- "Horus, the bright god, reborn into this person you see before you. Horus who is Hatshepsut. All that surrounds the sun works for me. Do you?"
Hatshepsut (c. 1507 – 1458 BC) was the Great Royal Wife of pharaoh Thutmose II of the Eighteenth Dynasty and, after his death in 1479 BC, the sole ruler of Egypt until her death, first as regent to her stepson Thutmose III, and then as pharaoh on her own right. During her reign, she expanded and re-established important trade networks, and oversaw the construction and restoration of great buildings and temples. She is a leader in Civilization VII.
Intro[]
Great Pharaoh Hatshepsut, your name is written again and again in immortal stone. Extend your hand now, and bring once again wonders from the sand. Ensure that your people, like the river, rise and fall, but never vanish.
In-Game[]
Hatshepsut has the 
Cultural and 
Economic 
Attributes. Her default colors are light yellow and teal.
Her leader ability is God's Wife of Amun. It grants +1 
Culture per Age for every unique 
Resource and +15% 
Production towards the construction of 
Buildings and 
Wonder in 
Cities adjacent to Navigable Rivers.
Her agenda is Wonders of Iteru. Her relationship decreases by a Small Amount with leaders that have more Wonder than her, and increases by a Medium Amount with those who have less.
Strategy[]
Hatshepsut's ability has two distinct focuses: Resources and Navigable Rivers.
Resources[]
Hatshepsut gains 1 Culture per Age for each unique Resource she has in her possession. While this is not an extreme bonus, it is still valuable — especially in the early game, where every flat yield is significant.
When settling, prioritize areas with unique Resources whenever possible. Alternatively, you can free up settling constraints by developing a wide 
Trade Network. Producing a number of Merchants and focusing on Trade Routes that bring in Resources you do not yet own is an efficient way to expand your Resource diversity.
A third method is to capture enemy Settlements that contain Resources you lack. However, waging 
War purely for Resources should generally be a last resort, since the Culture bonus is most impactful early on and becomes increasingly negligible as the game progresses. That said, if War is already part of your strategy, securing unique Resources along the way can serve as a meaningful additional benefit.
[]
All Cities that Hatshepsut settles directly adjacent to a Navigable River tile receive a substantial 15% Production bonus toward all Buildings and Wonders. While this bonus does not help when producing 
Units for conquest or defense, it makes Hatshepsut exceptionally strong at developing infrastructure.
With this in mind, Navigable Rivers should heavily influence your settling choices. If an area lacks a Navigable River and is not otherwise exceptional, you should plan to designate that Settlement as a 
Town. Conversely, if you settle next to a Navigable River, it is usually worth investing in that Town and developing it into a full City. As before, conquest remains an option — if a neighbor has built a Settlement next to a Navigable River, it can become a powerful City for you, making it a high-priority target during an offensive campaign.
Finally, make sure to prioritize building the Pyramids. Not only does Hatshepsut have a consistently strong chance of completing it before other civilizations due to her Production bonuses and Desert bias, but the Wonder also grants +1 
Gold and +1 Production on all 
Improvements located on Rivers in that City — a benefit you will be able to leverage frequently for the reasons described above.
Civilization recommendations[]
- Antiquity Age:
Egyptian: With its strong synergy with Navigable Rivers and the Pyramids as its associated Wonder, Egypt is an easy and reliable pick.- Aksumite: Aksum is also a solid choice due to its focus on Resources and the ability to build a large Trade Network.
- Exploration Age:
- Songhai: Particularly strong if you have settled heavily along Navigable Rivers, as they can automatically generate Treasure Convoys in Cities adjacent to these Rivers.
- Chola: A good alternative if your Settlements are not heavily River-adjacent, thanks to their strong emphasis on Trade Routes.
- Abbasid: If you prefer to lean more into the Culture side of Hatshepsut's kit, or want to be more well-rounded to support your lack of Science, the Abbasids serve as a solid choice; their Mosque building serves as a strong source of Culture, while their Sales and Trade Tradition, as well as many other elements of their kit, provide the Science you will most likely be lacking.
- Modern Age:
- Mughal: Makes excellent use of a developed economy from previous Ages. You can pursue an Economic Victory by investing in Factories or a Cultural Victory by quickly acquiring Artifacts, then using Mughal's unique ability to instantly purchase the World's Fair as soon as it becomes available.
- Siamese: Benefits from its Unique Improvement, the Bang, which can be placed on Navigable River tiles.
- British: Their Manufactory Building gains an adjacency bonus from Navigable Rivers, making River-heavy Settlements especially powerful.
Lines[]
Hatshepsut is voiced by Shaimaa Mohamed Shaalan. She speaks Late Egyptian with modern Egyptological pronunciation, ignoring the original vowels.[1]
| Line | Quote (English translation) | Quote (Late Egyptian) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quote | Horus, the bright god, reborn into this person you see before you. Horus who is Hatshepsut. All that surrounds the sun works for me. Do you? | Hur ba netjer het neti hepiru. Hur pu Hatshepsut. Bak ini neb neti pihur ra. Iyu netjen?
Ḥr bꜣ nṯr ḥꜥt ntj ḫprw. Ḥr pw Ḥꜣt-špswt. Bꜣk ini nb ntj pẖr rꜥ. jw nḏ.n? |
Hatshepsut often emphasized her divine right to rule by associating herself with Horus. |
| Greeting | I am Horus in human flesh — Hatshepsut, pharaoh of the red lands and the black lands. | Yenek hur em iyuf em es Hatshepsut. Per-'a em Dejeset Kemet
jnk Ḥr m jwf m s Ḥꜣt-špswt. Pr-ꜥꜣ m Dšr.t Km.t |
The voice actor seems to pronounce per-'a ("pharaoh") as ber-'a, and Deshret ("Red Lands") as Dejeset. |
| Attacked | The nau-snake is in my belly, and I have not given myself to you, your flame will not be on me. | Iu nahu mi ẖetjimi. Diji enek jisi imi yer. Iper nisir ek hiri.
Jw nꜥw m ẖtj mj. (Rḏi̯ ?) jnk ḏs.j jmj jr. (ḫpr ?) nsr k ḥr.j. |
This is part of the incantation for Spell 32, a spell of protection from peril from the Book of the Dead. |
| Declares War | When we are done, the lone and level sands will be all that remains of you. | Iu er inu iu, iu-an(?) she-'i w'a mi em. Nity neb khipir inek.
Jw r jnw jw, jw.n(?) šꜥy wꜥ mj m. Nty nb ḥpr jnk. |
"The lone and level sands" is a quote from Ozymandias, a famous sonnet about Ramesses II by Percy Bysshe Shelley. |
| Accepts Player's Deal | The river brings blessings. | Bah itiru ini yem ahu.
Bꜣḥ(?) jtr.w jnj jm ꜣḥ.w |
|
| Rejects Player's Deal | We must cast this downstream. | Khidiyu pen.
Ḫdj.w pn. |
|
| Defeated | Open the Netherworld so that I may see my father Osiris and drive away darkness, for I am beloved of him. All you spirits, prepare a path for me. | Wipi(?) duat maa iti wisir khisir ikhyu. Mirif akhu nebu. Irtjen(?) ini ir wat.
Wp.j(?) dwꜣ.t maa jt-j wsjr ḫsjr jḫḫw. Mry-f ꜣḫ.w nb.w. Jr=tn(?) jnj jr wꜣ.t |
This is part of the incantation for affirming that Osiris will triumph over his enemy Set from the Book of the Dead. |
Leader Path[]
| Level | Unlocks |
|---|---|
| 2 |  Royal Mace |
| 3 | Cultural Attribute Node
|
| 4 | Exploration Cultural Legacy Card |
| Exploration Economic Legacy Card | |
| 5 |  False Beard |
| 6 | Hatshepsut Badge 1
|
Hatshepsut Banner
| |
| 7 | Economic Attribute Node
|
| 8 | Modern Cultural Legacy Card |
| Modern Economic Legacy Card | |
| 9 |  Uraeus
|
| 10 | Hatshepsut Badge 2
|
Voice of the Sun
|
Civilopedia entry[]
Hatshepsut ruled in the early part of the 15th century BCE, during Egypt’s New Kingdom. She is notable for being a queen (though many of her statues depicted her as a man – likely for religious reasons), and for embarking on an aggressive building spree around the capital of Thebes.
The historical timeline is difficult to fathom. By the time Hatshepsut ascended to power, the Pyramids were already a thousand years old; it would be another 700 years until the Greek golden age, and 1,500 years before Cleopatra and the height of the Roman Empire. Elsewhere, China’s first dynasties had not yet been formed. Hatshepsut is as close to the Pyramids as we are to the Viking Age. Nonetheless, we remember her – she was the first great woman of history (with the caveat that many great people came and went without record).
The New Kingdom emerged after a period of war and decline, and was an era of international reconnection. This was a time of colossal statues (not pyramid-building, as that age had passed), of tombs in hidden canyons, of kings and other nobles hunting captive animals taken from the African wilderness. Scribes wrote on astrology and magic, medicine and science; these scholars could be male or female. Farmers depended upon the Nile, and laborers (not slaves) worked in the cities. We have an impression of Egyptian monuments and cities composed entirely of sand-colored stone, but the outsides of temples and palaces were painted bright white while their insides were brilliant yellow and green.
Hatshepsut is considered the most influential queen of Egypt, not the first or the most famous (the latter may be Cleopatra), but one with a profound legacy of construction and consolidation of power. She turned her attention away from military exploits and towards construction closer to home, ushering forth a period of artistic and architectural innovation.
She was the oldest daughter of Thutmose I and married her brother Thutmose II (as was customary amongst Egyptian royalty). When Thutmose II died, Hatshepsut remained on the throne as a regent for her infant stepson Thutmose III (the son of Thutmose and a minor wife as Hatshepsut only had a daughter). However, she swept past the bounds of a normal regent and declared herself pharaoh. Her reasons for this power grab are unknown but might be related to her ambition or an unknown political crisis.
Hatshepsut's rule was politically interesting. The infant Thutmose III was promoted to pharaoh. Afterward, Hatshepsut claimed the title of co-ruler, becoming the younger king in a partnership with her stepson – though she wielded most of the practical power. Her rule as a woman was not unusual. Kings’ mothers often ruled when their children were too young – historian Ann Macy Roth suggests that women ruled Egypt for about half of the seventy years preceding Hatshepsut. However, her claim to be a pharaoh, Horus reborn, was unusual.
Hatshepsut’s first major achievement was the expansion of trade. Her second achievement was a vast period of construction. At the time, Egypt faced the ruins of the Hyksos invasion, a movement of people from the Near East into Egypt. Hatshepsut sought to rebuild the temples the invaders had destroyed. In so doing, she commissioned an enormous amount of sculpture; sadly, much of it was later destroyed by those seeking to erase her legacy. The temple at Deir el-Bahri seems to be her crowning achievement, a vast colonnade with a sweeping entrance staircase. After the preceding period of ruin, these construction projects propped up Hatshepsut’s legitimacy. With Egypt still reeling from war and her non-standard lineage, the queen needed to double down on any claim to godly heritage. Her declarations of godhood were as politically calculated as they were religious.
The child Thutmose III would not look fondly on his mother’s actions; after her death, he sought to erase her legacy. Thus archaeologists found many of her statues in a great pile of smashed art, a waste pit of Thutmose III's design. These statues are interesting for several reasons. Kings were the embodiment of Horus, a male god, so when Hatshepsut claimed the mantle of king, she needed to become male, at least symbolically, and many of her statues were changed from female to male; at the same time, many of Hatshepsut's male relatives and contacts began to use female pronouns to better align with her.
Hatshepsut died at 50 and was buried in the Valley of the Kings, though her body was later removed from her sarcophagus. An extra mummy found in her nurse’s tomb has been tentatively identified as Hatshepsut and is currently on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Trivia[]
- Hatshepsut's leader ability is a title given to the Amun cult's highest-ranking priestess, which Hatshepsut herself held, while her agenda references the Egyptian name of the Nile River.
- Hatshepsut was one of the first four leaders that were officially confirmed for Civilization VII during playtesting, along with Augustus, Amina, and Ashoka, World Renouncer.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Civ Paths - Hatshepsut (Civ7).jpg (779 KB)")
.png "Hatshepsut three-quarter length (Civ7).png (342 KB)")
.png "Hatshepsut portrait neutral (Civ7).png (28 KB)")
.png "Hatshepsut portrait happy (Civ7).png (9 KB)")
.png "Hatshepsut portrait angry (Civ7).png (8 KB)")
.jpg "Hatshepsut banner (Civ7).jpg (31 KB)")
Videos[]
First Look- Hatshepsut - Civilization VII
First Look: Hatshepsut
Related achievements[]
|
Suted for Battle.
Win the modern age as Hatshepsut.
|
References[]
See also[]
- Hatshepsut in other games