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Since the late 19th-century, Egypt has continued to offer up astounding archaeological treasures that have found their way into museums around the globe, becoming tourist attractions helping to support local economies. Worldwide interest in Egyptology shows no signs of slowing down. Much of the ancient wonders that have so far been unearthed have necessarily remained in storage or languished in outdated museums. That is about to change. 

The long awaited, aptly titled Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is finally opening to the public in stages, with the complete launch scheduled for July 3, 2025. Located a little over a mile away from the site of the Giza pyramids, the GEM is the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single culture. Their website describes the “twelve meticulously curated exhibition halls of the Main Galleries to explore Egypt’s rich history, spanning from prehistoric times to the Roman era,” some part of which will trace the significant impact of Hatshepsut’s reign.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC is the home of the seated, life-sized statue of Hatshepsut who had the audacity to declare herself Pharaoh just a few years into the reign of the weak king Thutmose III when she seized power. The iconic painted limestone figure shows her wearing the nemes-headcloth and the shendyt-kilt, the traditionally male, ceremonial attire of the Egyptian king. But we have no doubt, given her refined facial structure, that this is a woman, despite the masculine dress. 

In 1920, when the British scholar Terence Gray was a neophyte Egyptologist, he wrote a biographic study of Hatshepsut in the form of a drama that he conceived of as a possible stage play. He declared his chief aim was to "reconstruct the life of one of the greatest women in history.” Upon her death, it was Thutmose the III who, like many monarchs when they gain– or regain– power, attempted to destroy the evidence that his predecessor existed. He ordered all the statues and images that paid tribute to Hatshepsut to be destroyed.

In 2006, The Met (with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) presented the exhibition Hetshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh. The exhibition showed the stability, prosperity, and artistic ingenuity of her kingship during which she reinstated trade with Asia, restored monuments that had fallen into disrepair, acquired objects of aesthetic and symbolic value, and built a vast and innovative mortuary complex prior to the construction of the Grand Pyramids at Giza. 

Central to the exhibition were statues of Hatshepsut, including images of her as a female ruler– such as the monumental but benevolent seated figure, which has the king's titles written in the feminine form, describing Hatshepsut as "Daughter of Re, Lady of the Two Lands." Other commissioned artworks show her as a more masculine king and as a sphinx, a mythical goddess-like being.

Strong, self-determined, intelligent, creative women in business and politics have shaped history and culture for centuries through their support of the most innovative artists and artisans of their time. Hatshepsut remains a powerful symbol of what women can achieve in any culture, regardless of the pervading obstacles and restrictions of the period in which they live.