Dan Snow's History Hit - Hatshepsut: The Temple of Egypt's Female Pharaoh

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

On the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor, Egypt sits a temple considered to be one of the great architectural wonders of ancient Egypt. The memorial temple of Hatshepsut, the great female pharaoh who came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC sits nestled beneath a dramatic amphitheatre of limestone cliffs on the edge of the Valley of the Kings. Hatshepsut lived as long before Jesus was born as Henry the 8th lived after and presided over rich and powerful Egypt. She established trade routes and her reign was marked by peace and prosperity. But, at her death her step-son Thutmose III did all he could to erase her from the history books, replacing her image with his own, burying her statues and scratching her name from the temple walls.In this episode director of the West Bank Dr Bahaa Gaber takes Dan around her temple and fills him in on what kind of leader Hatshepsut really was.Produced by Mariana Des Forges.Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. I'm on the west bank of the Nile now, which locals call the side of the dead, because this is the side where the great necropolis is, the Valley of the Kings, and this valley that I'm in now, right next to the Valley of the Kings, I'm looking at a gigantic amphitheatre of limestone cliffs. Beyond them is the Valley of the Kings, but underneath is the most perfectly proportioned temple in the world, the greatest temple in egypt

i think and that is the temple of hatchet suit a pharaoh a pharaoh who lived as long before jesus was born as henry viii lived after him 1500 bc a pharaoh that ruled for decades presiding over a powerful egypt one of the great builder pharaohs huge amounts of monuments and a pharaoh who established trade and prosperity and that pharaohs huge amounts of monuments and a pharaoh who established trade and prosperity and that pharaoh surprise surprise folks was a woman Hatshepsut was a woman go figure anyway this is her temple it's in the desert on the edge of the fertile strip that runs along the banks the Nile here on the west side and what's so extraordinary about this temple up close is the contrast between the the rough limestone cliffs behind it shaped by nature and then in front of them the carved

beautifully crafted stonework of this new kingdom temple right next to each other and i'm looking now at the colonnades you can see through these colonnaded walkways you can see still the ancient paint still on the walls depicting scenes of ships going up the Nile, which obviously I'm a big fan of that. That's wonderful. And then you've got all sorts of other mythical scenes with the Egyptian pantheon featured and scenes that are supposed to be drawn from her reign. It's been extensively restored, rebuilt, Hatshepsut Temple,

which does make it one of the most striking temples anywhere in the world. I'm about to go in and learn about one of history's most remarkable leaders. Enjoy. So Dr Baha, we're standing now looking out over this temple. You're in charge of all the West Bank, but is this one of the finest on your patch? Yeah, I think that's the the best temple that you can see in Egypt. The temple of the Queen Hatshepsut. We say it's a temple. Did she build it for herself? Yes. Yeah.

This temple is a different temple than the temples on the east bank of Luxor, like the Temple of Karnak and Luxor. Those temples, we call them the Temple of the Gods. So they build for the gods. But the Queen Hatshepsut built this temple for herself, just to let the people come and pray to her spirit i mean it's the most unbelievable setting it's the most dramatic architecture she's never going to be forgotten of course because the landscape of the area it's different

the mountain around you it's different the mountain a beautiful site that the queen chose that site to bought in luxor to build a beautiful temple like that. The design itself, the three levels design, it's unique. So queen want to do something remarkable, something unbelievable to say, I am here. How did she become this female pharaoh? She was one of the royal family who lived during the 18th dynasty, about 1500 BC. She was the daughter of a king called Thutmose I. She was married to the king Thutmose II. She had three daughters and got her son called Thutmose III. The father of Thutmose II, the husband of the queen, died, while Thutmose III, the son, was in his six years old.

died while Thutmose the third the son was in his six years old so the rules in ancient time that the son should be the king of Egypt but Hatshepsut felt this is something unfair in me i'm a daughter of a king a wife of a king so this is my turn to be on the throne of Egypt so she ruled it with the boy Thutmose the third before four years and after the four years, she sent the boy outside of Egypt to the army. And she ruled Egypt alone for 18 years. So 18 years, the people expected that a woman could be the king of Egypt. Egypt wasn't a normal country in ancient time. Egypt was such an amazing and we were the center of the old nations in ancient time. But she managed it.

How unusual was it for Egypt to have a female pharaoh? We had some of them, but nobody liked Hatshepsut. She ruled Egypt 18 years on the throne of Egypt. She dressed as a man. She said, I'm a king of Egypt, not the queen of Egypt. Okay. She erected two obelisks in Karnak Temple. So she was a different woman. 18 years to be the king of Egypt for a woman, something unbelievable. And how does she portray herself? Because we can see these statues. She's got the beard.

She's holding the scepters of ancient Egypt. did she deliberately sort of try and project that masculine image of course because on that time egypt was a strong country so nobody think that woman can be the king of egypt so she bought herself in a masculine image she dressed as a a man. She bought a full spirit. She represented herself like a king. But in fact, she was a woman. And there's amazing images on the walls still with the paint because it's so preserved in the dry desert heat. What are the images from her reign?

What does she choose to portray? She depicts all these beautiful images like the Egyptian boats, the river, the Red Sea images and the Red Sea fish and then the houses in Somalia the King of Somalia, the Egyptian army the trees that they got from Somalia and brought them here and also she did amazing chapels for the goddess Hathor, the goddess of love, music, dancing in ancient time.

And also she brought a beautiful shrine to the god Anubis, and another shrine for the god Amun-Re. By the way, it wasn't easy that the queen brought herself as the king of Egypt, but the high priest of Karnak temple made a beautiful story for the queen and he told all the Egyptian people queen was the daughter of the god Amun-Re the god of Karnak temple that's why she bought a beautiful representation of the divine birth of the queen from the god Amundre. Important she had the priests on her side as well.

Exactly. She was so amazing woman. She controlled some of the people to help her like the high priest, the general of the army and the architect, the one who designed this beautiful temple for her. And were people supposed to come here? Was it just for priests and senior members of Egyptian society?

What did she want to happen here after she was dead? She built this temple for her spirit. She expected that the people would come to the temple to pray to her spirit, to let her live safely on the second life. Even though she was the king of Egypt, she hoped that she would have a beautiful life on the second life even she was the king of egypt but she hoped that she will have a beautiful life on the second life how will become that by the people who give offering to her spirit to pray to her spirit so she will live in her second life safety with the gods

and we're looking at this amazing kind of cliff above us. Over that cliff, over that ridge, is the Valley of the Kings, where the new kings are buried, her successors. What was their relationship with this building here? Was this part of the reason they moved into the valley? Actually, the location of the temple is such amazing. Not because Valley of the Kings is behind us. And we have something else, something very important. If you look straight from here, in just a straight line to the east bank you

will cross the agriculture area the river Nile what you will see behind that Karnak temple this is Karnak temple over there you can see the high walls over there so she want to connect Karnak the temple of her father by Valley of Kings, where her tomb will be there. So the three sides will be on the same line. That was the queen, Hatshepsut. The landscape of the area, the mountain, the cliffs here, will give you the impression that the mountain surrounding the temple, protecting the temple of the queen.

Such a unique temple in our civilization. And after the death of the queen, the boy went back to the throne of Egypt and he became the king, Thutmose III, the great warrior of Egypt. He was a great king. Did he like his stepmother? No, of course. You know what happened you know he chiseled all the names and the images of the queen from everywhere from karnak temple from her temple from the tomb everywhere you will see the name of the queen hatshepsut have been chiseled by

thomas the third okay but i think that the queen made a favor for that boy. When she sent him to the army, he stayed on the army, and he became the great warrior of Egypt. He ruled Egypt. About 37 years, he made 17 wars against the neighbor of Egypt. The Egyptian army in one time arrived to Iraq and to the south, to Nubia. So he erected the empire of Egypt. I think that was because the queen sent him to the army to get his education on the army of Egypt.

And she made Egypt such a prosperous, stable place. Of course. He had a good platform to build. Of course, of course. The relation between Egypt and the other country around us was such an amazing that was the queen Egypt was so rich country she was peaceful country during the time of the queen that was the queen of Egypt what would this have looked like say 500 years ago during the Ottoman period? All of these temples and the tombs were covered by the sand

So you can't see much on the time Can we say that more than 80% from the temples in Luxor were covered? So just ruins of the building Sometimes you don't care when you walk around them But the amazing thing that you can imagine yourself walking around the desert and then suddenly your donkey will fall down in a well or a shaft. And then you will just get it from out, you will see a door of a tomb in front of you. And a lot of treasures there.

That was such an amazing feeling, I think, on that day. What an extraordinary time to be down here. And so even Hatshepsut's temple, it now stands so proud. Was this covered in sand as well? Yes. Can we say that 60% of this temple were covered in sand? And actually, the temple was in a bad condition. I told you before that most of the third steps out of the Queen Hatshepsut

damaged most of the inscription, as you can see around you. And also also during the Christian people the 5th century AD some of the priests came here and they stayed and they used that temple as a church so that's why until today we call this temple the northern monastery yes the northern monastery means the temple of the Queen Hatshepsut so after the that time, I mean after the 5th century, so the temple, 60% of the temple is covered by the sand, but you can still see the ruins of the temple from everywhere.

And what's the greatest experience you've had? You must have been at every new discovery, and they must call you up straight away on your back phone. Yeah, I think that every discovery that we made on the last few years had a story you know but the most important one the most amazing one it was in my last season when we decided that's enough we're done and suddenly we just tried to gather all of the equipments from the sites and said okay we finished let's go okay took all of the equipment from the sites and said, OK, we finished. Let's go. OK, took all of the equipment out from this area.

And then suddenly one of the workers came to me and said, Sir, we found a gap. Oh, wow, a gap. Clean it quickly, please. So we found a step. Oh, this is a step. It means that's the weight of a tomb. So we said, nobody move from that spot. Stay here until we do the full excavation of that stairs.

Oh, we found six stairs and then we found the entrance of a tomb. So we spent one more year doing the excavation on the site. So it means that whenever you say, we're done, we're finished, no, still more, still more underneath. I remember what Davis said in 1914 before he left the Valley of the Kings, and this is one of the sentences that he said to Carter.

By the way, he said to him, it's almost finished. No more tombs in Valley of the Kings. So I think Carter at that time had got disappointed from that word, but he didn't care. But that's actually the feeling of all of the Egyptologists. Whenever you say to the Egyptologists, no more tombs, no.

This is not the truth. There's still more underneath. So you're telling me, you're telling me that today, in the Valley of the Kings, there's still tombs to be discovered? Still tombs. Still. And that's why we are looking for tombs in Valley of the Kings until today. Listen, call me. Call me when you find it. I want to be with you.

You know, normally we say, well, every 100 years, we have a surprise. What about disturbing these mummies? Are you interrupting their journey in the afterlife? Sometimes you feel that we have to leave them, feel safety in their tombs. But on the other hand, we have to protect them. Because the atmosphere around the mummies has been changed. So I think we are going to miss all of them

if we leave them on the tombs. So that's why we are moving them to a museum in an atmosphere to put the mummies in a good condition, to feel safety that the mummies will stay forever. They'll be happy there. They'll be happy in the museum. They will be happy. I feel they have the history on our shoulders. All this tradition of ours, our school history, our songs,

this part of the history of our country, all were gone and finished. Thanks, folks, for songs, this part of the history of our country, all were gone and finished. Thanks folks for listening to this episode of Dan Snow's History. As I say all the time, I love doing these podcasts. They are the best thing I do professionally. I feel very lucky to have you listening to them. If you fancied giving them a rating review, obviously the best rating review possible would be ideal. It makes a big difference to us i know it's a pain but we'd really really be grateful and if you want to listen to the other podcasts in our ever-increasing stable don't forget we've got suzanne lipscomb with not just the tudors that's flying high in the charts we've got our medieval podcast gone medieval the brilliant

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