Ancient Egypt was always ruled by men.

Hatshepsut (it's an easy name to remember, just picture someone wearing a Hat and a Cheap Suit, and say it as Hat-Cheap-Suit) was an ambitious woman who sent her young son Tuthmosis to join the army, then donned men's clothing and assumed the throne of Egypt in his place. She erected numerous statues temples and obelisks all over the country, showing images of herself wearing a false beard and men's clothes.

Hatshepsut's ambition was to be buried in the Valley of the Kings but the priests refused her permission to build a tomb there. She therefore built an enormous temple in the neighbouring valley and attempted to tunnel her way under the mountain to build a burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings, but the rock was too unstable and she had to abandon the attempt after 200 yards of tunnelling.

Eventually her son managed to leave the army and return to take revenge on her. He killed her and cut her body into many pieces, then set about systematically removing all references to her by demolishing her temples, destroying her statues and carvings, and obliterating any paintings of her.

The temple has been largely restored (or more accurately re-created), and you can see that it is a very modernistic design that would not look out of place in a modern-day city. Hidden away on the back wall of a side-temple there is the one remaining picture of Hatshepsut which somehow escaped the cleansing actions of Tuthmosis.