Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Was Queen Hatshepsut Obese?


Sat 28 Dec 2019 | 10:28 AM
Ali Abu Dashish

Every Egyptian actress's dream is to portray the role of Queen Hatshepsut, as her story is fit to become a movie.

Hatshepsut is the most powerful woman in history, who ruled Egypt for nearly 22 years.

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass said that the actress Elham Shahin phoned him to revise a script for a movie of the queen.

Hatshepsut is the daughter of King Thutmose I, and his death, he left the throne to his son King Thutmose II, who later married his sister Hatshepsut.

Thutmose II had a weak personality, so Hatshepsut was the forbidden commander. King Thutmose II had a son from his second wife, Thutmose III, who would rule Egypt after the death of his father.

Hawass stated that Tuthmosis II assumed power; however, Hatshepsut became the real guardian of the kingdom, until she exclusively ruled the country.

It is known that the pine law in ancient Egypt did not allow a woman to become a pharaoh, and at the same time, a man was not entitled to rule without women.

Hawass indicated that after the murder of her husband, she managed to bring him back to life and gave birth to Horus, raising him away from the evil of his uncle God "Set" until he became king over Egypt.

When Hatshepsut took over the rule of the country, the priests formulated a story that might give her the pine right to rule the country. They claimed that God Amun had come to her mother before she gave birth to her child Hatshepsut, who would become a "king" over Egypt.

This story is engraved on the walls of the Hatshepsut temple, built by the royal architect Senenmut in Deir el-Bahari, where some of her statues resemble men.

In 2007, Hawass removed from the tomb an unidentified body and moved it to Tahrir Museum for testing. The mummy had a missing tooth, and the space in the jaw perfectly matched Hatshepsut's existing molar, found in the DB320 box.

The queen's mummy was an obese, and her death has been attributed to a carcinogenic skin lotion found in possession of the Pharaoh. She died at the age of 50 from a bone cancer.

"The artist Elham Shahin never contacted me again to ask about the queen after she knew her story," the famous Egyptologist concluded.

Contributed by: Taarek Refaat