ABSTRACT
THE three most remarkable of those very remarkable rulers who constitute the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty are undoubtedly p~utmose ilL, Queen l;Iatshepsut, and A men~otpe I V. (otherwise known as Akhenaton, or, to be more correct, Okhnaton). Some idea of p~utmose's military prowess and of his strength of character can be gained from what has been said about him in the previous chapter, while the quotations from Amen~otpe IV.'s famous hymn in Chapter VI. will reveal something of the charm of this extraordinary Pharaoh's personality and of the magnitude of his achievements in the field c~ religion and thought. The aim of this chapter is briefly to set forth the life and works of
~atshepsut, perhaps the greatest woman that the Near East has ever produced, certainly the first woman-individualist in history-the first woman who attempted to show that woman . can rival man in political life, aye and in some spheres even surpass him.
