Egypt - Hatshepsut

Jenny and I were fortunate to be able to go to Egypt recently to see some of the amazing ruins and antiquities dating back some 5000 plus years. The Egyptian Government, with the help of many other governments, have done a beautiful job of restoring some of these priceless work of arts: yes works of art.

We saw so many tombs and temples that as I write this, I cannot remember what was what? But Hatshepsut I remember well because its beauty and, well a woman Pharaoh, although not the first; in fact her name means. “noble lady”. Most Egyptologists considered her to be one of the the most successful pharaohs. She ruled for a little more than twenty years in the mid fifteen century BC. It must have been difficult to rule and accepted as a woman, and just maybe that must have been why she depicted herself in many of her surviving images as a man.

Hatshepsut also is credited with being one of the greatest builders of of all the dynasties. The obelisks at Karnak, which I will be posting later, is among tallest and most magnificent ever constructed.

This Hatshepsut mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, one of my favorites of the temples that we saw. What a beautiful temple and to think it was built in the around 1460BC.

Close up shots of Hatshepsut; notice the beard!

Jenny and the security people at Hatshepsut!

Just one example of the intricate art work inside the temple.

Large granite sphinx bearing the likeness of the pharaoh Hatshepsut, depicted with the traditional false beard in the Metropolitan Museum.