The Egyptian history تـاريــخ is full of stories of amazing women نــســاء ; women who sometimes surpassed men by their powers and effects. These women not only have carved their names in history books, but also in the minds and hearts of all Egyptians. They were and still a source of inspiration إلــهــام for so many.
Today, I am going to tell you about one of those amazing women. Her name means “The Foremost of Noble Ladiesأمـــيـرة الأمــيـرات الــنــبــيــــلات ”. She is Hatshepsut (1508 – 1458 BC). Hatshepsut حــتــشــبــســــوت was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt and her reign lasted for twenty years. She is regarded by Egyptologists عــلــمـــاء الــمــصـــريـــات as one of the most successful pharaohs. The Egyptologist James Henry says that she is “the first great woman in history of whom we are informed.” She was the daughter of Thutmose I تــحــتــمــس الأول and her mother was Queen Ahmes أحــمـــس . She was married to Thutmose II تــحــتــمـــس الــثـــانـى and shared together the rule of the Egyptian empire. They had a daughter that was named Neferure.
Compared to other female pharaohs, Hatshepsut’s reign was much longer and prosperous. At the beginning, she launched some military campaigns حــمـــلات that were necessary for her to hold good grasp of the empire. She led successful military campaigns in Nubia, the Levant and Syria. Later on, her reign was best described as the longest peaceful ســِــلــمــى era. Hatshepsut worked hard to establish strong international trading relationships عـــلاقـــات with other nations. She earned Egypt great wealth which helped her to carry out lots of enormous engineering and architecture projects. Hatshepsut prepared for a huge trading mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition رحـــلــة إســتــكــشـــافــيـــــة consisted of five huge ships with about 210 men each. They returned with many goods from Punt.
Hatshepsut greatly cared for architecture الـــعـــِــمــــارة and engineering. She is considered one of the most productive builders in ancient Egypt. She carried out hundreds of construction projects مـــشـــروعــــات both in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. She employed the same great architect Ineni who worked for her father and husband. During her time, so much statuary was produced that almost every major museum مـُــتــحـــف in the world has Hatshepsut statuary among their collections مــجــمــُـــوعـــات . She also had monuments constructed at the Temple of Karnak مــعــبــد الــكـــرنـــك . She had twin obelisks مـــِـــســـلات constructed at the entrance of the temple; one of those obelisks still stands there as the tallest surviving ancient obelisk on earth. Hatshepsut’s masterpiece was her mortuary temple (The Temple Of Hatshepsut مــعــبــد حــتــشــبـــســــوت). It was built in a cliff at Deir El-Bahri at a site on the west bank of the Nile River near the entrance to what is now called the Valley of the Kings, Luxor.
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Peace ســــلام /Salam/
