CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: A - Hatshepsut was not only the most successful female pharaoh in Egyptian history, she was one of the most successful pharaohs, of either gender, that Egypt ever had. Ancient Egypt was a patriarchal society in which women rarely ruled on their own. Ahmose-Nefertari and Nefertiti were only queens, not pharaohs. (Isis was an Egyptian goddess, not a real person.) Hatshepsut was the fifth pharaoh during the 18th Dynasty and reigned from 1479 to 1458 BCE during the New Kingdom. Hatshepsut presided over a period of general peace, as well as advancements in trade and architectural projects. Conversely, Cleopatra VII was the last pharaoh, whose reign ultimately led to the end of Egyptian autonomy. Hatshepsut has been less known in comparison to other Egyptian queens or pharaohs because her stepson and successor, Thutmose III, attempted to erase her from history following her death. Her hieroglyph was chiseled out of records and her monuments were destroyed. Her true impact on the kingdom wasn’t understood for centuries until Western Egyptologists began piecing together the fractured records and monuments of her rule.