Hatshepsut

When I first heard of Hatshepsut I was intrigued because of her many abilities and achievements. The daughter, sister and wife of a king, she was generally considered to be a pharaoh who inaugurated a long peaceful era. She re-established international trading relationaships previously lost during foreign occupation and brought great wealth to Egypt. That wealth enabled Hatshepsut to initiate building projects that raised the caliber of Ancient Egyptian architecture to a standard- comparable to classical architecture, that would not be rivaled by any other culture for one thousand years. She managed to rule for about twenty years (1478-1458 BC).

As I read about and observed photographs of statues, reliefs and hieroglyphs of Hatshepsut, I wondered what her voice sounded like. I also thought about what some aspects of her personality might have been like.

It was surprising to me to read that she suffered from diabetes and arthritis and that her death was attributed to a carcinogenic skin lotion which led to her having bone cancer.