Two Pharoahs: Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III

She was the daughter of a pharaoh, beautiful, feminine, intelligent and a talented woman and the favorite of her father the reigning pharaoh. She was also married to her younger brother, whom she loved, but only as younger sibling. He was the logical successor to their father, but he died of some mysterious disease leaving his sister/wife to continue his rule. So when it came time for her to ascend the pharaoh's throne she assumed the guise of a male including a false beard, that to satisfy a population whom she felt were suspicious of her and she assumed they wanted a male pharaoh. Before her brother/husband passed away he consorted with a 'harem wife' who in turn had a son, and an heir, who should logically have the necessary qualifications to be a pharaoh. She, also, had a lover, a great Egyptian architect and builder, who built many monuments and mortuary temples, many of which stand today, thirty-five hundred years later. But what of the female pharaoh, who preceeded Cleopatra by over fifteen hundred years, and her ambitious step-son, and thus the intrigue begins.