We visited this temple after the Valley of the Kings . This temple is nearby but we missed the Valley of the Queens . Hatshepsut Temple is at the side of a cliff and looks spectacular .She was the Pharoah at that time eventhough she was female.

Hatshepsut was a woman and she was well-known to have sponsored trading expeditions rather than for conquering land & wars . Typical of a woman to be peace-loving , I think ! Haha.

However , much of the etchings of her face in her temple were obliterated by her successor . This was because Hatshepsut did not borne any sons but just one daughter . Her husband had another wife who had a son, Tukmoses 111 , her step nephew /son and he actually defaced all of her depictions in the etchings in her temple. Probably out of jealousy.

The fact that she was a female and reign as a Pharoah is unusual in those times .

Just to mention on guides , we actually had a good guide in Cairo, Shahinaz . Mustafa was like in a hurry , he just gave the information and thats it . Saliha who is a degree chattier than me or Rahiyah , found out from him that the tourism industry in Egypt have been badly hit due to the war in Gaza as many Americans are not coming to Egypt as the Christmas season is peak season .Egypt is expecting 50 million visitors and only 15 million visitors have come ! This in a way is catastrophic for the tourism trade in Egypt as many livehoods depend on tourists .

Writing this while waiting for the gates to open for Malaysia Airlines flight at Doha Airport .