Hatshepsut (lived 15th century bc), Egyptian ruler of the 18th Dynasty, daughter of Thutmose I, the pharaoh who reconquered Nubia and reasserted Egyptian influence in Palestine and Syria. Hatshepsut’s rule began with the death of her father in 1492 bc. She married her sickly half brother, Thutmose II, with whom she co-ruled Egypt until his death in 1479 bc. His successor, Thutmose III, a son by a concubine, was married to Hatshepsut’s daughter by Thutmose II. Thutmose III was a child at the time of his succession and a co-ruler in name only, in Hatshepsut’s shadow. In 1473 she had herself crowned as pharaoh and reigned in her own right until 1458. During that time she wore the regalia of a pharaoh, including the false beard and crown.

Hatshepsut’s was a peaceful reign marked by construction and trade. She recorded as her greatest accomplishment a large-scale expedition she led over sea and land to a rich and sophisticated country known as Punt, somewhere to the south. Hatshepsut’s funerary temple at Deir el Bahri, in which she recorded her Punt expedition, is a masterpiece of Egyptian architecture. She asked her architect, Senmut, to create a series of huge landscaped terraces to represent the land of Punt and its trees of myrrh. Ramps connect the colonnaded terraces.

Thutmose III ruled alone for 33 years after overthrowing Hatshepsut in 1458 bc. He may have killed her or sent her into exile. In any event the tomb in her funerary monument was left unoccupied, and her monuments and statues were defaced or smashed. A second wife of Thutmose III, named Meryetre Hatshepsut but not related to the queen, was the mother of the next pharaoh, Amenhotep II (reigned 1427-1401 bc).

In 2007 archaeologists announced they had found the mummified body of Hatshepsut in a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. They identified the queen by a relic—a tooth—long associated with her. The tooth fit perfectly into a gap in the mummy’s mouth. The Egyptian researchers who made the identification planned to use DNA testing to confirm their finding.