are described as having a narrow keel with stern and prow high above
the water, seventy feet in length and with no cabin accommodations. A
raised platform at either end, with a balustrade, probably afforded
some shelter to the officers. A single mast supported the spreading
sail, there were no decks and the hull was fitted with seats for the
rowers. After the Old Empire all large boats were adapted for sailing,
as well as rowing. Other vessels of this or a little later time were
one-decked galleys with thirty oars, with seats and shrines and the
stern ornamented with figures of animals. The cabin of those of royal
or high rank was a stately house, with roof and pillars, sides brightly
colored, in the fore, large paintings and the stern a gigantic lotus.
The blade of the oar was like a bouquet of flowers with the head of the
king at top, the sails the richest cloth of gay colors. A royal vessel
of this description belonged to King Thothmes III, Hatasu’s successor
and was called “Star of the two countries.”
Another description speaks of war ships having the poop twisted, with
armed mariners in helmets of brass, with four short masts and on each
a large castle containing bowmen with steel-headed arrows. Upon the
prow a sort of fortress, the soldiers carrying long spears and oval
shields decorated with hieroglyphics in brilliant colors. Above the
rowers large black Ethiopians in steel cuirasses and long swords. The
captains in variegated armor and accompanied by a thousand soldiers
and three hundred rowers. The prow ornamented with a lion’s head and
colossal shoulders across a broad gilded image of the feathered globe
of the sun, the emblem of Egypt and the inscription, “Mistress of the
World.” But Hatasu’s fleet was going on a peaceful errand and required
no such panoply of war. Experienced seamen managed it, while soldiers,
ambassadors and, some say, even ladies, accompanied it and bore with
them a variety of presents to win the friendship and favor of the
inhabitants of this strange land. The envoys had a small guard of
soldiers, but all included did not number more than two hundred and ten
men.
The voyagers were met with a friendly welcome and returned with stores
of treasures. The inhabitants of Punt lived in little round shaped
huts, built on stages and reached by ladders, all under the shade of
spreading palms. A picture on the wall of the temple shows the prince
of the land Parihu by name, with his wife, Ati or Aty, the latter fat
and ungainly (though probably considered a specimen of great beauty
by her countrymen), with a donkey to ride upon, followed by two sons
and a young daughter, the last giving promise of rivaling her mother
in rotundity of outline. Gold, spices, ivory, incense bearing trees,
to the number of thirty-one, precious gums, used in the service of the
temple, and various animals were brought back to Egypt as a result
of this most successful journey. The return was celebrated by a high
festival in the temple. Hatshepsut or Hatasu appeared in fullest royal
attire, adorned in the richest manner, a helmet on her head, a spotted
leopard skin covering her shoulders and her limbs “perfumed like fresh
dew.” She offered incense to the god Amen, as his priestess, bearing
two bowls full and weighing out gold with her own hand. This was before
the sacred boat of Amen Ra, with a ram’s head at each end, and carried
by high priests, also in leopard skins. The Naka, or incense bearing
trees, were borne in tubs, and the weights for weighing the precious
metals were gold rings in the shape of recumbent oxen.
Later, as was his iconoclastic wont, Rameses II destroyed some of these
pictures and inscriptions and inserted his own name.
Although the name of Tahutmes II, husband and co-ruler with the queen,
is not specially mentioned in connection with this great expedition,
he shared in the after festival. He, too, designated by his court name
of King Menkhefer-ka-ra, offered incense in the boat of Amen, carried
on the shoulders of men. “Thus,” says Miss Edwards, “to the sound of
trumpets and drums, with waving of green boughs and shouts of triumph,
and followed by an ever gathering crowd, the great procession takes
its way between avenues of sphinxes, past obelisks and pylons, and up
one magnificent flight of steps after another till the topmost terrace
of the Great Temple is reached, where the Queen herself welcomed them
to the presence of Hathor, the Beautiful, the Lady of the Western
Mountain, the Goddess Regent of the Land of Punt.”
At what period is not exactly known, but of course earlier than this,
since he is believed to have designed the beautiful temple of Deir el
Bahri, the queen called to her assistance the services of the architect
Senmut, whose statue is in the Berlin Museum. He, it is implied,
usurped the place in Hatasu’s affection which rightfully belonged to
her husband, but of this it is not possible to speak with any degree of
certainty or authority. We only know that he was a man of great ability
in his own line, of intelligent mind and skillful hand, and was highly
appreciated by her majesty. In an inscription in the Berlin Museum he
says his lady ruler made him “great in both countries” and “chief of
the chiefs” in the whole of Egypt. The buildings which the queen and he
erected are said to be among the most tasteful, complete and brilliant
in the land. He was of lowly birth, and therefore his position was the
more surprising. He appears to have occupied in the queen’s counsels
something of the place of Disraeli to Queen Victoria, whose Jewish
origin made his occupancy of the position he gained remarkable. After
Senmut’s death Hatasu raised to him a stone memorial as a token of
gratitude, with his portrait in black granite and in an attitude of
repose. On his shoulder were the short but significant words, “there
was not found in writing his ancestors.” He is also introduced in
an inscription, as himself speaking, where he used the male pronoun
“he” in mentioning the queen refers to his own services and ends with
styling her “the lord of the country, the King of Makara.”
Senmut was evidently the chief counsellor and favorite of Hatshepsut,
but there was also another highly regarded officer who shared with or
succeeded him in the queen’s favor and good graces. This was a certain
Aahmes, who had also served her father, Thothmes, or Tahutmes I, and
whose tomb was discovered by Brugsch, and bears this inscription, “I
was during my existence in the favor of the king, and was rewarded by
His Holiness, and a divine woman gave me further reward, the defunct
great queen Makara (Hashop), because I brought up her daughter, the
great queen’s daughter, the defunct Nofrerura.” It is of course plain
that he survived the queen, but we do not know whether he met with
equal favor at the hand of her successor. Possibly the mother’s heart,
little given to tenderness, may have had an especial softness towards
this “nurse” or tutor of her dead child, her father’s trusted servant
and perhaps, on that very account, hers also.
Two children were born to the queen, both daughters, Neferura, the
heiress, who is spoken of as “the mistress of both lands,” who died
in the beginning of the reign of Tahutmes III, and Hatasu Meri or
Merytra, who it is estimated was born about 1512 B. C. and became
heiress Princess, inheriting all her mother’s rights. To establish the
throne more firmly therefore, she was married to Tahutmes III. This
king was long supposed to be the youngest son of Tahutmes I, but the
latest authorities, although they do not speak with absolute assurance,
incline to believe he was the son of Tahutmes II, by a concubine, hence
he was in one case the uncle, and in the other the half or step-brother
of the young princess, but with a less direct title to the throne than
she. A certain Renekheb is also spoken of as a tutor of the young
queen. This marriage appears to have taken place when they were both
children and before the death of Tahutmes II, which is proved by the
cartouches of Tahutmes II and Tahutmes III being found together upon
some of the monuments, and at the same time suggests that the juvenile
pair, nominally at least, shared in the government.
Tahutmes II, born about 1533 B. C., appears to have died at about
thirty, in 1503, and some writers maintain that Hatshepsut usurped the
power which rightfully belonged to Tahutmes III, but Miss Edwards (ever
ready to champion her heroine) finds in the above fact strong proof
that the queen really protected the interests of her young half-brother
or nephew. While Petrie admits that it would be unlikely and perhaps
even unnatural that a capable and ambitious woman, still in the prime
of life, should immediately hand over the reins of government, placed
in her hands by her father, to a young and inexperienced boy and
justifies her retention of them, the more that it was she and not he
who had the stronger legal claim. Be this as it may, if Tahutmes III
owed gratitude to Hatshepsut for care or protection he showed her
little return. Whether from the general unpopularity of mothers-in-law,
from her treatment of his brother or uncle, from the feeling that he
was suppressed and kept in the background, or from some unknown cause,
he evidently hated her. When he came into power he endeavored to
destroy the memorials of her from off the earth and cause her memory
even to be forgotten. He injured or erased her name constantly and
whenever possible and substituted that of his brother or himself.
Tahutmes I had continued the building of Thebes and set up his two
granite obelisks. Tahutmes II and Hatshepsut continued building at
Karnak, the temple having been in existence, it is said, as far back
as the Eleventh Dynasty. So gigantic was the scale on which these
architectural works were undertaken that one life seldom saw their
completion. Like the coral reef the temples grew and were added to,
monarch after monarch of succeeding generations taking a share in the
general design.
Tahutmes I had raised at Karnak two obelisks seventy feet in height,
his daughter’s far outdid them, for hers were the loftiest then known
in Egypt, a flawless block of red granite or rose quartz, rising 108
or 109 feet into the air. This was erected in the sixteenth year of
her reign and after the death of her husband, which took place some
dozen or more years after that of his father. Probably the ceremonial
mourning was observed for him, but the heart of Hatshepsut was hard
and cold and even if we exonerate her from the implication of being
directly concerned in his decease, which stands “not proven,” there
seems little doubt that she rejoiced to be comparatively free and hold
the reins of power exclusively in her own hands. Nothing seemed missing
from her life or her pursuits, which she followed with renewed energy
and appeared more constantly than ever in male attire, the short kilt
and sandals, the war helmet and even perhaps, as in her reproduction, a
beard. Architecture was evidently of great interest to her as to many
of her predecessors and obelisks and temples still, after the lapse of
centuries, bear witness to her power and skill.
It took nineteen months from its first inception to the completion
of her great obelisk and even so, when one thinks of its magnificent
proportions, the work seems to have proceeded with wonderful celerity.
Inscriptions by Senmut record the quarrying. Her brother’s name
appears at the side. One face was covered with gold, which the queen
is believed to have weighed out with her own hand. The beautifully
carved centre was inlaid with electrum or silver gilt and related to
herself. “Amen-Khnum Hatasu, the golden Horus, Lord of the two lands
hath dedicated to her father, Amen of Thebes, two obelisks of Maket
stone (red granite) hewn from the quarries of the South. Their summits
were sheathed with pure gold, taken from the chiefs of all nations.”
“His Majesty gave these two gilded obelisks to her father, Amen, that
her name should live forever in his temple,” and adds towards the
conclusion, “when Ra arises betwixt them as he journeys upward from
the heavenly horizon they flood the two Egypts with the glory of their
brightness.” Rosellini says, speaking of the fineness of the work,
“every figure seems rather to have been impressed with a seal than
graven with a chisel.” An inscription at the bottom states that it was
erected to her father, Tahutmes I. This obelisk, with its mate, was
to occupy a place in the centre court of the palace at Karnak. Dr.
Naville, the explorer, discovered the burial chamber of Tahutmes in
1893 and a great altar erected by the queen.
In an inscription on part of the rock-cut temple of Speos Artemidos,
south Beni-hasan, reciting her re-establishment of Egyptian power and
worship after destruction by the Hyksos, Hatshepsut says: “The abode
of the mistress of Qes (Kusae on west side) was fallen in ruin, the
earth had covered her beautiful sanctuary and children played over her
temple—I cleared and rebuilt it anew—I restored that which was in ruins
and I completed that which was left unfinished. For there had been Amu
in the midst of the Delta and in Hanar and the foreign hoardes of their
number had destroyed the ancient works. They reigned ignorant of the
god Ra.”
The temple of Deir-el-Bahri or “Dayre-el-Bahari,” its present Arabic
name, was perhaps the greatest work of Hatshepsut’s life and enough of
the ruins still remained for the clever French architect, M. Brune,
to reconstruct its plan for us. The site was one that would have been
chosen by the Greeks for a theatre, but the Egyptian dedicated it to
what he deemed a higher object, the worship of the gods. Situated on
a green plain, near the tombs of the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty,
it was a magnificent natural amphitheatre on the shore of the river
and, terrace by terrace, rose from the edge of the water to its steep
background of golden brown rock, in which the inner temple, the “holy
of holies,” was excavated. Of its structure Senmut or Sen-Maut was
the presiding genius. The name “Dayre-el-Bahari” means North church,
or monastery, and was, of course, applied to it in later times from
the ruins of an old monastery which was yet young and modern beside
the original erection. An avenue of sphinxes connected the landing
for boats with the four terraces. These were supported by earth-works
and stone and guarded by hawk-headed figures, in marble, bearing the
uraeus. Columns also supported it, some of them polygonal in shape,
with the head of the goddess Hathor as a capitol, and were later
restored and kept in order till the time of the Ptolemies. “This
temple,” says one writer, “was a splendid specimen of Egyptian Art
history, whether we consider the treatment of the stone or the richness
of the colored decorations,” and it was unique in design and differed
from all others. In the inner recesses of the rock-cut chambers was
a picture of the queen, representing her as sucking the milk of the
sacred cow, the incarnation of the goddess Hathor, thereby intimating
her divine origin.
Some sixteen or seventeen years after the death of Tahutmes II the
cartouch of Tahutmes III becomes associated with that of Hatshepsut
and then her brilliant career terminates, but the end is wrapped in
mystery. Whether she voluntarily laid aside her royal power, which
seems unnatural and unlikely, whether she met with foul play or whether
she died a natural death, we know not The remains of many others of
her family, more or less illustrious, were found, but hers were not
among them. Her place of sepulture was discovered by Mr. Rhind in 1841
in a cliff side near her temple, but, strange to say, was again lost
sight of, and her successor, showing plainly his feeling towards her,
has constantly chiselled out her name. A party of modern travelers,
however, claim to have rediscovered it.
Her cartouch, which may be seen in Baedaker and other works, seems
comparatively simple, beside the more elaborate ones of other monarchs.
It is a circle with a dot in the centre, a small seated female figure,
wearing the plumes of a goddess and below two right angles joined.
The three hieroglyphic signs are explained to mean “Ma, the sitting
figure of the goddess of Truth, Law and Justice; Ka, represented by the
hieroglyphic of the uplifted arms and signifying Life, and the sun’s
disk, representing Ra, the supreme solar god of the universe.”
Many memorials of this great queen, spite of the efforts made to
destroy them, remain to us. The ruins of the temple, the great
obelisks, one of which is still standing, various statues and
statuettes, many sun-dried brick with her cartouch and that of her
father, some of which can be seen in our own Metropolitan Museum in
New York, a cabinet in wood and ivory, her standard, her signet ring
in turquoise and gold, in the possession of an English gentleman, and,
most interesting of all perhaps, the remains of her throne chair,
now in the British Museum. It is made of a dark wood, not natural to
Egypt, and probably from the land of Punt. The legs are decorated
with ucilisks in gold, and the carven hoof of some animal. The other
parts are ornamented with hieroglyphics in gold and silver and one
fragmentary royal oval in which the name of Hatasu appears and thereby
identifies the owner of the throne.
Thus ends in comparative mystery, darkness and silence this brilliant
life, of which we were long in ignorance.
Says Curtis in his charming “Nile Notes”: “The history of Eastern life
is embroidered to our youngest eyes in that airy arabesque—an Eastern
book cannot be written without a dash of the Arabian Nights—the East
throughout hath that fine flavor.”
CHAPTER TENTH.
MAUT-A-MUA.
The great Hatasu was no more and after her no woman held such extended
and absolute sway. The next queen whose name occurs at all prominently
is Maut-a-mua, or Maut-em-va, “Mother of the boat,” wife of Tahutmes IV
and mother of Amenophis III. She appears to have held the regency after
her husband’s death till her son assumed full power, or if not actually
in this official position, to have had great influence with him. The
tie between mother and son was a close one and even his marriage did
not seem to weaken it.
But before entering upon such fragmentary history of her as remains
to us it may be well to enumerate briefly the lists of sovereigns
which connects Hatasu or Hatshepsut with her great grandson’s or
great nephew’s wife. Her half-brother or step son-in-law, Tahutmes or
Thothmes III, sometimes called the Alexander of Egypt, who succeeded
or wrested the power from her hands, had a long reign of fifty-three
or fifty-four years. Hatshepsut died at fifty-nine, and Tahutmes III
ascended the throne at thirty-one years of age. The computation of his
reign probably dates from the time he was first associated with his
sister or stepmother in the regal power. He was one of the most noted
of the Egyptian kings, laid aside the peace policy of his predecessors
and entered on a series of wars and conquests, marked with many
cruelties. The records of his military expeditions are said to give
us great insight into the condition of Syria and Palestine about the
fifteenth century B. C. He, like his predecessor, was interested in
architecture, builded and added to the temples and showed individual
taste in his additions. He has left more monuments behind him than
any of the Egyptian kings but Rameses II. He built at Heliopolis,
Memphis, Thebes, Elephantine and nearly every town in Nubia. Four of
his obelisks have come down to us—one in Rome, one in Constantinople,
one in London and one in New York. These last bear the popular title
of “Cleopatra’s needle,” though erected in a much earlier time than
the era of that renowned queen. The first, “the greatest of all extant
monoliths,” is standing before the church of St. John Lateran, at
Rome. Many, many years were occupied in its preparation. Obelisks
were generally erected in pairs and occasionally several of them
in succession formed an avenue. In the temple of Deir el Bahri are
pictures of Hatshepset and Tahutmes III making offerings to the gods.
Says Baedaker: “On the upper part of the right wall is a noteworthy
scene. Makere, Hatshepsut I, Thutmosis III, and the Princess Ranofru
sacrificing to the boat of Ammon, behind which stands Thutmosis I with
his consort, Aahmes, and their little daughter, Binofru. A similar
scene was represented above the recess on the left wall; the kneeling
Thutmosis III and the Princess Binofra may still be distinguished.” The
statues of Tahutmes III are numerous, but not colossal.
He “took to wife” in the old Eastern phrase, Hatasu-Meri, daughter of
the great Hatshepsut and his own near relative, but our knowledge of
her is extremely limited. She evidently did not inherit her mother’s
characteristics and possibly did not live any great length of time.
Or if her husband transferred to her any portion of the dislike which
he so evidently bore her mother he may have purposely kept her in the
background, but in any case she cannot be looked upon as an assertive
character. Her second name is given as Meri or Merira and there is a
picture of her on a throne behind, not beside, her husband. She is,
however, attired as a goddess, with whip, ankh and tall plumes. This is
at Medinet Habu; again she is spoken of as Meryt-ra Hatshepset, mother
of Amenophis II, and a scene in a tomb represents her, accompanied
by her son. A female sphinx representing her with her husband’s name
inscribed was found in the temple of Isis and is now in the Baracco
collection at Rome and casts are at Turin and Berlin. One inscription,
and possibly more, remain, however, speaking of her as “beloved
consort,” or some other form expressing a degree of affection, but
at this late period it is impossible to determine whether it was the
usual conventional phrase or had some foundation in truth. She lived
and died, but whether her life was a long and happy one or short and
sorrowful we cannot tell.
The reign of Tahutmes III is among the longest in history. It was,
however, exceeded by some monarchs, Louis XIV, seventy-two years.
George III and Queen Victoria over sixty, Henry III occupied the throne
fifty-six years, Edward III fifty, and there was also one of the Mogul
Emperors, as well as others. A glass vase in the British Museum, said
to be the oldest in existence, bears the name of Tahutmes III. There
are various mementoes or memorials of him in different places, the most
personal perhaps, his coffin, much damaged and stripped of its gilding,
which may be seen in the Gizeh Museum.
Amenophis or Amenhotep II, son probably of Hatasu-Meri, succeeded his
father. Of him also we read as a warrior and a cruel one, bringing
back the bodies of several kings whom he had slain with his own hand.
The Egyptians were said not to be so cruel in battle as the Assyrians,
but there seems little to choose between them. There is a picture of
Amenophis II on the wall at Abd-el-Gurneh, as a child on the lap of a
nurse, the heads and backs of five Asiatics serving him as a footstool,
implying doubtless that he himself would be, or his father before him
had been, a warrior and a conqueror. There is also a kneeling statue of
him, in later life, holding a globular vase in his hand. He succeeded
to the throne when young, perhaps at eighteen, and his reign was
comparatively short as was that of his son and successor, Tahutmes IV.
His queen was named Ta-aa and is recorded on a double statue of her and
her son, Tahutmes IV. She is called “royal mother and wife,” showing
her to be his mother. We knew less of her than of almost any of the
queens, that she continued the royal line and her name seems but brief
record of her.
Of Tahutmes IV it is said that he spent much time in youth in hunting
and field sports. He married Mautamua, or Maut-em-va, or as she is
again spoken of, Moutetemarait, possibly an Ethiopian princess. Various
inter-marriages, as in modern times not unfrequently, making the
families in adjacent kingdoms near of kin.