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Dr. Kara Cooney on Ancient Egyptian Female Pharaoh Hatshepsut: Lessons From the Woman Who Was King in a Man’s World
Last year I visited Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple, known as Deir el-Bahri, in Egypt, and was profoundly awed by the scale, beauty and symmetry of the structure. It made me wonder – who is the woman who had the power to create this monument around 3,500 years ago when kings were almost always men? I turned to the world’s leading expert on Hatshepsut to find out more about this extraordinary female Pharaoh.
Dr. Kara Cooney is one of the most famous modern faces of Ancient Egypt. She is an Egyptologist, archeologist, author and professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA. She has hosted TV shows on the Discovery Channel including Out of Egypt and Egypt’s Lost Queen and written top-selling books including the 2018 book When Women Ruled The World and the 2015 book, “The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt,” which focuses on the subject of our podcast today – Queen Hatshepsut.
Hapshetsut created the tallest obelisk in the world at the Temple of Karnak, which still stands in Rome! Hatshepsut lived from roughly 1507 – 1458 BC and ruled Egypt from an estimated 1478BC until her death. How and why did she come to power when typically only men ruled? How did she keep her power? What sacrifices does a woman who wants to rule have to make? What can we as women learn from her about our modern world?
Kara has Irish-Italian heritage and grew up in Houston. She obtained a Bachelor in German from the University of Texas and then a PHD at John Hopkins University in Egyptology. She co-curated the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2005. Her specialties include economies, craft production and coffin studies in ancient cultures. She has spent years at excavations sites in Egypt studying things in person. Kara currently lives in LA with her husband Remy.
Some of the courses she teaches at UCLA include Women and Power in Ancient World and Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, Predynastic Period to New Kingdom – so if you happen to be a current or future UCLA student – you are in luck!
She also has an upcoming 2020 National Geographic live tour of the US to discuss When Women Ruled The World.
Learn more about Kara and contact her directly on her website: http://karacooney.squarespace.com
Kara’s UCLA profile
Kara’s 2020 National Geographic Live Events Schedule
Kara’s Twitter profile
Kara’s Facebook profile
Kara’s Instagram profile
When Women Ruled the World
The Woman Who Would Be King