Look at the faces of the statues in this room. How many different people do you think they represent? Believe it or not, the answer is one. Well, all except the two small heads under glass. All of these sculptures show the pharaoh Hatshepsut, who lived about thirty five hundred years ago. In most of these statues, Hatshepsut appears as a muscular, powerful man. But on the platform, at one end of the gallery, there’s a smaller, reddish statue that shows the pharaoh as a woman.

In fact, Hatshepsut was one of only about three or four women ever to rule ancient Egypt—and she had a long and successful reign. She ascended the throne because her stepson, Thutmose the Third, became king when he was too young to rule. Later, he ruled with her, acting as a sort of junior partner—Hatshepsut held the real power. She ruled for more than twenty years. You may have noticed that these statues are made up of many pieces. We think that about twenty years after Hatshepsut’s death, Thutmose had her statues smashed. He also had her name erased everywhere it was written. His reason for doing this is still not completely clear. The Museum’s excavation team uncovered the pieces of these statues about seventy years ago. Most of the fragments were found near Hatshepsut’s funerary temple, which was originally with many, many images of her. Imagine trying to put together two dozen jigsaw puzzles when the pieces are all mixed together, and some are missing. And to make it even more difficult, some of the pieces are the size of your big toe, and others are so huge that they need a crane to move them into place.