Hatshepsut at the Met

Hatshepsut, often called the world's first great queen, called herself a pharaoh for most of her 22-year reign (roughly 1479 to 1458 BCE). The Met's damaged statue, Hatshepsut Wearing the khat Headdress, demonstrates the ways Hatshepsut assumed the title and all that went with it, including immortality. As you stare into the empty space where an image of her head once rested, you can't help but conjure the rest of her, entourage and intellect and ego, such that she lives on and on, in the imagination.