HATSHEPSUT - THE ONLY FEMALE PHARAOH OF EGYPT. OPENING OF THE CENTURY!

The pyramids of ancient Egypt are considered to be one of the wonders of the world. They are as mysterious as they are majestic and unique. And whenever Egyptologists manage to shed light on at least one of the secrets of the ancient pyramids, it becomes a sensation. The discovery of the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut is from the category of the latest and has already been called one of the most important discoveries of our century.

The mummy of Hatshepsut was considered lost for a long time. But her find, according to the head of the Supreme Council for the Study of Antiquities of Egypt, doctor and, in fact, the author of the discovery, Zahi Hawass, today is comparable in importance only to the discovery of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun by Carter in 1922. And although they are trying to challenge the Hawass hypothesis, for connoisseurs of Egyptian culture, the next work of the “hunter of antiquities” has become a real gift. A detailed account of his discovery by the Egyptologist, who won the fame of Indiana Jones, posted on the site guardians.net.

Dr. Hawass made an effort to identify the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut back in 2006, when he began to identify unidentified female mummies. Three of them were in the Cairo Museum. But the fourth one is in the burial under the letter KV60 in the Valley of the Kings. Interestingly, this mysterious sarcophagus was discovered by Howard Carter in 1903. Before that, the tomb had already been robbed, but still Carter was incredibly lucky. In total, he found two mummies. One of which belonged to a small woman. The second was to an extremely obese person who was lying next to the tomb. But Carter sealed the sarcophagus. Apparently, due to the lack of treasures in it.

In 1906, another prominent British Egyptologist, Edward Ayrton, explored the same tomb. He managed to read the name of the woman in the sarcophagus: her name was Sitre-In, and she was Hatshepsut's nurse. He sent the find to Cairo. But Ayrton could not identify the second mummy found on the floor. Many years later, in 1989, anthropologist Donald Ryan once again examined the tomb. But in the end, the mummy went to the museum without a name.

But why did Dr. Hawass decide that she was Hatshepsut? The key to this mystery was in the wooden box containing the regalia of her throne. It was in it that, in addition to canopies, the only molar tooth of the queen was found. The researcher suggested that, following tradition, the embalmers placed Hatshepsut's tooth in a box as a ritually charged object.

Canopy - vessels with organs. It is known that organs removed during mummification were not thrown away or destroyed. They also kept. After extraction, they were washed, and then immersed in special vessels with balm - canopy.

All unidentified female mummies and objects found, as well as the mummies of pharaohs Thutmose II and III, because the first is Hatshepsut's half-brother, and the second is her stepson, were subjected to a thorough examination. Once it was not possible, but modern achievements have allowed Egyptologists to move forward significantly. Scanning using computed tomography and DNA analysis of the mummies left no doubt. The mummy of an obese 50-year-old woman with a missing molar is Hatshepsut.

In addition, it turned out that the female pharaoh suffered from many diseases, including diabetes and even cancer - metastases were found in almost all the bones of the queen, and most likely it was one of the diseases that caused her death. Thus, the version that Hatshepsut died as a result of a violent death is completely refuted. As well as the fact that all the temples and monuments erected by the queen were destroyed by her stepson Thutmose III out of revenge.

The head of the Supreme Council for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass: “When I started researching and searching for the mummy of Hatshepsut, I really did not think that I would be able to identify the mummy of the queen. I saw the experiment as an excellent opportunity to study the unidentified female mummies of this particular dynasty. Never before have modern scientific technology been used in their study. There are many high status unidentified mummies found mostly in royal caches. This is a series of secret graves. And we must be aware that for the sake of preserving the mummies and protecting them from robbers, many bodies were hidden and moved by initiated people to graves nearby. For example, we know from historical records that the mummy of Ramses II was originally moved from her tomb to that of his father Seti I. This was very important point and an argument in the search for the mummy of Hatshepsut. And the first thing I did was pay attention to the small, undecorated grave of KV60 in front of the real tomb of the queen. Then I studied all the mummies found in this burial and came to the conclusion that they really moved. And at that moment I decided to go down to the original tomb of Hatshepsut - KV20. I don't think many people have entered this grave. Even the Egyptologists who worked in the Valley of the Kings avoided this because KV20 is one of the most difficult tombs in the valley.”