All language subtitles for The Queens That Changed the World s01e04 Hatshepsut.eng

Across the centuries
and around the world...

..women have ruled kingdoms
and built empires.

She could not be hidden.
She could not be suppressed.

Now we discover the real story
of six iconic queens.

She tore the city down.

Despite the fire, despite the whole
city being massacred,

we still have these walls.

In this series,
we follow in the footsteps...

Here it is, the Chapel Royal.

A pretty magical place.

..of history's most important
female monarchs...

She believed that every single man
who fought on the battlefield

in her name was worthy
of honour and respect.

..to find out how they overcome
the prejudices of their times...

She is their mother,
she is their commander,

she is their goddess.

..and the challenges facing
their reigns...

This was a dangerous place to be.

She wouldn't have shown any fear,

but I'm sure she felt it.

..to change their world and ours.

She is sassy, she is fearless.

She is a bad-ass queen.

1894.

On the west bank of the Nile,

archaeologists are about to uncover

one of Ancient Egypt's
greatest treasures.

A mortuary temple
called Djeser-Djeseru -

"the Holy of Holies".

If you see this temple now,

it's a little bit different
because of the earthquakes.

Also because the environmental
changes happened, of course,

during thousands of years.

So, the whole temple was covered
with the sand,

so that's why no-one could
reach the temple.

Buried beneath sand and rock,
this mortuary temple was built for

a pharaoh over 3,000 years ago,

the likes of which
has never been seen before.

This is the end of
the journey of this temple.

So now we are in the...
very holy part.

This is the sanctuary.

The idea of this room
is something spiritual.

So the soul, which we call it Ka,
is passing,

after the walls of this room,

to the second life.

Directly behind
the sanctuary is a tomb.

And in 1902,
British archaeologist Howard Carter

is about to open it up.

For an Egyptologist
to stumble on a tomb

in the Valley of the Kings,

to wonder what was inside it,

and who you might find,

would've been incredibly exciting.

Carter will become famous
for discovering

the tomb of Tutankhamun some
20 years from now.

But that's all to come.

Here, at Deir el-Bahri,

he has started unravelling
the truth about one of

the most powerful pharaohs
of Ancient Egypt,

a woman called Hatshepsut.

Her tomb is located inside an area
called the Valley of the Kings.

We have another
Valley of the Queens,

but she's not with them.

She is with the kings.

But her temple has been defaced.

We cannot see the head
of Hatshepsut.

They destroyed the whole
head on the statues.

And when Carter finds the
sarcophagus, now in a museum,

it is empty.

She disappeared.

We don't know even where she is.

Initially,
he's not interested in it.

The sarcophagus is open,
there's no body in it.

So he kind of seals it back up.

But the world will later
take notice.

Through painstaking work
translating the ancient hieroglyphs

that cover the tomb, the world will
learn the truth about Hatshepsut,

a woman, who, more than
3,000 years earlier,

had become one of
the most influential pharaohs

Egypt has ever seen.

Around 1504 BCE.

King Thutmose I
and his wife, Ahmose,

are about to welcome a daughter
into their family.

The name the baby is given
is carefully chosen.

The name Hatshepsut means

"foremost of noble ladies."

I think there can be
little doubt that Hatshepsut

was an exceptional individual.

Definitely,
she was a strong character.

Despite her status, Hatshepsut
isn't destined to be pharaoh.

It's important to recognise today

that succession works
really differently.

Today, we have female succession.

But that's not the case
necessarily in Egypt.

Hatshepsut would not have been
seen as a potential heir.

As long as there were males that
were alive who had royal blood,

they would've taken
precedence over her.

Hatshepsut has two brothers
and one sister.

Although unrecorded,
as is tradition,

her father, Thutmose I,

would also have had a number of
other wives and mistresses.

So, Hatshepsut potentially
has many half-brothers

who would outrank her.

Hatshepsut would've expected
to wield power -

but as the wife or
the mother of kings.

Hatshepsut would've seen
restrictive elements

within women's roles in Egypt.

I'm sure she would've felt that

there has to be change.

But change wouldn't be easy.

Pharaohs had been ruling
for 1,500 years -

and in that time,

there had only ever been one
woman on the throne.

There was a previous
female pharaoh.

She was literally
the last heir of the dynasty.

There were no other male heirs.

And so, it fell to her as kind of
the last princess of the royal line.

And that's often the case
with female successors.

They're often
second-choice successors.

Around 1494 BCE.

A ten-year-old Hatshepsut is making
her way to the temple at Karnak.

Here, she's about to carry out
an important religious role.

One that will help her later
to become pharaoh.

Hatshepsut was given the title,

and followed actually in
the footsteps of her grandmother,

with the title "God's Wife."

Now, this is something quite new,

it only maybe dated back a
couple of generations.

The grandmother seems to have been
the first holder of this title.

And it's an important
religious role in which

a female member of
the royal family plays the role

of the wife of Amun Ra,

the chief state god of
Egypt at the time.

So, an extremely important
religious association.

The role is a quasi-sexualised
role to do with creation.

So, the God Amun Ra produces
the world by masturbation.

It is his hand that
generates the universe.

Hatshepsut's role as
the wife of Amun

would've been giving pleasure or
gratitude towards his statues.

We are talking about a young girl

being placed in what is really quite

a sexually graphic role

to excite the god.

The problem with all Egyptology,
in a way, is we are looking,

by necessity, at ancient Egypt

through these modern moral
and social lenses.

What to an ancient Egyptian
would've been perfectly normal,

a natural thing for a
princess to do,

may seem rather strange now.

When we put that into the context,
you think about Mary,

the Immaculate Conception,
birthing a God.

We need to be careful that we don't,
sort of, judge that too much.

But taking on the role of God's wife
was about more than religion.

Understanding her family legacy
was definitely intrinsic

in every aspect of
her understanding of herself.

Hatshepsut would've been taught that
legacy was very, very important.

Now, that responsibility is
in Hatshepsut's hands.

And it transforms her life.

If you're someone involved in
a religious ritual at Karnak,

you are someone very important.

It's not simply showing up to
a congregational service.

You are actively
affecting the recreation

of the universe, regularly.

And that would bring social
status, religious status,

and material wealth.

The God's Wife had a big estate.

She would have had a lot of staff.

And Hatshepsut would have formed
a relationship with

those religious leaders,
or people with power.

And it's possible these connections
will help Hatshepsut

to claim the crown for herself.

Hatshepsut is learning how
to play the game,

and how to play it well.

Around 1492 BCE.

Hatshepsut has just received
news that will change

the young princess' life,
and Egypt, forever.

Her father, King Thutmose I,

has died.

Hatshepsut's father passing would've
been very heavy for her,

because they had such a bonded
relationship, one of great love.

Because she was the only surviving
child for his wife,

the great royal wife.

Hatshepsut is probably 12,
13 when her father dies.

Obviously that's a challenging
age in and of itself.

It's that transitional moment
between childhood and adulthood.

Hatshepsut had at least two brothers
who died before her father died,

who might have been expected
to be the king.

However, this is
a polygamous framework.

The king has many wives,
consorts, and concubines,

all of which can provide
him with heirs.

Hatshepsut's half-brother is
crowned Thutmose II.

Although she would've been sad
and very, very much feeling

a sense of loss, she would've
also felt a sense of duty

to carry on
the legacy of her father.

And so, Hatshepsut marries
her half-brother.

Royal incest, to us, seems like
a very strange thing,

but it's something that actually
has a really broad tradition,

over many monarchies,

to keep the royal blood
as pure as possible.

There is this tradition of
the ancient Egyptian gods themselves

marrying brother and sister.

This is making the pharaoh
and his sister almost like mirroring

those gods and goddesses.

They're saying, "We are more
than normal human beings.

"We actually can act like gods."

As the son of a lesser wife
or mistress,

her half-brother is
less royal than Hatshepsut.

He couldn't be a king alone.

He has to marry
to the royal daughter.

So she was controlling
the situation, but still as wife.

Within Egyptian heritage
and culture,

it's the women's bloodline
that creates the most autonomy.

This is why it was necessary
for sisters to marry

their half-brothers.

Through her mother's line,

she has royal connectivity
to that bloodline,

which then strengthens Hatshepsut's
place within the 18th dynasty.

The new king knows this,

and uses Hatshepsut
to solidify his position.

We start to see stone carvings
that are marking out

the rule of the new king,
Thutmose II.

All of her titles are being listed -
she is King's Daughter,

King's Sister, King's Great Wife,

God's Wife of Amun.

So she's lending all of
that clout to her husband.

It's difficult to say with
any great certainty exactly what

her activities would've been,

but we know she was filling
the role of the King's Great Wife.

That is the most significant
position for a female in Egypt.

So she is incredibly important,
incredibly visible,

incredibly central to court life.

But that's not enough
for Hatshepsut.

She's going to be a royal wife
like no-one has ever seen before.

In the reign of her husband,

Hatshepsut takes on more power,
more significance.

She appears as a
standard queen of Egypt,

the King's Great Wife, as expected.

But she starts to get involved in
things like commissioning obelisks,

giving statues
to non-royal officials.

So, she's doing things which are
slightly outside the remit of

a traditional queen of Egypt.

Her confidence was unrivalled,
and as a result,

afforded her the positions that
she was able to receive,

afforded her the position
to be able to be heard,

and then, to be able to be
encouraged to take up positions that

were unheard of and create history

in the way that we understand
history being made today.

She could not be ignored,
she could not be hidden,

she could not be suppressed.

Around 1479 BCE.

After about 13 years on the throne,

Hatshepsut's husband,
King Thutmose II, has just died.

It's a moment in which

the dynasty could have collapsed.

It's a moment in which there would

have been a huge power vacuum.

The problem is Hatshepsut
and Thutmose II don't have a son

to take over the throne.

Hatshepsut has a daughter,
not a son.

Now at the time, of course,

she would've known that this meant

that her child would not go
on to become Pharaoh.

There is another royal child.

The king had a son with a
woman from his hareem.

It is this boy who is crowned
Thutmose III.

But he's only a baby.

There's a long tradition in Egypt
of the king's mother,

effectively regents.

So, women who are ruling
with minority kings.

Kings come to the throne
as children,

obviously not able to
rule themselves,

and someone needs to stand in.

And a mother is considered to be
the ideal person to do that.

And the fact that women weren't
generally pharaohs themselves means

that they could, in theory,
be trusted to step aside

when the male Pharaoh came of age.

But Hatshepsut isn't
Thutmose III's mother.

If someone else was regent
for this baby king,

what's going to happen to her?

Hatshepsut needs the title of
King's Mother to be hers.

It's a really important
moment for her.

She has to use her position,
her standing as the king's daughter,

the king's wife,
the God's wife of Amun,

to kind of ensure this
transition of power.

Fortunately for Hatshepsut,

the mother of Thutmose III does not
have the same connections.

She is not of royal blood.

Hatshepsut is the most senior

member of the royal family.

She has good connections.

And so, people look to her to lead.

That says a lot about her character.

She clearly was someone who knew
how to do things,

who made an impact.

And this is really important,
this dynastic transition,

it helped smooth that over.

Knowing that she had people around
her that she could trust

to support her in taking power

would've been really
vitally important.

Already, Hatshepsut has been
the king's daughter,

and then, the king's wife.

And now, she is queen regent to
the new king, her stepson.

With this latest role, she has more
power than ever before.

Hatshepsut's power as regent
would've been nearly complete.

Thutmose III was a baby when
he came to the throne.

So obviously, he could not
personally be involved in rule.

She would've had pretty much
untrammelled power

and authority as his regent.

She is effectively ruling
Egypt in every possible way,

but it's a temporary kind of power.

It's power with an
expiration date, effectively.

But it seems Hatshepsut has
no intention of stepping aside

when Thutmose III comes of age.

In fact,
she's already promoting herself.

So, we're already seeing her
being incredibly effective,

and she begins to kind of cement
the position of the new king

in monuments in stone.

But we begin to see her
being cemented alongside him.

She's not necessarily being
this supporting arm.

As we can see from carvings at
The Red Chapel, at Karnak,

showing the Pharaoh and
his stepmother.

This work is so crucial in
telling us about their dynamic.

So, Hatshepsut is positioned

not only closer to the God Amun Ra,

but she is positioned
in front of Thutmose himself.

This really tells us so much about
her own self-fashioning.

She's placing herself above
her stepson in the hierarchy.

They're meant to be ruling together,

their equal partnership in
ruling ancient Egypt.

And yet, she is positioning herself

in front of him, before him,
ahead of him.

And it's not just Hatshepsut's
position in the carvings

that tells us about her intention.

To cement her power,
she's undergoing a rebrand.

This dates from the reign
of Hatshepsut -

3,500 years, almost.

When a Pharaoh ascends
to the throne,

they each take on a throne name.

Hatshepsut is born Hatshepsut,

foremost of noble ladies.

Very nice name.

But she takes on
more and more power.

She gets a name like any
other king of Egypt.

Hatshepsut takes
the throne name Maatkare.

So, you've got the snake with
its tail coiled round.

That is Maat.

Then the arms write
the word Kar, or Kar spirit.

And then, on top of the snake,
although it's damaged,

it is a sun disc.

And that's the sign of
the sun God, the God Ra.

So, read together, Maatkare
is the name of Hatshepsut.

Unlike any other pharaoh's
stepmother in history,

Hatshepsut has a throne name.

And it's vital she does.

Hatshepsut is in danger of
losing her grip on power.

Her stepson, Thutmose III,
is getting older,

and soon will no longer need
a regent to rule for him.

She's gotten into
the position of power as ruler,

and clearly intends to
hang on to that.

Around 1473 BCE.

Thutmose III is now about
8-9 years old.

So, Hatshepsut decides
to take the ultimate next step

to consolidate her power.

Around this regal year seven
of the joint rule,

Hatshepsut takes on, definitively,

the role of a Pharaoh.

She says in inscriptions that
the God Amun speaks to her and says,

"You are the chosen Pharaoh."

Not to deny Thutmose III,

but she equally is not simply
now the God's Wife of Amun.

Put down that regalia
and take on the crown of Egypt.

She is now the second woman
to become a pharaoh in 1,500 years.

Discovered within her temple,
there are a series of reliefs

that depict Hatshepsut's coronation

and, most importantly,
her divine birth.

By this image or relief, we can see
the coronation of Hatshepsut.

Because now, she is presented

officially from her father,

Amun, as his daughter.

And by this, it was the
first step she took

to say clearly that "I am the king."

She's the first person
to use this in ancient art

as a way of legitimising
her position.

In ancient Egypt,
this has not been done before.

She claims through these images that
she is descended from the Gods.

She tells a story of herself that
absolutely underscores her power

and her right to rule.

It's something we see
come up again and again.

It's something that is
picked up and used by monarchs

throughout the centuries.

The claim of being
the daughter of a God

is an enormously important political
and religious statement.

Hatshepsut's claim is
to make it clear

that she can rule Egypt and
do whatever she wants.

As a woman, Hatshepsut looks
nothing like her predecessors.

But she needs her people
to accept her authority as Pharaoh.

Hatshepsut comes up with a
truly unique solution.

As can be seen by these statues
of her at her temple,

that stand looking out over
the east bank

and towards the religious
temple at Karnak.

This is a remarkable depiction
of a woman negotiating power

in a truly patriarchal society.

The head itself is decorated
with these elements that are

traditionally male-coded.

We have a traditional pharaoh
headdress that was worn

by the rulers of ancient Egypt.

And there's also the fake beard,

worn by male rulers traditionally,

as a symbol of their virility
and their power,

and their royal status.

This imagery is used in carvings
and other statues.

Hatshepsut wants the message
out there loud and clear.

The beard is only for men.

The only woman who appeared with
fake beard was Hatshepsut.

This sculpture has red skin.

And red skin, traditionally
in ancient Egypt,

is used in depictions
of male figures.

But it's also a
really ambiguous work.

So, we see in the facial features,

she has soft, plump cheeks.

She has elegant, elongated,
quite feminine eyes.

This is not a depiction of a woman
who is dressing as a man,

who's trying to present as
having male gender.

This is someone who is adopting

a visual language that will
enable her to become

the powerful ruler that
she aims to be.

Hatshepsut takes on, definitively,

the role of a pharaoh,

in image and in text.

So, she's described in inscriptions
using male pronouns.

The institutions of power
around her are male.

What we're looking at is someone
who's willing to challenge that.

She's saying that, "You will view
me as you have viewed every

"other king before me.

"And if I have to make changes for
you to be able to see that,

"then that's what
I'm prepared to do."

Soon after Hatshepsut
becomes Pharaoh,

she embarks on a building project.

3,500 years later,
it can still be seen

on the West Bank of the River Nile.

And it is considered one of
the architectural wonders

of the ancient world.

This temple had been built

for her tombs.

So, you can imagine that this big

temple is the entrance of her tombs.

You can imagine that there is
a courtyard full of trees, water,

and you just enter the place,

you will find a lot of
bright colours, amazing scenes.

It's known in ancient Egyptian as
a mansion of millions of years.

It really, for me, is one of
the most beautiful temples in Egypt.

Striking, graceful based
on ideas from the past,

but full of innovative ideas
about kingship.

Of course Egypt has a lot
of amazing temples,

but this is different.

This gave us a strong indicator
that this character

was totally different,
totally unique.

It shows that she isn't afraid
to portray herself

as she wants to be seen.

This temple was for Hatshepsut.

Usually, the kings were
building the temples,

especially in the West Bank,
for the gods.

But she was building
this temple for herself,

because she considered herself
as the daughter of Amun,

the God of the sun.

Hatshepsut was a woman,

but she didn't want to act
like a woman -

weak, someone can control her.

Even the rules can't control her.

So, she was trying
to break all of those rules,

break all of those traditions.

Hatshepsut popularises the idea
that Pharaohs should be buried

in this valley,

establishing what is now known
as the Valley of the Kings.

Kings after Hatshepsut decided
to have their own tombs next to her.

So, you can say that she was

a role model for a lot
of strong kings.

There's this really prominent
row of columns that's at

the top of a huge grand driveway.

They all depict Hatshepsut.

And she's depicted here with
the accoutrements of male power.

And she has other elements

to the design that are evocative

of the god Osiris,

who is the God of the underworld.

But he's also the God
of fertility and crop health.

And this is absolutely
an appropriate God

for the ruler of Egypt
to be channelling,

someone upon whom
the health of the nation,

of the food they're eating,
is absolutely resting.

These statues are not freestanding.

Instead, they're built into
the temple columns themselves.

And so, the message here is that

Hatshepsut is quite literally
holding up the temple,

but also drawing something
of her power from it,

from the gods themselves,
who are present in this building.

She is in statue form,
looking out over her kingdom,

drawing her power from the gods,

and projecting it out
to ancient Egypt.

The statues also tell us
how vast her territories are.

We can see Hatshepsut as Osiris.

She's wearing his linen
cloth, as mummy.

And she's holding the two symbols,

the two important symbols.

The ankh, or the key of the life.

And the other symbol, which referred
that she was ruling Egypt.

And also, she was wearing
the crown of upper Egypt

and north of Egypt,

which means that she was
controlling the whole Egypt.

Hatshepsut's mortuary temple
isn't the only place

the new Pharaoh is keen
to make her mark.

Hatshepsut is responsible
for no fewer than four obelisks.

And they are located at
the temple of Karnak.

Now, that is the home of
the great God Amun Ra,

the great state god of Egypt at
the time Hatshepsut ruled.

She says that she constructs
these obelisks to enable her

to speak to the gods,
she does it for religious reasons.

Without question, Hatshepsut's
building programme sets

a new bar for what Pharaohs do.

As well as honouring the gods
with obelisks,

Hatshepsut builds and
repairs countless monuments,

temples, and shrines here and
throughout her kingdom.

Hatshepsut really understands
the power of stone.

And she understands, as well,
the power of ritual and ceremonial.

And I think she picks that up with
being the God's Wife of Amun.

And she understands that she needs
political support for her rule.

She wanted the religious men
in power to see her pious nature,

and to accept her in

the role of Pharaoh.

And there's evidence as to just how
important these building projects

are to Hatshepsut as Pharaoh.

It appears that she lives on site
whilst construction is ongoing.

She wanted to be keeping
an eye on the builders,

who were busy at work.

She says in inscriptions
she even lost sleep.

She says, "I didn't sleep for
planning these buildings."

So, this really may be a real
reflection that she's on the ground

looking at the
construction workers.

She knew what she wanted

and wanted to see it
come to fruition

in the way that she wanted,

where a male leader,
or a male Pharaoh previously

would've maybe asserted what they
wanted and then gone off and

done something else,
expecting it to happen.

We know she had high officials
who were charged

with doing these things,

but she was ultimately
responsible to the gods.

But it's not clear that Hatshepsut's
monumental building programme

is convincing her people to accept
their new female Pharaoh...

..as can be seen in a cave just
above her mortuary temple.

This is so strange for a specialist,

to see a real sexual scene
on any wall.

This scene is speaking
about Hatshepsut.

Hatshepsut shown as woman,

not her usual appearance as a male.

We don't know who created
this artwork.

It's in a cave above the temple,
by Hatshepsut,

and was likely occupied by workers
who were employed building

the structure itself.

A man decided to draw this just
a few metres away from her temples.

This man, or maybe other men,

weren't respecting Hatshepsut as
their king, or as their Pharaoh.

This graffiti might read as
a piece of misogyny,

a representation of
a woman in possibly

a less-than-powerful position,

and one that gives the power
and the agency to the male figure.

What this really tells us is
that Hatshepsut's gender,

her identity as a woman,
was an issue.

It was something people
thought about, and it was,

as we can see here, mocked.

Around 1470 BCE.

King Hatshepsut is waiting for
an important mission

to return home.

One that will help her
to change her world forever.

And one that is so important,

Hatshepsut documents it on
the walls of her mortuary temple.

This section is magnificent

because through this section,

you can understand the international

relations Hatshepsut had built.

This woman has
commercial thinking,

smart, commercial thinking,

to build trade relations

with other countries.

Around three years earlier,

Hatshepsut sent a mission
to the land of Punt.

The land of Punt,

Egyptologists have tried to locate

in the map for generations,

but we're not absolutely
sure where it is.

On the walls of Hatshepsut's
temple, at Deir el-Bahri,

there are representations
of the expedition.

To go there on ships, the ships
are built on the River Nile.

They're flat packed, and then,

carried across the desert
to the Red Sea.

Now, the ancient Egyptians
were good sailors,

but they were used to the river.

Sailing on the open sea
would've been frightening.

So, they would have kept probably
the land, the shore in sight.

So the area of Punt is maybe
the Horn of Africa.

But to the ancient Egyptians,

this was land on the edge of
the known universe.

The decision to undertake
a major expedition abroad

in ancient Egypt wouldn't have
been taken lightly.

And it's something that carries
significant reputational risk.

But it's a risk Hatshepsut
believes is worth taking.

Hatshepsut is interested
in making Egypt great,

in economic stability
for the future.

She wants the royal treasury
to be well-stocked.

And you can only do that with
economic resources coming in

from other places.

Until now, Egyptian kingdoms
have enjoyed prosperity

by invading and plundering
other countries.

Hatshepsut follows on from
a series of powerful predecessors

who are interested in taking
things from foreign lands.

Her father, as a role model,
was a great warrior.

I think Hatshepsut learnt from
her father that war was inevitable.

But at the same time, there needed

to be space made for the aftermath,

after war.

And I don't think her father had

enough time to be able to show

her that, but I definitely think
they would've had conversations

around what he may
have done differently.

And when you're creating
a new legacy, it's important

to step out from the norm,

step away from what
has been before.

Hatshepsut's in
a different position.

She goes a different route.

She looks for diplomacy,

she looks for trade agreements

that will ensure the prosperity
and the peace of her reign.

This great expedition south
was innovative,

and a very exciting way
to kind of build the realm

in an entirely different direction.

Now, the men are returning
from the expedition.

Hatshepsut is about to find out
if taking the risk has paid off.

By this scene, we can understand
how the journey

had been started, when they
finished saying goodbye to Punt,

and now they are sailing back
to Egypt after three years.

Hatshepsut, here,
standing again as a king.

Carvings depict a long train of men
marching towards their king,

carrying goods from Punt.

Ebony, weapons, and cattle.

And, most importantly
for Hatshepsut,

they've brought Myrrh trees.

She prizes these plants
because they can be used

to produce precious incense,

which is central
to religious rituals.

She says that the gods are pleased.

So, it shows her ability
to marshal resources,

to engage in foreign diplomacy
and foreign expeditions.

What Hatshepsut was able
to do in regards to expanding

the diplomatic relationships
is phenomenal,

within any pharaoh's reign.

The relationship between
her kingship and her diplomacy

was one of balance,
and one of creativity.

So, although she was seen
as a male king,

her directives would've been
coming from a female place.

Hatshepsut was showing herself
as strong with her mindset,

with her, smart decisions,

with her smart collaborations.

And if the other king give
the people the benefits

through protecting or through wars,

Hatshepsut was giving them
the benefits through

another type of protecting.

That peace building,
that we are collaborating,

that we are exchanging trade.

Around 1458 BCE.

Hatshepsut is dead.

Her stepson, Thutmose III,
is now ruling alone.

And it appears that someone is now
trying to remove any trace of her.

After her death,
there appears to have been

a widespread programme of
erasure of her reign.

Sometimes her cartouche
was chiselled off,

some of her monuments were
sheathed, and others stoned

to kind of hide the original name,

to try to erase her reign as
if it had never happened.

We are in the holy part
of this temple,

but we cannot see the heads of
Hatshepsut on those statues.

So, it means that someone
destroyed the statues,

especially in the head part.

It is thought the head is destroyed

to stop the soul entering the body
again for the second life.

But why would someone do that?

This is the most difficult thing
Hatshepsut could face,

especially after her death.

Someone is hating Hatshepsut

and don't want her to live again
in the second life.

At the turn of the 20th century,

archaeologists saw this
as a clue to her character.

A reaction to a woman who
reached too far,

who was grasping, conniving.

They painted her out to be

this evil stepmother,

and that's how she was Pharaoh.

This trope of the wicked stepmother

is something that's applied
to other royal women,

like Joan of Navarre, for example.

We see it in fairy tales,
Snow White, Cinderella.

There's always this
villainous figure,

pushing down the hero of the story.

And that programme of erasure
is seen as kind of a justification,

or a vindication, if you like,

of these years of suppression of
this kind of heroic young king.

As so often, the history
of Egyptology is not really

a reflection of
the ancient Egyptians.

It's a reflection of
our own prejudices.

Hatshepsut is a case in point.

When she's rediscovered
in the 19th century,

Western male Egyptologists

describe her as
"that unscrupulous woman,"

or "that usurper".

That comes from a place
of male misogyny

that is very uncomfortable
with the idea, frankly,

that a woman could effectively
rule Egypt for two decades,

and arguably do it better than
most male pharaohs.

In fact, the destruction
of Hatshepsut's image

could simply have been another
rebrand by her co-ruler

and successor, Thutmose III.

I think Hatshepsut's visibility
was destroyed

because Thutmose III had created
a new military legacy

by being very successful
again in warfare,

as his forefathers had done.

And there was more scope for
that to be remembered

than the time of peace
and the time of tranquillity.

It was about succession.
It was about domination,

and going back to
the masculine aspect of that,

and how to create male,
expressionism back in society in

a kingship that had been
predominantly male to begin with.

But Hatshepsut could not be
erased from history.

500 years after she dies,
the high priest of Amun,

the king of Egypt at the time,

calls his children after
Thutmose III and Hatshepsut.

So, there is a knowledge about
Hatshepsut as a female Pharaoh.

The legacy of Hatshepsut persists
for generations after her death.

Increasingly, we're seeing her as
this linchpin in the 18th Dynasty,

rather than this anomaly.

And I think that's really important
to kind of understand her

in an entirely new way as
an effective ruler.

One of the inspiring things
in Hatshepsut -

you don't need to fight
for what you need,

especially when you believe
that it's your right.

You just need to be smart.

She's a consummate politician and
she really understands how to reign,

how to wield power.

She deserves to be held up
in the pantheon

of great female rulers
past and present.

We ferocious

Cos we ferocious

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