Hatshepsut, the 5th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty and the World First Arborist

The highlight of her reign was the expedition to the Land of Punt in order to acquire trees

Queen Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I and Ahmose. She ruled Egypt for about 20 years.

The female pharaoh is the world’s first arborist as she led a successful attempt at transplanting foreign fauna.

In this article we will explain how this extraordinary feat happened but it is first necessary to discuss the importance of trees for ancient Egyptians.

One of the most famous tribute to nature’s species is undoubtably the Tree of Life. In the mural painting below, the birds represent the five stages of life: infancy, childhood, youth, adulthood and maturity.The mature bird watches the sun set in the west and travel through the underworld.

Trees were associated with rebirth as well as fecundity and were often represented by Hathor, Nut or Isis.

In temples, there are numerous mural paintings celebrating them. The Tree Goddess for instance is often depicted offering food and drink to the deceased in the afterlife

Queen Hatshepsut understood the importance of trees which were surprisingly rare in Egypt. She loved studying them and their health was of paramount concern to her.

The Queen was close to the population and wanted to do everything that will first and foremost benefit them.

“Hear ye all persons! Ye people as many as ye are, I have done things according to the design of my heart”.

Following her heart, Hatshepsut decided to organise an expedition to the Land of Punt which represents modern day Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the littoral of Sudan.

The goal of the expedition was to acquire trees, specifically myrrh and frankincense. The resin collected from those trees were used in religious ceremonies, incense, perfume and cosmetics.

Five ships and 210 men departed from Quseir, a port on the Red Sea and sailed to Punt. Root protectors were used to carefully place 31 trees in the ships.

They were then planted in the courts of her Deir el-Bahri temple so she could look after them.

Hatshepsut was so proud of this feat that she asked artists to create paintings which would celebrate the expedition.

Trees roots can still be seen outside her temple which shows how Hatshepsut, the world’s first arborist protected them.

It is galling that we now treat trees as an inconvenience or as something that comes in a way of development.

Trees are our best friends, they nourish and protect us in many ways but we keep on disrespecting them!

We can learn a lot from Queen Hatshepsut and her love for trees, the first step should be to nourish our spiritual side.

Final Thought

Hatshepsut was not only one of the wisest pharaoh, she could also be viewed as the first Green Queen!

Let’s take care of our trees as we should be grateful for what they are doing for all of us.