# Hatshepsut: The Story to Know Before Visiting Deir el-Bahari Source: https://luxor101.com/journal/hatshepsut-and-the-erasure Language: en History Reading time 3 min # Hatshepsut: The Story to Know Before Visiting Deir el-Bahari Hatshepsut ruled with full royal titles alongside Thutmose III. Her royal names and images were attacked later; the pattern and timing complicate the familiar explanation of immediate personal revenge. Hatshepsut first acted as regent for Thutmose III, then adopted full kingship alongside him. Her monuments express that position in several ways. Some show the conventional masculine regalia of a king; others retain feminine features, and inscriptions can use feminine royal titles. The familiar claim that Egyptian had no way to describe a female ruler is too simple. At Deir el-Bahari, three terraces rise towards the cliffs. The temple’s reliefs present divine birth, royal legitimacy and the expedition to Punt. They are rich historical evidence, but also a carefully chosen royal account. Hatshepsut’s reign is especially known for building and trade; that should not become a claim that it involved no military activity. At Karnak, her obelisks and the reconstructed Red Chapel connect her kingship with Amun. The different monuments show how architecture, inscriptions and ritual worked together to present royal authority. Later, many of her names and figures were removed or replaced. Evidence associates much of the campaign with the later reign of Thutmose III, rather than an immediate reaction at her death. That complicates the popular story of a stepson acting at once out of resentment. It does not let us read his private thoughts. Questions of succession and royal legitimacy form part of scholarly discussion, but no single motive should be presented as settled. At the temple, distinguish what you can see from what it might mean. An altered figure or recut name is physical evidence. Explaining precisely who ordered each change, when and why requires more. That distinction makes Hatshepsut’s story more interesting: her monuments are both powerful statements and records of how later rulers responded to them. ## Follow the reign through its monuments Follow the reign through its monuments | Sequence | What to notice or check | | --- | --- | | Regency and kingship | Her role changed from regent to king alongside Thutmose III. Compare the royal titles with the different forms of her images. | | Building and Punt | At Deir el-Bahari, the Punt reliefs and royal imagery present the reach and religious authority of her reign. | | Later alteration | Erased names and damaged figures belong to a later campaign against her royal memory. The surviving pattern does not reveal every motive. | - [Look for the surviving details at her temple](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/temple-of-hatshepsut) > The alteration is visible; its motive needs a separate argument. Approximate reading time, calculated from the English text at 200 words per minute. Arabic reading time may differ. Look for this ## At Temple of Hatshepsut, look for this. Explore related details in the site’s field guide. Current access still needs checking. 1. 1 ### A name cut out of the wall Throughout the temple; easiest to find on the middle-terrace colonnades, in the offering scenes Clean, deliberate hollows where a figure or a name used to be — sometimes a neatly emptied oval where a cartouche (an oval frame containing a royal name) sat, sometimes a standing figure hacked back to its outline — with the scene around it left completely untouched. Fact — the erasure, and its thoroughness. Uncertain — the motive. Specialists disagree, and the evidence for when the work was done argues against the familiar personal explanation. This was careful work, not vandalism. Whoever did it knew exactly what to remove and left everything else alone. That is what makes the motive worth arguing about — and the popular version, a jealous successor striking at once, is the reading the dating fits worst. 2. 2 ### The Punt reliefs, which read like a report Middle terrace, the south colonnade In the Punt reliefs, look for ships, incense trees and houses raised on supports. These images present the expedition through the conventions and priorities of a royal monument. Fact — the reliefs and what they depict. Uncertain — where Punt actually was; the location is still debated. Egyptian temple relief normally shows the ideal — the king, enormous, defeating whatever needs defeating. This shows an event, with details about ships, cargo and people that survive nowhere else. 3. 3 ### Columns with a face on all four sides The south end of the middle terrace — the chapel of Hathor Columns whose capitals are carved as a woman’s face with cow’s ears, repeated on each of the four faces, standing in front of a small dark chapel cut into the rock behind them. Fact — the chapel and the Hathor capitals. Interpretation — the reasoning behind placing it here. Hathor’s presence here is not decoration. She was the goddess of this part of the western mountain and of the dead who lay in it, and placing her chapel inside the temple ties the queen to her. 4. 4 ### The older temple next door Look south from the lower or middle terrace, over the wall A lower, far more ruined terraced building with a forest of column stumps and a broad ramp: the mortuary complex of Mentuhotep II, five hundred years older than the temple you are standing on. Interpretation Fact — both buildings, their form and their dates. Interpretation — that the earlier one was the model for the later. The neighbouring temple of Mentuhotep II offers an earlier approach to building against the same cliffs. Comparing the two is useful; the exact influence on Hatshepsut’s architects is an interpretation. [Open the Temple of Hatshepsut guide](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/temple-of-hatshepsut) Look closely, photograph only where permitted, and keep hands and bags clear of ancient surfaces. Follow barriers and conservation instructions. Continue reading ## Where this leads. 1–1 / 8 [Temple · West bank ### Temple of Hatshepsut Terraces set straight into the cliff at Deir el-Bahari — and a reign that was later chiselled off its own walls. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/temple-of-hatshepsut)[Temple complex · East bank ### Karnak Temple Complex Two thousand years of building, rebuilding and royal ambition, gathered around the temples of Amun. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/karnak)[Person ### Hatshepsut A king who was a woman, and whose name was later cut out of her own walls. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/hatshepsut)[Person ### Thutmose III Seventeen campaigns, and an empire that outlasted him by two hundred years. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/thutmose-iii)[Person ### Thutmose I The soldier king usually named as the first buried in the Valley of the Kings. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/thutmose-i)[Itinerary ### Two days in Luxor A bank a day, with the hottest hours spent indoors. ](https://luxor101.com/itineraries/luxor-2-days)[Itinerary ### Three days in Luxor The plan we would follow ourselves, and the one everything else is measured against. ](https://luxor101.com/itineraries/luxor-3-days)[Itinerary ### Four days in Luxor The same three days, plus the hillside where ordinary life is painted. ](https://luxor101.com/itineraries/luxor-4-days) Sources & further reading 5 Tier 1 [The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari — excavation, conservation and reconstruction reports](https://templeofhatshepsut.pcma.uw.edu.pl/badania/) Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw Official page indexed · checked 2026-09-19 Tier 2 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw Oxford University Press Tier 2 The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton Thames & Hudson Tier 2 The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson Thames & Hudson Tier 1 [Seated Statue of Hatshepsut — royal imagery and feminine titles](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544450) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Online source checked 2026-09-19 Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [All stories](https://luxor101.com/journal)