Many historians that it is possible to categorize the advancements and the rise and fall of the Egyptian kingdom through its progression through the Bronze age. The Old kingdom which was formed after the union of upper and lower Egypt approximately 3,000 BC, saw the erection of the the great pyramids of Gizeh and Kafre, and the reign of some of the first great Pharaoh's Khufu and Snefru this age is also called by some the Early bronze age.
The Middle kingdom (dynasties XI-XIV) picks up were the old left off and we see the movement of royal burial from great pyramids to rock cut tombs around 2040 BC, this can also be classified as the Middle Bronze Age.
This classification continues until after the rule of Akhenaton, Ramses II and Tutankhamen which signifies the end of the New Kingdom and the beginning of the late period and Iron age approximately 1070 BC. . .
During the rise and fall of this empire their is one female monarch who stood supreme. Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458 bc) is recognized as the first great female monarch and she ruled egypt for over two decades. Hatshepsut took power after the death of the fourth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Thutmose II, the title was originally supposed to be given to Thutmose III who was only 12 at the time of his original coronation, but his mother Hatshepsut proclaimed herself Pharaoh. .
During her time as ruler Hatshepsut commissioned numerous building projects as well as many portraits of herself, however after her death many were destroyed by her resentful successor Thutmose III, whose rise to kingship was delayed for twenty years.
Hatsheput's portraits were very ambiguous, in some she was portrayed as a male in the traditional pharaoh uniform of kilt and headdress, and in many cases a false ceremonial beard also many were inscribed with phrases such as "his majesty". In other statues however, she was portrayed with a slender frame, and breasts showing no doubt that she was a woman who boasted to have the " Two Lands to labor with bowed back for her".
