Hatshepsut—the daughter of a general who usurps Egypt’s throne—is expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father’s family. Her failure to produce a male heir, however, paves the way for her improbable rule as a cross-dressing king. At just over twenty, Hatshepsut out-maneuvers the mother of Thutmose III, the infant king, for a seat on the throne, and ascends to the rank of Pharaoh.
Shrewdly operating the levers of power to emerge as Egypt’s second female pharaoh, Hatshepsut becomes a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays in the veil of piety and sexual reinvention. She successfully negotiates a path from the royal nursery to the very pinnacle of authority, and her reign sees one of Ancient Egypt’s most prolific glorious periods.
