Unveiling the Secrets of Sovereign Ramses' Curse

In the ancient Egyptian temple of Karnak, a remarkable artifact was discovered. It was a statue of the great Pharaoh Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great. This statue was not only a testament to Ramses' power and influence but also held a mysterious curse. For many years, those who had possession of the statue were said to be cursed with misfortune and tragedy. This curse became known as the Sovereign Ramses curse. The curse seemed to affect everyone who came into contact with the statue, from archaeologists to museum curators.

This is a reasonable question to ask, and certainly worthy of a thoughtful answer. Here are some things we learn from the Bible that put the killing of the first-born in perspective.

Gold, ebony, animal skins, baboons, processed myrrh, and living myrrh trees were brought back to Egypt, and the trees were planted in the gardens of Dayr al-Baḥrī. 18 I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

The curse seemed to affect everyone who came into contact with the statue, from archaeologists to museum curators. It was believed that anyone who disturbed the statue or tried to move it would be plagued with bad luck. This curse created fear and speculation within the archaeological community, as people wondered if they should believe in the supernatural powers it supposedly possessed.

Hatshepsut

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• LiveScience - Hatshepsut: Powerful Female Pharaoh
• Tour Egypt - Biography of Hatshepsut
• Ancient Origins - Hatshepsut: The Queen Who became Pharaoh
• Social Studies For Kids - Biography of Hatshepsut
• Brooklyn Museum - Hatshepsut
• Chemistry LibreTexts - Hatshepsut
• World History Encyclopedia - Hatshepsut

• Hatshepsut - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Hatshepsut - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

• LiveScience - Hatshepsut: Powerful Female Pharaoh
• Tour Egypt - Biography of Hatshepsut
• Ancient Origins - Hatshepsut: The Queen Who became Pharaoh
• Social Studies For Kids - Biography of Hatshepsut
• Brooklyn Museum - Hatshepsut
• Chemistry LibreTexts - Hatshepsut
• World History Encyclopedia - Hatshepsut

• Hatshepsut - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Hatshepsut - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester. Author of Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt, Chronicles of the Queens of Egypt, Tutankhamen’s Curse, and others.

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Hatshepsut was a female king of Egypt (reigned in her own right c. 1473–58 BCE) who attained unprecedented power for a woman, adopting the full titles and regalia of a pharaoh.

Hatshepsut married her half brother, Thutmose II, who inherited the throne from their father, Thutmose I, and made Hatshepsut his consort. When Thutmose II died, Hatshepsut became regent for her stepson, Thutmose III, and eventually the two became corulers of Egypt. Hatshepsut was the dominant king. In representations, she wears traditional regalia.

Hatshepsut’s reign was essentially a peaceful one, and her foreign policy was based on trade rather than war. Restoration and building were important royal duties, and she undertook extensive building programs, namely on the temples of the national god Amon-Re; the Karnak temple complex; and the Dayr al-Baḥrī temple, a funerary monument for herself.

Hatshepsut was born to Thutmose I and his consort Ahmose. She married her half brother, Thutmose II, and had a daughter, Neferure. When Thutmose II inherited the throne, Hatshepsut became his consort. The throne later passed to his son, Thutmose III, born to a lesser harem queen. Hatshepsut acted as regent and then coruler.

The cause of Hatshepsut's death is not known. Her mummy was missing from its sarcophagus when her tomb was excavated in the 1920s. There are several theories about her demise, including that she either suffered from cancer or was murdered, possibly by her stepson. No theory has been proved, nor has her body been conclusively identified.

Hatshepsut, also spelled Hatchepsut, female king of Egypt (reigned in her own right c. 1473–58 bce ) who attained unprecedented power for a woman, adopting the full titles and regalia of a pharaoh.

Hatshepsut, the elder daughter of the 18th-dynasty king Thutmose I and his consort Ahmose, was married to her half brother Thutmose II, son of the lady Mutnofret. Since three of Mutnofret’s older sons had died prematurely, Thutmose II inherited his father’s throne about 1492 bce , with Hatshepsut as his consort. Hatshepsut bore one daughter, Neferure, but no son. When her husband died about 1479 bce , the throne passed to his son Thutmose III, born to Isis, a lesser harem queen. As Thutmose III was an infant, Hatshepsut acted as regent for the young king.

For the first few years of her stepson’s reign, Hatshepsut was an entirely conventional regent. But, by the end of his seventh regnal year, she had been crowned king and adopted a full royal titulary (the royal protocol adopted by Egyptian sovereigns). Hatshepsut and Thutmose III were now corulers of Egypt, with Hatshepsut very much the dominant king. Hitherto Hatshepsut had been depicted as a typical queen, with a female body and appropriately feminine garments. But now, after a brief period of experimentation that involved combining a female body with kingly (male) regalia, her formal portraits began to show Hatshepsut with a male body, wearing the traditional regalia of kilt, crown or head-cloth, and false beard. To dismiss this as a serious attempt to pass herself off as a man is to misunderstand Egyptian artistic convention, which showed things not as they were but as they should be. In causing herself to be depicted as a traditional king, Hatshepsut ensured that this is what she would become.

Hatshepsut never explained why she took the throne or how she persuaded Egypt’s elite to accept her new position. However, an essential element of her success was a group of loyal officials, many handpicked, who controlled all the key positions in her government. Most prominent amongst these was Senenmut, overseer of all royal works and tutor to Neferure. Some observers have suggested that Hatshepsut and Senenmut may have been lovers, but there is no evidence to support this claim.

Traditionally, Egyptian kings defended their land against the enemies who lurked at Egypt’s borders. Hatshepsut’s reign was essentially a peaceful one, and her foreign policy was based on trade rather than war. But scenes on the walls of her Dayr al-Baḥrī temple, in western Thebes, suggest that she began with a short, successful military campaign in Nubia. More-complete scenes show Hatshepsut’s seaborne trading expedition to Punt, a trading centre (since vanished) on the East African coast beyond the southernmost end of the Red Sea. Gold, ebony, animal skins, baboons, processed myrrh, and living myrrh trees were brought back to Egypt, and the trees were planted in the gardens of Dayr al-Baḥrī.

Restoration and building were important royal duties. Hatshepsut claimed, falsely, to have restored the damage wrought by the Hyksos (Asian) kings during their rule in Egypt. She undertook an extensive building program. In Thebes this focused on the temples of her divine father, the national god Amon-Re (see Amon). At the Karnak temple complex, she remodeled her earthly father’s hypostyle hall, added a barque shrine (the Red Chapel), and introduced two pairs of obelisks. At Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt, she built a rock-cut temple known in Greek as Speos Artemidos. Her supreme achievement was her Dayr al-Baḥrī temple; designed as a funerary monument for Hatshepsut, it was dedicated to Amon-Re and included a series of chapels dedicated to Osiris, Re, Hathor, Anubis, and the royal ancestors. Hatshepsut was to be interred in the Valley of the Kings, where she extended her father’s tomb so that the two could lie together.

Hatshepsut’s reign was essentially a peaceful one, and her foreign policy was based on trade rather than war. Restoration and building were important royal duties, and she undertook extensive building programs, namely on the temples of the national god Amon-Re; the Karnak temple complex; and the Dayr al-Baḥrī temple, a funerary monument for herself.

However, in 1978, a group of researchers embarked on a mission to unravel the mystery of the Sovereign Ramses curse. Led by archaeologist Dr. Emily Johnson, the team aimed to find a solution and break the curse once and for all. Their goal was to understand the origins of the curse and find a way to neutralize its effects. Through extensive research and study, Dr. Johnson and her team discovered that the curse was not actually supernatural in nature. It was rooted in psychological fear and suggestion. The power of belief and the fear associated with the curse were what caused people to experience misfortune, rather than any inherent supernatural forces. Armed with this knowledge, Dr. Johnson developed a plan to resolve the Sovereign Ramses curse. She proposed a series of experiments and exposure therapy to show individuals that the curse was nothing more than a product of their own minds. The goal was to gradually desensitize people to the fear associated with the curse and empower them to overcome their superstitions. Over the course of several years, Dr. Johnson and her team conducted their experiments with various individuals who had been affected by the curse. They exposed them to the statue, discussing its history and debunking the myths surrounding it. Slowly but surely, the participants began to shed their fear and realize that the curse had no power over them. As the news spread of Dr. Johnson's successful experiments, the myth of the Sovereign Ramses curse started to crumble. People began to realize that the curse was nothing more than a psychological phenomenon, fueled by fear and superstition. The once-feared artifact became just another piece of history, devoid of the power it had once held. The resolution of the Sovereign Ramses curse marked an important turning point in the field of archaeology. It highlighted the importance of critical thinking and evidence-based research in debunking myths and legends. Moreover, it showcased the power of the human mind and its ability to create or break barriers, even ones that seemed supernatural. In conclusion, the resolution of the Sovereign Ramses curse was a triumph of science over superstition. Dr. Emily Johnson and her team revealed the true nature of the curse, demonstrating that it was merely a product of psychological fear and suggestion. Their experiments and exposure therapy successfully broke the spell of the curse, proving that belief and the power of the mind can shape our reality. The story of the Sovereign Ramses curse serves as a reminder to question and challenge our beliefs, as they may not always hold the power we assume them to have..

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Decoding the Curse of Pharaoh Ramses