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Hatchepsut By Joyce A. Tyldesley

© Nikole Didier

"Tucked away in the western hills where I would be able to greet my father, Amun Ra every morning for all eternity. A mortuary temple to defeat all others. With architecture so skilled it would outshine even the age-old pyramids in the desert."

The era is a very delicate and changing time. It is the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. Tradition and stability are questioned while truth and myth coincide with the affairs of the country in the hands of one woman: Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

The pharaoh of Egypt was an icon, much as the Queen of England or even the president of the United States sometimes appears to be.

But how far can icons be stretched? Pharaoh could have been anything. He could have been old, lazy, incompetent, boring, alcoholic or insane, but he still would have been pharaoh. But could he have been a she?

To answer this question and to learn more about this distinguished female pharaoh, I turned to a book that bore her very name: Hatchepsut By Joyce Tydsley.

Hatshepsut was infatuated with the idea of her divine birth because in order for her to become Pharaoh, she needed to have some sort of legitimate reason to become the heir to the thrown over her infant step-son Thutmose III.

Here is an instance from the book that shows great description of why this woman felt she was worthy of the thrown of Egypt. "Hatshepsut's relationship with Amun was always extremely important to her and throughout her reign she took every available opportunity to give due acknowledgement to her heavenly father. By promoting the cult of Amun, she was effectively reinforcing her own position and promoting herself (Tydsley 102)."

Barns & Noble.com, described the "archaeological record" of the book "meticulous". This I will have to agree on. There were quotes,actual wall inscriptions, cartouches, paintings, you name it, it was there! I also enjoyed the pictures (though black and white) showing the restoration work that has been done on Hatshepsut's mortuary temple, called Dier-el Bahri on the western bank of the Nile. The pictures of the restored areas are great examples of exactly what the temple would have looked like.

Amazon.com, the internets's largest source of books online, gave a great description of Hatchepsut , "Hatshepsut was an important pharaoh, who's rule was notable for internal order and other significant achievements ( Kirkus Revies 1996)." The book gave reassurance of her government's stablity and the country's wealth and power during her reign.