About this item
An engrossing biography of the longest-reigning female pharaoh in Ancient Egypt and the story of her audacious rise to power. Hatshepsut - the daughter of a general who usurped Egypt's throne and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty - was born into a privileged position in the royal household, and she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father's family. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her improbable rule as a cross-dressing king. At just over twenty, Hatshepsut ascended to the rank of pharaoh in an elaborate coronation ceremony that set the tone for her spectacular reign as co-regent with Thutmose III, the infant king whose mother Hatshepsut out-maneuvered for a seat on the throne.
About the Author
Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptology at UCLA. Her academic work focuses on death preparations, afterlife beliefs, and gender studies. She is currently investigating coffin reuse during the Bronze Age Collapse, allowing her to examine funerary objects in dozens of museums around the world, including the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Louvre in Paris, British Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She appeared as lead expert in the popular Discovery Channel special The Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen, and is the creator and host of Discovery's Out of Egypt. Her book, The Woman Who Would be Queen, was published in 2014. In 2018 her book, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, will be published by National Geographic Books. She lives in Los Angeles.
