IN ANCIENT EGYPT THE PHARAOH WAS DIVINE, THE EARTHLY MANIFESTATION OF THE GOD HORUS.
He was also given the title 'Son of RE', linking him to the all-powerful sun-god. At the pharaoh's coronation the gods HORUS
and THOTH ritually purified him with a bath of the hieroglyphs for 'life' and 'domninion'.
After a reign of thirty years the pharoah celebrated his heb-sed or jubilee festival. He rejuvenated his physical prowess
with rituals including firing arrows to the cardinal points (north, south, east and west) to assert his universal rule.
Some monarchs were especially revered for centuries after their deaths, such as Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose-Nefertari.
They gave 500 years of employment to craftsmen, stone-masons and labourers by founding a village just for the workers on the
tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Other rulers were damned to oblivion after they died by being left out of the Kings Lists
set up in temples. One of these was Queen Hatshepsut, who defied convention and ruled as if she were a male pharoah.
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