The historical setting
Hatshepsut (c. 1505–1458 BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from c. 1479 BC until c. 1458 BC (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second confirmed woman who ruled in her own right, the first being Sobekneferu/Neferusobek in the Twelfth Dynasty. Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I and Great Royal Wife, Ahmose. Upon the death of her husband and half-brother Thutmose II, she had initially ruled as regent to her stepson, Thutmose III, who inherited the throne at the age of two.
Several years into her regency, Hatshepsut assumed the position of pharaoh and adopted the full royal titulary, making her a co-ruler alongside Thutmose III. In order to establish herself in the Egyptian patriarchy, she took on traditionally male roles and was depicted as a male pharaoh, with physically masculine traits and traditionally male garb.
Reign
Upon the death of Thutmose II, the underage Thutmose III became the pharaoh of Egypt. Hatshepsut was thought of by early modern scholars to have only served as regent alongside him. However, modern scholars agree that, while she initially served as regent for young Thutmose III from his accession in c. 1479 BC, Hatshepsut eventually assumed the position of pharaoh alongside him by Year 7 of his reign, c. 1472 BC; becoming queen regnant, Hatshepsut shared Thutmose III's existing regnal count, effectively back-dating her accession as pharaoh to Year 1, when she had been merely regent. As a result, Thutmose III was relegated to junior coregent (Horus), while Hatshepsut became senior coregent (Osiris).
Although queen Sobekneferu and (possibly) Nitocris, have previously assumed the role of pharaoh, Hatshepsut was the only female ruler to do so in a time of prosperity, and she arguably had more powers than her female predecessors. Retrospectively, Hatshepsut was described by ancient authors as having reigned for about 21–22 years, which included both her regency and her reign as queen regnant. Josephus and Julius Africanus follow the earlier testimony of Manetho (3rd century BC), mentioning a queen regnant called Amessis or Amensis, specified by Josephus as having been the sister of her predecessor.
Trade routes
Hatshepsut re-established a number of trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. Hatshepsut's delegation returned from Punt bearing 31 live myrrh trees and other luxuries such as frankincense. Hatshepsut would grind the charred frankincense into kohl eyeliner. This is the first recorded use of the resin. Hatshepsut had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahari, which is also famous for its realistic depiction of Queen Ati of the Land of Punt. Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and the Sinai Peninsula shortly after the Punt expedition. Very little is known about these expeditions.
Although many Egyptologists have claimed that her foreign policy was mainly peaceful, it is possible that she led military campaigns against Nubia and Canaan. Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders in Ancient Egypt, commissioning hundreds of construction projects throughout both Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Many of these building projects were temples to build her religious base and legitimacy beyond her position as God's Wife of Amun. At these temples, she performed religious rituals that had hitherto been reserved for kings, corroborating the evidence that Hatshepsut assumed traditionally male roles as pharaoh.
Damnatio memoriae
Toward the end of the reign of Thutmose III and into the reign of his son, an attempt was made to remove Hatshepsut from certain historical and pharaonic records. Her cartouches and images were chiselled off stone walls. Erasure methods ranged from full destruction of any instance of her name or image to replacement, inserting Thutmose I or II where Hatshepsut once stood. There were also instances of smoothing, patchwork jobs that covered Hatshepsut's cartouche; examples of this can be seen on the walls of the Deir el-Bahari temple. Simpler methods also included covering, where new stone was added to fully cover reliefs or sacred stone work.
At the Deir el-Bahari temple, Hatshepsut's many statues were torn down and in many cases, smashed or disfigured before being buried in a pit. At Karnak, an attempt was made to wall up her monuments. While it is clear that much of this rewriting of Hatshepsut's history occurred only during the close of Thutmose III's reign, it is not clear why it happened, other than as a manifestation of the typical pattern of self-promotion that existed among the pharaohs and their administrators, or perhaps to save money by not building new monuments for the burial of Thutmose III, and instead using the grand structures built by Hatshepsut.