April 24, 1479

The reign of Hatshepsut in ancient Egypt, is usually dated from April 24, 1479 BC. There is some controversy about the dates, as there is about much, so long ago. But that Hatshepsut at some point in what began as a co-regency, was accepted as a pharaoh is considered a fact; nor was she was the first woman pharaoh.

Since I am embracing the gray side, might as well quote Wikipedia:

The Temple of Pakhet was built by Hatshepsut at Beni Hasan in the Minya Governorate south of Al Minya. The name, Pakhet, was a synthesis that occurred by combining Bast and Sekhmet, who were similar lioness war goddesses, in an area that bordered the north and south division of their cults. The cavernous underground temple, cut into the rock cliffs on the eastern side of the Nile, was admired and called the Speos Artemidos by the Greeks during their [later] occupation of Egypt, known as the Ptolemaic Dynasty. They saw the goddess as akin to their hunter goddess Artemis.

Like other pharaohs, she had a sphinx created in her image. We learn from a facebook page, Egypt Cradle of civilization





'Sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut
From Deir el-Bahri, Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut

'The leonine body of this sculpture is carved in a fairly classical pose, with the front legs extending forwards and the tail curling around the right rear leg. However, the head, which in such images is usually covered with a nemes headdress, here has a large, thick mane with stylized curls that ends in a short plait on the back. The ears are broken off. The queen's face is encircled by a fringe of hair and she wears a long false beard. Due to the thick mane, the face of Hatshepsut appears small and refined. The delicately female appearance of the features is somewhat offset by the choice of colours, which conform to the convention of representing the divine nature of all pharaohs by using yellow for gold and blue for lapis lazuli.

'A vertical inscription begins below the beard on the chest, protected by the symbol of the sky, and is completed on the base between the front paws. It reads 'Maatkare (the coronation name of Hatshepsut), beloved of Amun, blessed with eternal life'.

'Numerous stone sphinxes of Hatshepsut, varying in size, have survived. Many come from her temple of Deir el-Bahri known to the ancient Egyptians as Djer Djeseru, 'The Sublime of the Sublime'. Rows of large sphinxes flanked the ramp leading from the second terrace to the entrance of the temple proper. This sphinx was part of a group of smaller sphinxes that lined the processional routes within the temple itself and decorated a number of niches on the upper terrace...'