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50 free Hatshepsut trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as a king for two decades, built more than almost any pharaoh before her, and was then chiselled out of history so thoroughly that early Egyptologists could not make sense of the walls she left behind. This quiz covers her whole story. The easy questions ask who her father, husband and stepson were, why she wore a false beard, what her famous temple looks like and where it stands. From there it moves into the reign itself: the Year 7 jars that prove she was already pharaoh, the Punt expedition and its 31 myrrh trees, the twin obelisks at Karnak, the Red Chapel, the Speos Artemidos and the divine-birth reliefs that justified her rule. The harder end is for Egyptology readers: Senenmut and his star ceiling, Neferure, KV20's curving corridors, the canopic box and molar in DB320, the KV60 mummy and the carcinogenic skin lotion, Manetho's Amessis, the jubilee celebrated in Year 15, the Unfinished Obelisk left cracked at Aswan, Champollion's confusion over a bearded king with feminine verbs, and the debate over whether Thutmose III or Amenhotep II ordered the erasure. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Hatshepsut, her temple, her officials and her tomb, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our ancient Egypt, Cleopatra and Tutankhamun quizzes next.
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Q 01Of which Egyptian dynasty was Hatshepsut a pharaoh?
Eighteenth
She was its sixth ruler, in the New Kingdom's opening dynasty.
Q 02Who was Hatshepsut's mother, the Great Royal Wife of Thutmose I?
Ahmose
Hatshepsut was their eldest daughter, born between 1505 and 1495 BC.
Q 03What relation was Hatshepsut's husband, Thutmose II, to her?
Half-brother
They married when she was fourteen or fifteen and had at least one daughter.
Q 04How old was Thutmose III when he inherited the throne and Hatshepsut became regent?
2
He was her stepson, the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife.
Q 05By which regnal year had Hatshepsut assumed the full position of pharaoh?
7
She then shared Thutmose III's regnal count, back-dating her kingship to Year 1.
Q 06Who was the first confirmed woman to rule Egypt in her own right, before Hatshepsut?
Sobekneferu
She reigned briefly at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty and named herself for the crocodile god Sobek.
Q 07What did Hatshepsut wear in statues to present herself as a male pharaoh?
A false beard
Ram's horns and the shendyt kilt appear too; scholars read the imagery as symbolic, not cross-dressing.
Q 08What was Hatshepsut's throne name, used in her royal inscriptions?
Maatkare
Amun's carved proclamation calls her 'my sweet daughter, my favorite, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt'.
Q 09Which foreign occupation had disrupted the trade networks Hatshepsut re-established?
The Hyksos
Her Punt mission of about Year 9 was the showpiece of the revived trade.
Q 10How many live myrrh trees did the Punt expedition bring back?
31
Hatshepsut ground charred frankincense into kohl eyeliner, the first recorded use of the resin.
Q 11Which official led the five-ship voyage to Punt, according to the temple texts?
Chancellor Nehsi
The texts pretend he went to extract tribute, but it was really a trading mission to a familiar port.
Q 12The Punt reliefs are famous for a realistic portrait of which foreign ruler?
Queen Ati
Her unusual figure has been read as steatopygia or even elephantiasis.
Q 13Where does mainstream scholarship place the Land of Punt?
The Horn of Africa
Its exports of gold, resins, ebony and ivory match what the Horn produced; Puntland is named after it.
Q 21Which official, of commoner birth, is often credited as architect of Hatshepsut's temple?
Senenmut
He rose from steward to Overseer of Works; the High Priest Hapuseneb is the other candidate.
Q 22What is remarkable about the roof of tomb TT353, cut for Hatshepsut's chief steward?
Egypt's earliest star ceiling
It maps the northern and southern skies.
Q 23Which princess, Hatshepsut's daughter, held unusual prominence at court?
Neferure
Block statues show her cloaked tutor with the child, who may have been the pharaoh's only one.
Q 14Where does Hatshepsut's great mortuary temple stand?
Deir el-Bahari
It sits opposite Luxor, beneath the cliffs and the peak of El Qurn.
Q 15What does the temple's Egyptian name Djeser-Djeseru mean?
Holy of Holies
Hatshepsut described the temple as 'a garden for my father Amun'.
Q 16How many terraces does Hatshepsut's temple have?
3
Each was reached by a ramp splitting the porticoes; the upper one is fronted by 26 Osiride statues.
Q 17Whose neighbouring temple, six centuries older, heavily influenced the design?
Mentuhotep II
The layout of chambers is nonetheless unique, with the barque sanctuary of Amun-Re on the central axis.
Q 18Shrines to which two deities stand on the temple's middle terrace?
Hathor and Anubis
The porticoes there carry the Punt and divine-birth reliefs.
Q 19Which priestly title gave Hatshepsut a religious power base before she became pharaoh?
God's Wife of Amun
A later king stripped royal women of such titles; Thutmose IV restored some.
Q 20Which god of the potter's wheel forms Hatshepsut's body in the birth reliefs?
Khnum
He works alongside Heket, the frog goddess of fertility.
Q 24Where did Hatshepsut erect twin obelisks that were then the tallest in the world?
Karnak
One still stands, the second-tallest ancient obelisk upright anywhere; the other broke in two.
Q 25What was the Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, built to hold?
A sacred barque
It may originally have stood between her two obelisks.
Q 26Where does the Unfinished Obelisk, cracked during quarrying, still lie?
Aswan
It was to mark her 16th year as pharaoh and shows how obelisks were cut from bedrock.
Q 27How does the Unfinished Obelisk compare with any obelisk the Egyptians ever raised?
Nearly a third bigger
Cracks appeared in the granite and it was abandoned still attached to the bedrock.
Q 28What did the Greeks call Hatshepsut's rock-cut temple to the lioness goddess Pakhet?
Speos Artemidos
They likened Pakhet to their huntress Artemis; the temple carries her famous denunciation of the foreign rulers she despised.
Q 29In which regnal year did Hatshepsut announce her first Heb Sed jubilee, not the usual 30th?
15
Some think she was marking 30 years since her father's death or her own 30th birthday.
Q 30Under what name did Manetho and Josephus record a queen who reigned 21 years and 9 months?
Amessis
Historians later identified this Amessis or Amensis with Hatshepsut.