Egypt’s Greatest Female Pharaoh Hatshepsut Was Fat, Bald And Wore False Beard.

July 7, 2007

Washington : Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt’s greatest female Pharaoh was fat, balding and had a beard. (She wore a false beard along with men’s clothing when she proclaimed herself the Pharaoh of Egypt).

She also apparently suffered from diabetes, like many obese women of today, according to archaeologists, who recently unearthed her mummy in Luxor’s ‘Valley of the Kings’.

The daughter of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I and wife of Tuthmosis II, her half-brother, Hatshepsut reigned from 1498 to 1483 BC as the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, whose later members included Akhenaton and Tutankhamun.

Initially she was appointed the regent for her stepson Tuthmosis III, upon the death of her husband-brother. But she soon started wearing the royal headdress and a false beard and proclaimed herself pharaoh.

"First of all, the mummy was not just overweight, she was obese," said Egyptologist Donald Ryan, who in 1989 rediscovered the KV60 tomb, where the mummy believed to be Hatshepsut lay uncoffined on the floor.

The mummy, recently located by noted archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt's secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, following a one year study, shows an overweight woman just over five feet tall, who died at about 50.

The researchers used CT scans to link distinct physical traits of Hatshepsut to that of her ancestors, and narrow the search for the Pharaoh to the couple of female mummies in the KV60 tomb.

Findings revealed that Hatshepsut was balding in front, but let the hair on the back of her head grow really long. The Egyptian Queen also sported black and red nail polish, a rather Goth look for someone past middle age, reports LiveScience.

Examinations further revealed that Hatshepsut had decayed teeth and possibly suffered from a skin disease.

Ashraf Selim, Cairo University radiologist, who examined the mummy, said it showed signs of a rather disgusting skin disease on the face and neck, which might have added to Hatshepsut's health problems.

"Her mouth shows the presence of many dental cavities, periapical (root) inflammation and pockets,” he said.

"We found numerous tiny spots within Hatshepsut and the Tuthmose family, which could indicate a skin disease," he added.

He, however, said he believed the spots were more likely caused by the mummification process than dermatosis.

Certain aspects of the resins could be responsible for the eruptions found on the skins of Thutmose I, Hatshepsut's father, Thutmose II, her half-brother and husband, and Amenhotep II, Thutmose I's grandson, Discovery News quoted him as saying. (ANI)