Queens of the Nile: The Lives and Legacies of Ancient Egypt’s Most Powerful Women

Of all the puzzles about ancient Egypt, the pharaoh Hatshepsut stands out as one of the most remarkable rulers in the long and complex history of ancient Egypt. Although it was extremely rare for a woman to rule Egypt, it was not entirely unheard of by the time Hatshepsut became the regent of the Nile Valley. The Middle Kingdom saw a woman named Sobekneferu ascend to Egypt’s highest office, but the details of Hatshepsut’s situation are quite different (Grajetzki 2006, 61). It remains unknown just precisely how Hatshepsut was able to arrange such a coup as Thutmose II’s half-sister. The familial connection between Hatshepsut and Thutmose II meant that Thutmose III was actually the queen’s nephew, but it is likely that the two had few, if any, interactions before the death of Thutmose II. Hatshepsut’s relative middling status in the Egyptian royal house makes the situation even more intriguing.

In the early 20th century, over 3,000 years after her death, Nefertiti became a household name across the world and one of the most famous women of the ancient world. Egyptologists were aware that she was a queen of the New Kingdom Egypt during the later portion of the 18th dynasty, but she was barely known until the presentation of a reconstructed bust depicting her at the Berlin Museum in 1924. Nefertiti means “the beautiful one has come”, and if the presented bust is anything to judge by, she was indeed a beautiful woman. 

Cleopatra was a legendary figure even to contemporary Romans and the ancient world, as Plutarch’s quote suggests, and she was a controversial figure who was equally reviled and praised through the years, depicted as a benevolent ruler and an evil seductress, sometimes at the same time. Over 2,000 years after her death, everything about Cleopatra continues to fascinate people around the world, from her lineage as a Ptolemaic pharaoh, her physical features, and her famous suicide.