When Thothmes I. died, he left behind him one daughter and two sons, each of whom bore the same name as his father, but the younger of the brothers was only a little child. Their sister Hatasu was a proud ambitious woman, and had already been, to some extent, associated with her father during his reign. When Thothmes II. succeeded, she was formally associated with him in the government. We read but little about this king; his reign was brief, and he was probably outshone by the energetic partner of his throne. Hatasu, in fact, could ill brook even the slight restraint imposed by his co-regency, and no sooner was he dead than the proud queen, ‘throwing aside her womanly veil, appeared in all the splendour of a Pharaoh—like a born king.’[33] She assumed man’s attire, and was seen on state occasions in the dress and regalia of an Egyptian king—even to the plaited beard. She revered her father, and paid homage to his memory, but on the unfortunate Thothmes II. she hastened to avenge herself for the wrong he had done her in wearing a crown that was his own; she obliterated every trace of his existence to the best of her ability, and, vindictively erasing his name, she substituted her own. Hatasu also succeeded in having her name inscribed by the priests on the roll of Egyptian sovereigns. Meantime the boy Thothmes, the rightful king, was sent by order of his imperious sister to the almost inaccessible marshes of the Delta, where he was doomed to wear out the years of his dreary boyhood, cherishing, there can be little doubt, the most vindictive feelings towards the sister who, having usurped his place, was ruling Egypt with splendour and renown. No reign was more distinguished than that of Hatasu for art and architecture. She completed the magnificent temple begun during her joint reign with her brother. An avenue of sphinxes led up to the gate towers and the obelisks, which were 97 feet in height, and made of red granite capped with gold. The temple itself stood upon four broad and stately terraces, which rose one above another until they touched the dazzling marble-like limestone cliff against which they rested; the terraces were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions and carvings in bas-relief. In the limestone rock above were excavated vast funeral chambers, and here were buried the queen’s father and mother, a sister who died young, and Thothmes II. Here also Hatasu herself and Thothmes III. were laid in due time, but none of these royal mummies have been suffered to remain in peace. To avoid violation and plunder, it became customary some centuries later to examine and to report upon the state of royal tombs and coffins from time to time, and to remove them occasionally to securer resting-places. Thus it came to pass in the great discovery of 1881, the empty coffin of Thothmes I. was found, together with the coffin and mummy of his son and successor, Thothmes II.