title: Lightning McQueen

text: In Radiator Springs, the local judge, Doc Hudson, the other townsfolk, and Sally Carrera, vote to have McQueen repave the road he destroyed as his punishment. He rushes and doesn't do it properly at first before reluctantly accepting help from Doc. In the process, McQueen learns about the history of Radiator Springs and begins to relate to its inhabitants. McQueen befriends a tow truck named Tow Mater, and he falls in love with Sally. During his time at Radiator Springs, McQueen's personality slowly begins to change. He begins to care about others rather than just himself. He also learns an expert turn from Doc and some unorthodox moves from Mater, which he uses later in the tie-breaker race.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: During the final lap of the race, McQueen witnesses a crash behind him and forfeits the win in order to help Weathers finish the race. McQueen is nonetheless praised for his selfless sportsmanship, so much so that Dinoco Race Team owner Tex offers to hire him to succeed Weathers. McQueen declines, choosing instead to stay with his Rust-eze sponsors for managing to get him where he was. Tex respects his decision and instead offers to do him a favor any time he needs it. McQueen uses the favor on a ride on the Dinoco helicopter for Mater, fulfilling Mater's dream.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: McQueen returns to Radiator Springs to establish his racing headquarters. He resumes his relationship with Sally and becomes Hudson's pupil.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: Considered a direct continuation of the Cars narrative, this game's story picks up where the movie ends. McQueen finds himself at the start of the next Piston Cup season. With the help of the citizens of Radiator Springs, McQueen readies to start his quest for the Piston Cup. He taking lessons from Doc, Fillmore, Mater. With the use of his new skills, McQueen once again finds himself in position to win the Piston Cup, much to the irritation of Chick Hicks.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: McQueen's racing gear is stolen from Mack on Interstate 40 when Chick enlists the aid of The Delinquent Road Hazards, the same crew who harassed Lightning in the first film. McQueen is able to retrieve his equipment and bring the delinquents to justice before winning the next race, which sends Chick into a frenzy. Lightning challenges Chick to a Grand Prix in Radiator Springs, followed by one more Piston Cup race in L.A. McQueen wins these events, taking the Piston Cup in his sophomore season.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: At the end, McQueen, Mater, and Sally decide to take a celebratory trip across the country. When asked if he brought his trophy, McQueen notes he did not, but left it in a good place, revealed to be at Doc Hudson's clinic next to the racing legend's own three Piston Cups.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: Though McQueen is still sponsored by Rust-eze, players are able to unlock McQueen with a Dinoco paint job while playing as him in Story Mode, Arcade Mode, and VS. Mode.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: Five years after the events of the first film, McQueen, now a four-time Piston Cup champion (2006–2011), returns to Radiator Springs after a successful racing season in order to rest and reconnect with his friends. McQueen's respite is interrupted when he is recruited to participate in the first ever World Grand Prix, sponsored by former oil tycoon Miles Axelrod, who hopes to promote his new biofuel, Allinol. McQueen and his friend Mater become caught up in an international spy scheme, placing them in danger and testing their friendship.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: At a pre-race party in Tokyo, Japan, McQueen is embarrassed by Mater and regrets bringing him along. After losing the first race on account of Mater's involvement with the spies, McQueen lashes out at him and tells him he does not want his help anymore. Mater leaves, and McQueen feels guilty for being so harsh. Later, McQueen wins the second race in Porto Corsa, Italy. However, many cars have been seriously damaged in the races so far, leading the public to question if the new fuel Allinol is the cause. In response, Axelrod decides to remove Allinol from the final race. McQueen elects to continue with Allinol, unknowingly endangering himself. Mater tries to warn McQueen, but is unable to do so.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: During the third race in London, McQueen sees Mater and wants to apologize to him. When McQueen approaches him, Mater speeds away because of a bomb planted in his engine compartment that will detonate if McQueen gets too close. Out of the detonator's remote control range, McQueen catches up and realizes the spy mission was real. McQueen goes with Mater and the spies to confront Miles Axelrod, the mastermind of the murder, and force him to disarm the bomb.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: Following the arrest of Axlerod and his cohorts, it's revealed that McQueen's Allinol supply was switched with Fillmore's organic fuel by Sarge, protecting McQueen from being affected by the radiation. McQueen happily declares that Mater can come to all races from now on if he likes. Once back in Radiator Springs, McQueen and his friends host the Radiator Springs Grand Prix.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: McQueen's paint scheme in this film is nearly the same as it was in the first movie (his large lightning bolt is repainted dark red, and a smaller bolt is threaded through his number, and has only three sponsor stickers on either side), though it is modified for the World Grand Prix with green-tinted flames on the end of his large bolt and a Piston Cup logo on the hood instead of his usual Rust-Eze sponsor. His reflective lightning decals are removed, he has a different spoiler, and his sticker headlights and taillights are replaced with actual working lights.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: Six years after the events of the second film, McQueen, now a seven-time Piston Cup winner (2006–2015) and racing legend, races in the Piston Cup series with his long-time racing friends, Cal Weathers and Bobby Swift. High-tech rookie racer Jackson Storm appears and begins to win race after race. McQueen pushes himself too hard while trying to compete with Storm in the final race of the season, injuring himself severely in a dangerous crash. After recovering, McQueen trains with Cruz Ramirez during the offseason in hopes of beating Storm. McQueen's new sponsor Sterling tells him he will have to retire if he loses his next race, where Sterling plans to profit off McQueen's retirement merchandise.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: After several unsuccessful attempts at training, McQueen decides to seek out Doc's old pit boss, Smokey, and eventually meets him at the Thomasville Motor Speedway, in what appears to be the Great Smoky Mountains. Completing this training, McQueen runs the first half of the Florida 500, with Smokey as his crew chief, before pulling out and giving Cruz a shot at stardom, with him as the crew chief. Cruz and McQueen share the victory due to Lightning starting the race, and the pair receive a sponsorship under the merged Dinoco-Rust-Eze brand. McQueen embraces the role of mentor for young talent, with Cruz as his pupil.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: He reverts to the body type he had back in the first film, but the paint job features a cross between the lightning bolts seen in the first film, and the flames seen in the second film. The bolts are solid colored instead of halftone, the Rust-Eze logos were enlarged, and he has fewer sponsor stickers than he had in the first film. He also sports a second paint scheme prior to his crash (With a slightly desaturated red paintwork, a more modernized version of the Rust-Eze logo and different lightning bolts), a third "training" paint job in which he is darker red with metallic yellow accents, and a fourth "demolition derby" paint job in which he is all mud brown and numbered 15. At the end of the film, McQueen is decked in a blue "Fabulous Lightning McQueen" paint job reminiscent of Doc Hudson's. He also keeps his working lights.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: In the book "Struck by Lightning", McQueen reveals that his original name was "Monty", and that "Lightning" is a nickname.


title: Lightning McQueen

text: Lightning McQueen's popularity inspired many products, from toys and video games to spin off TV shows and books. He is also a character at the Disney California Adventure theme park, Cars Land.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The city of Victoria is the 7th most densely populated city in Canada with .


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is the southernmost major city in Western Canada and is about southwest from British Columbia's largest city of Vancouver on the mainland. The city is about from Seattle by airplane, seaplane, ferry, or the Victoria Clipper passenger-only ferry, and from Port Angeles, Washington, by ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Named for Queen Victoria, the city is one of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1843. The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks, the Parliament Buildings (finished in 1897 and home of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia) and the Empress hotel (opened in 1908). The city's Chinatown is the second oldest in North America, after San Francisco's. The region's Coast Salish First Nations peoples established communities in the area long before European settlement, which had large populations at the time of European exploration.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Known as "the Garden City", Victoria is an attractive city and a popular tourism destination with a regional technology sector that has risen to be its largest revenue-generating private industry. Victoria is in the top twenty of world cities for quality-of-life, according to Numbeo.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Prior to the arrival of European navigators in the late 1700s, the Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Songhees. The Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast, beginning with the visits of Juan Pérez in 1774, and of James Cook in 1778. Although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not explored until 1790, Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt Harbour (just west of Victoria proper) in 1790, 1791, and 1792.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: In 1841 James Douglas was charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Upon the recommendation by George Simpson a new more northerly post should be built in case Fort Vancouver fell into American hands (see Oregon boundary dispute). Douglas founded Fort Victoria on the site of present-day Victoria in anticipation of the outcome of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, extending the British North America/United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Strait of Georgia.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Erected in 1843 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post on a site originally called Camosack meaning "rush of water". known briefly as "Fort Albert", the settlement was renamed Fort Victoria in November 1843, in honour of Queen Victoria. The Songhees established a village across the harbour from the fort. The Songhees' village was later moved north of Esquimalt in 1911.The crown colony was established in 1849. Between the years 1850–1854 a series of treaty agreements known as the Douglas Treaties were made with indigenous communities to purchase certain plots of land in exchange for goods. These agreements contributed to a town being laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony, though controversy has followed about the ethical negotiation and upholding of rights by the colonial government. The superintendent of the fort, Chief Factor James Douglas was made the second governor of the Vancouver Island Colony (Richard Blanshard was first governor, Arthur Edward Kennedy was third and last governor), and would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: When news of the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland reached San Francisco in 1858, Victoria became the port, supply base, and outfitting centre for miners on their way to the Fraser Canyon gold fields, mushrooming from a population of 300 to over 5000 within a few days. Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1862 Victoria was the epicentre of the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic which devastated First Nations, killing about two-thirds of all natives in British Columbia. In 1865, the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy was established in Esquimalt and today is Canada's Pacific coast naval base. In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria was designated the capital of the new united colony instead of New Westminster – an unpopular move on the Mainland – and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: In the latter half of the 19th century, the Port of Victoria became one of North America's largest importers of opium, serving the opium trade from Hong Kong and distribution into North America. Opium trade was legal and unregulated until 1865, when the legislature issued licences and levied duties on its import and sale. The opium trade was banned in 1908.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: In 1886, with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, Victoria's position as the commercial centre of British Columbia was irrevocably lost to the city of Vancouver. The city subsequently began cultivating an image of genteel civility within its natural setting, aided by the impressions of visitors such as Rudyard Kipling, the opening of the popular Butchart Gardens in 1904 and the construction of the Empress Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908. Robert Dunsmuir, a leading industrialist whose interests included coal mines and a railway on Vancouver Island, constructed Craigdarroch Castle in the Rockland area, near the official residence of the province's Lieutenant Governor. His son James Dunsmuir became Premier and subsequently Lieutenant Governor of the province and built his own grand residence at Hatley Park (used for several decades as Royal Roads Military College, now civilian Royal Roads University) in the present City of Colwood.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: A real-estate and development boom ended just before World War I, leaving Victoria with a large stock of Edwardian public, commercial and residential buildings that have greatly contributed to the city's character. With the economic crash and an abundance of unmarried men, Victoria became an excellent location for military recruiting. Two militia infantry battalions, the 88th Victoria Fusiliers and the 50th Gordon Highlanders, formed in the immediate pre-war period. Victoria was the home of Sir Arthur Currie. He had been a high-school teacher and real-estate agent prior to the war and was the Commanding Officer of the Gordon Highlanders in the summer of 1914. Before the end of the war he commanded the Canadian Corps. A number of municipalities surrounding Victoria were incorporated during this period, including the Township of Esquimalt, the District of Oak Bay, and several municipalities on the Saanich Peninsula.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Since World War II the Victoria area has seen relatively steady growth, becoming home to two major universities. Since the 1980s the western suburbs have been incorporated as new municipalities, such as Colwood and Langford, which are known collectively as the Western Communities.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Greater Victoria periodically experiences calls for the amalgamation of the thirteen municipal governments within the Capital Regional District. The opponents of amalgamation state that separate governance affords residents a greater deal of local autonomy. The proponents of amalgamation argue it would reduce duplication of services, while allowing for more efficient use of resources and the ability to better handle broad, regional issues and long-term planning.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The landscape of Victoria was formed by volcanism followed by water in various forms. Pleistocene glaciation put the area under a thick ice cover, the weight of which depressed the land below present sea level. These glaciers also deposited stony sandy loam till. As they retreated, their melt water left thick deposits of sand and gravel. Marine clay settled on what would later become dry land. Post-glacial rebound exposed the present-day terrain to air, raising beach and mud deposits well above sea level. The resulting soils are highly variable in texture, and abrupt textural changes are common. In general, clays are most likely to be encountered in the northern part of town and in depressions. The southern part has coarse-textured subsoils and loamy topsoils. Sandy loams and loamy sands are common in the eastern part adjoining Oak Bay. Victoria's soils are relatively unleached and less acidic than soils elsewhere on the British Columbia Coast. Their thick dark topsoils denote a high level of fertility which made them valuable for farming prior to urbanization.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen "Csb") with fresh, dry, sunny summers and cool winters with moderate precipitation and plentiful cloud cover. Trewartha places it in the Oceanic climate zone ("Do"). Although Victoria is farther north than such "winter" cities as Ottawa, Quebec City, and Minneapolis, westerly winds and Pacific Ocean currents keep Victoria's winter temperatures substantially higher, with an average January temperature of compared to Ottawa, the nation's capital, with .


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: At the Victoria Gonzales weather station, daily temperatures rise above on average less than one day per year and fall below on average only ten nights per year. Victoria has recorded completely freeze-free winter seasons four times (in 1925–26, 1939–40, 1999–2000, and 2002–03). 1999 is the only calendar year on record without a single occurrence of frost. During this time the city went 718 days without freezing, starting on 23 December 1998 and ending 10 December 2000. The second longest frost-free period was a 686-day stretch covering 1925 and 1926, marking the first and last time the city has gone the entire season without dropping below .


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: During the winter, the average daily high and low temperatures are , respectively. The summer months are also relatively mild, with an average high temperature of and low of , although inland areas often experience warmer daytime highs. The highest temperature ever recorded at Victoria Gonzales was on 28 June 2021; The coldest temperature on record is on 29 December 1968. The average annual temperature varies from a high of set in 2004 to a low of set in 1916.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Due to the rain shadow effect of the nearby Olympic Mountains, Victoria is the driest location on the British Columbia coast and one of the driest in the region. Average precipitation amounts in the Greater Victoria area range from at the Gonzales observatory in the City of Victoria to in nearby Langford. The Victoria Airport, north of the city, receives about 45% more precipitation than the city proper. Regional average precipitation amounts range from as low as on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula to in Port Renfrew just away on the more exposed southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Vancouver measures annually and Seattle is at .


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: One feature of Victoria's climate is its distinct dry and rainy seasons. Nearly two-thirds of the annual precipitation falls during the four wettest months, November to February. Precipitation in December, the wettest month () is nearly eight times as high as in July, the driest month (). Victoria experiences the driest summers in Canada (outside of the extreme northern reaches of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut).


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria averages just of snow annually, about half that of Vancouver. Roughly one third of winters see virtually no snow, with less than falling during the entire season. When snow does fall, it rarely lasts long on the ground. Victoria averages just two or three days per year with at least of snow on the ground. Every few decades Victoria receives very large snowfalls including the record breaking of snow that fell in December 1996. That amount places Victoria 3rd for biggest snowfall among major cities in Canada.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: With 2,193 hours of bright sunshine annually during the last available measurement period, Victoria was the second sunniest city in British Columbia after Cranbrook. In July 2013, Victoria received 432.8 hours of bright sunshine, which is the most sunshine ever recorded in any month in British Columbia history.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria's equable climate has also added to its reputation as the "City of Gardens". The city takes pride in the many flowers that bloom during the winter and early spring, including crocuses, daffodils, early-blooming rhododendrons, cherry and plum trees. Every February there is an annual "flower count" in what for the rest of the country and most of the province is still the dead of winter.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Due to its mild climate, Victoria and its surrounding area (southeastern Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, and parts of the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast) are also home to many rare, native plants found nowhere else in Canada, including "Quercus garryana" (Garry oak), "Arctostaphylos columbiana" (hairy manzanita), and Canada's only broad-leaf evergreen tree, "Arbutus menziesii" (Pacific madrone). Many of these species exist here, at the northern end of their range, and are found as far south as southern California and parts of Mexico.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Non-native plants grown in Victoria include the cold-hardy palm Trachycarpus fortunei, which can be found in gardens and public areas of Victoria. One of these Trachycarpus palms stands in front of City Hall.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Victoria had a population of 91,867 living in 49,222 of its 53,070 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 85,792. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Victoria is one of the most gender diverse cities in Canada, with approximately 0.75% of residents identifying as transgender or non-binary in the 2021 Statistics Canada Census of Population.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Victoria CMA had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is known for its disproportionately large retiree population. Some 23.4 percent of the population of Victoria and its surrounding area are over 65 years of age, which is higher than the overall Canadian distribution of over 65 year-olds in the population (19%). A historically popular cliché refers to Victoria as the home of "the newly wed and nearly dead".


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The following is a list of neighbourhoods in the City of Victoria, as defined by the city planning department. For a list of neighbourhoods in other area municipalities, see Greater Victoria, or the individual entries for those municipalities.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: A point-in-time homeless count was conducted by volunteers between March 11 and March 12, 2020, that counted at least 1,523 homeless that night. The homeless count is considered an underestimate due to the hidden homeless that may be couch surfing or have found somewhere to stay that is not on the street or homeless shelters. The first homeless count was conducted in January 2005 by the Victoria Cool Aid Society and counted a homeless population of approximately 700 individuals.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Like many west coast cities in North America the homeless population is both concentrated in specific areas (parts of Pandora avenue in Victoria) and is often outside due to milder climates that make homelessness more visible year-round.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The 2020 point-in-time homeless count found 35% respondents identified as being Indigenous. This is over representative in the homeless population as only 4.7% of the overall population of Victoria identify as Indigenous.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many homeless people sheltered in camping tents within the city's parks and some roadside greenspaces, including in Beacon Hill Park. In March 2021, city council reinstated a bylaw prohibiting daytime camping in parks, and with support from the provincial government, pledged to find indoor accommodation for all those camping in parks. Homeless campers from parks and other public spaces were housed temporarily in motels, the Save-on-Foods arena and a tiny home village on a portion of the Royal Athletic Park's parking lot.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The city's chief industries are technology, tourism, education, federal and provincial government administration and services. Other nearby employers include the Canadian Forces (the Township of Esquimalt is the home of the Pacific headquarters of the Royal Canadian Navy), and the University of Victoria (in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich) and Camosun College (which have over 33,000 faculty, staff and students combined). Other sectors of the Greater Victoria area economy include: investment and banking, online book publishing, various public and private schools, food products manufacturing, light aircraft manufacturing, technology products, various high tech firms in pharmaceuticals and computers, engineering, architecture and telecommunications.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: There are three major shopping malls in the City of Victoria, including the Bay Centre, Hillside Shopping Centre, and Mayfair Shopping Centre. Mayfair, one of the first major shopping centres in Victoria, first opened as an outdoor strip mall on 16 October 1963 with 27 stores. It was built on the site of a former brickyard in the Maywood district, a then-semi-rural area in the northern part of Victoria. Woodward's was Mayfair's original department store anchor upon the mall's opening.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Mayfair was enclosed and renovated into an indoor mall in 1974. The mall underwent three later expansions in 1984 (with the addition of Consumers Distributing), 1985 (expansion of the mall food court) and a major expansion in 1990 that saw the addition of more retail space. The Bay (now Hudson's Bay) replaced Woodward's as Mayfair's department store anchor in 1993 following Hudson's Bay Company's acquisition of the Woodward's chain. Mayfair now offers 117 stores and services including Hudson's Bay and Toys "R" Us. It has of retail space and it also provides customers with rooftop parking.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Advanced technology is Victoria's largest revenue-producing private industry with $3.15 billion in annual revenues generated by more than 880 tech companies that have over 15,000 direct employees. The annual economic impact of the sector is estimated at more than $4.03 billion per year. With three post-secondary institutions, eight federal research labs, and Canada's Pacific Navy Base, Victoria has many of the elements required for a strong technology sector, including Canada's highest household internet usage.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is a major tourism destination with over 3.5 million overnight visitors per year who add more than a billion dollars to the local economy. As well, over 500,000 daytime visitors arrive via cruise ships which dock at Ogden Point near the city's Inner Harbour. Many whale watching tour companies operate from this harbour due to the whales often present near its coast. The city is also close to Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, the Canadian Navy's primary Pacific Ocean naval base.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Downtown Victoria also serves as Greater Victoria's regional downtown, where many night clubs, theatres, restaurants and pubs are clustered, and where many regional public events occur. Canada Day fireworks displays, Symphony Splash, and many other music festivals and cultural events draw tens of thousands of Greater Victorians and visitors to the downtown core. The Rifflandia and Electronic Music Festival are other music events that draw crowds to the downtown core.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The city and metro region has hosted high-profile sports events including the 1994 Commonwealth Games, the 2009 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship tournament, and 2006 Skate Canada. Victoria co-hosted the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup at Royal Athletic Park, and is the venue for the Bastion Square Grand Prix Criterium road cycling race. The city is also a destination for conventions, meetings, and conferences, including a 2007 North Atlantic Treaty Organization military chief of staff meeting held at the Hotel Grand Pacific. Every year, the Swiftsure International Yacht Race attracts boaters from around the world to participate in the boat race in the waters off of Vancouver Island, and the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival brings over 90 teams from around North America. The Tall Ships Festival brings sailing ships to the city harbour. Victoria also hosts the start of the Vic-Maui Yacht Race, the longest offshore sailboat race on the West Coast.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The Port of Victoria consists of three parts, the Outer Harbour, used by deep sea vessels, the Inner and Upper Harbours, used by coastal and industrial traffic. It is protected by a breakwater with a deep and wide opening. The port is a working harbour, tourist attraction and cruise destination. Esquimalt Harbour is also a well-protected harbour with a large graving dock and shipbuilding and repair facilities.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The Victoria Symphony, led by Christian Kluxen, performs at the Royal Theatre and the Farquhar Auditorium of the University of Victoria from September to May. Every BC Day weekend, the Symphony mounts Symphony Splash, an outdoor event that includes a performance by the orchestra sitting on a barge in Victoria's Inner Harbour. Streets in the local area are closed, as each year approximately 40,000 people attend a variety of concerts and events throughout the day. The event culminates with the Symphony's evening concert, with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the grand finale, complete with cannon fire from Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Gunners from HMCS QUADRA, a pealing carillon and a fireworks display to honour BC Day. Pacific Opera Victoria, Victoria Operatic Society, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, Canadian Pacific Ballet and Ballet Victoria stage two or three productions each year at the Macpherson or Royal Theatres.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The Bastion Theatre, a professional dramatic company, functioned in Victoria through the 1970s and 1980s and performed high quality dramatic productions but ultimately declared bankruptcy in 1988. Reborn as The New Bastion Theatre in 1990 the company struggled for two more years before closing operations in 1992. The Belfry Theatre started in 1974 as the Springridge Cultural Centre in 1974. The venue was renamed the Belfry Theatre in 1976 as the company began producing its own shows. The Belfry's mandate is to produce contemporary plays with an emphasis on new Canadian plays. Other regional theatre venues include: Phoenix Theatre student theatre at the University of Victoria; The Roxy Theatre, home of the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre company; Kaleidoscope Theatre and Intrepid Theatre, producers of the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival and The Uno Festival of Solo Performance.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The only Canadian Forces Primary Reserve brass/reed band on Vancouver Island is in Victoria. The 5th (British Columbia) Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery Band traces its roots back to 1864, making it the oldest, continually operational military band west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Its mandate is to support the island's military community by performing at military dinners, parades and ceremonies, and other events. The band performs weekly in August at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site where the Regiment started manning the guns of the fort in 1896, and also performs every year at the Cameron Bandshell at Beacon Hill Park.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The annual multi-day Rifflandia Music Festival is one of Canada's largest modern rock and pop music festivals.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: A number of well-known musicians and bands are from Victoria, including Nelly Furtado, David Foster, The Moffatts, Frog Eyes, Johnny Vallis, Jets Overhead, Bryce Soderberg, Armchair Cynics, Nomeansno, The New Colors, Wolf Parade, The Racoons, Tal Bachman, Dayglo Abortions, Hot Hot Heat and Noah Becker.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Due to the proximity to Vancouver and a 6% distance location tax credit, Victoria is used as a filming location for many films, television series, and television movies. Some of these films include "X2", "", "In the Land of Women", "White Chicks", "Scary Movie", "Final Destination", "Excess Baggage" and "Bird on a Wire". Television series such as "Smallville", "The Dead Zone" and "" were also filmed there. Canadian director Atom Egoyan was raised in Victoria. Actors Cameron Bright ("Ultraviolet", "", "Thank You for Smoking", "New Moon") and Ryan Robbins ("Stargate Atlantis", "Battlestar Galactica", "Sanctuary") were born in Victoria. Actor Cory Monteith from the television series "Glee" was raised in Victoria. Actor, artist, and athlete Duncan Regehr of "" was raised in the region. Artist, art magazine publisher and jazz saxophonist Noah Becker of "Whitehot Magazine" has been a long time Victoria resident.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Nobel laureate Alice Munro lived in Victoria during the years when she published her first story collections and co-founded Munro's Books. Victoria resident Stanley Evans has written a series of mysteries featuring a Coast Salish character, Silas Seaweed, who works as an investigator with the Victoria Police Department. Other Victoria writers include Kit Pearson, Esi Edugyan, Robert Wiersema, W. D. Valgardson, Elizabeth Louisa Moresby, Madeline Sonik, Jack Hodgins, Dave Duncan, Bill Gaston, David Gurr, Ken Steacy, Sheryl McFarlane, Carol Shields and Patrick Lane. Gayleen Froese's 2005 novel "Touch" is set in Victoria. The comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun is based in Victoria.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: In the heart of downtown are the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, The Empress Hotel, Victoria Police Department Station Museum, the gothic Christ Church Cathedral, and the Royal British Columbia Museum/IMAX National Geographic Theatre, with large exhibits on local Aboriginal peoples, natural history, and modern history, along with travelling international exhibits. In addition, the heart of downtown also has the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Emily Carr House, Victoria Bug Zoo, and Market Square. The oldest (and most intact) Chinatown in Canada is within downtown. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is close to downtown in the Rockland neighbourhood several city blocks from Craigdarroch Castle built by industrialist Robert Dunsmuir and Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Numerous other buildings of historic importance or interest are also in central Victoria, including: the 1845 St. Ann's Schoolhouse; the 1852 Helmcken House built for Victoria's first doctor; the 1863 Congregation Emanu-El, the oldest synagogue in continuous use in Canada; the 1865 Angela College built as Victoria's first Anglican Collegiate School for Girls, now housing retired nuns of the Sisters of St. Ann; the 1871 St. Ann's Academy built as a Catholic school; the 1874 Church of Our Lord, built to house a breakaway congregation from the Anglican Christ Church cathedral; the 1890 St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church; the 1890 Metropolitan Methodist Church (now the Victoria Conservatory of Music),


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Beacon Hill Park is the central city's main urban green space. Its area of adjacent to Victoria's southern shore includes numerous playing fields, manicured gardens, exotic species of plants and animals such as wild peacocks, a petting zoo, and views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains in Washington across it. The sport of cricket has been played in Beacon Hill Park since the mid-19th century. Each summer, the City of Victoria presents dozens of concerts at the Cameron Band Shell in Beacon Hill Park.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The extensive system of parks in Victoria also includes a few areas of natural Garry oak meadow habitat, an increasingly scarce ecosystem that once dominated the region.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Private gardens that are open to the public with sometimes limited opening hours are located throughout the city and offer access at low or no cost to visitors, they include the rose garden next to the Empress hotel, the gardens on the grounds of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia's house (also known as Government House) on Rockland Road, and Abkahazi Garden on Fairfield Road.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Dallas Road is a waterfront trail and road with 7.1 km to walk, run, bike or drive. Clover Point is its main rest area with benches, lounge chairs, picnic tables and a public washroom.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The David Foster Harbour Pathway is a predominantly a pedestrian pathway that meanders around the inner harbour between the southern start at Ogden point by the cruise ship terminal and Rock Bay at its northern terminus. The pathway has some disconnected sections that are expected to be connected with redevelopments along the pathway near the Johnson street bridge. When completed the David Foster Harbour Pathway is expected to extend over 5 kilometres in length.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: CFB Esquimalt navy base, in the adjacent municipality of Esquimalt, has a base museum dedicated to naval and military history, in the Naden part of the base.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: North of the city on the Saanich Peninsula are the marine biology Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, Butchart Gardens, one of the biggest tourist and local resident attractions on Vancouver Island, as well as the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, part of the National Research Council of Canada, Victoria Butterfly Gardens and Centre of the Universe planetarium.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria's climate, location and variety of facilities make it ideal for many recreational activities including rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, golf, water sports, informal team sports and jogging.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is also known as the Cycling Capital of Canada, with hundreds of kilometres of bicycle paths, bike lanes and bike routes in the city, including the Galloping Goose Regional Trail. There are mountain biking trails at Mount Work Regional Park, and Victoria is quickly becoming a bike tourism destination. Cycling advocacy groups including Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition (GVCC) and the Bike to Work Society have worked to improve Victoria's cycling infrastructure and facilities, and to make cycling a viable transportation alternative, attracting 5% of commuters in 2005.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Greater Victoria also has a rich motorsports history, and is home to a 4/10ths mile oval race track called Western Speedway. Opened in 1954, Western Speedway is the oldest speedway in western Canada, and features stock car racing, drag racing, demolition derbies and other events. Western Speedway is also home to the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame and Museum.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The Greater Victoria area also serves as a headquarters for Rugby Canada, based out of Starlight Stadium in Langford, as well as a headquarters for Rowing Canada, based out of Victoria City Rowing Club at Elk Lake in Saanich. The Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame is at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, and features numerous displays and information on the sporting history of the city.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The major sporting and entertainment complex, for Victoria and Vancouver Island Region, is the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre arena. It replaced the former Victoria Memorial Arena, which was constructed by efforts of World War II veterans as a monument to fallen comrades. World War I, World War II, Korean War, and other conflict veterans are also commemorated. Fallen Canadian soldiers in past, present, and future wars and/or United Nations, NATO missions are noted, or will be noted by the main lobby monument at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The arena was the home of the ECHL (formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League) team, Victoria Salmon Kings, owned by RG Properties Limited, a real estate development firm that built the Victoria Save On Foods Memorial Centre, and Prospera Place Arena in Kelowna. The arena is the home of the Victoria Royals Western Hockey League (WHL) team that replaced the Victoria Salmon Kings (ECHL).


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria has also been a destination for numerous high-profile international sporting events. It hosted the 1994 Commonwealth Games and the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship. The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was co-hosted by Victoria along with five other Canadian cities; (Burnaby, Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal). Victoria was also the first city location of the cross Canada 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay that occurred before the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Victoria co-hosted the 2019 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships along with Vancouver, British Columbia. Victoria was one of four host cities for the 2020 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in June 2020.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The city has also been home to numerous high-profile sports teams in its history. The Victoria Cougars are perhaps the most famous sports franchise the city has known, existing as members of several professional leagues from 1911 to 1926, and again from 1949 to 1961. The Cougars won the Stanley Cup as members of the WCHL in 1925 after defeating the Montreal Canadiens three games to one in a best-of-five final. The Cougars were reincarnated in 1971 as a major junior hockey team in the Western Hockey League, before they moved to Prince George to become the Prince George Cougars. Today, the Cougars name and legacy continue in the form of the Junior 'B' team that plays in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League. Minor professional hockey returned to Victoria in the form of the Victoria Salmon Kings, which played in the ECHL from 2004 to 2011, and were a minor league affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks. In baseball, Victoria was once home of the Victoria Athletics of the Western International League, a Class 'A' minor league baseball affiliate of the New York Yankees. Victoria's newest sports team is Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League. Pacific FC play their home matches at Starlight Stadium.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria has been home to many accomplished athletes that have participated in professional sports or the Olympics. Notable professional athletes include basketball Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash, twice Most Valuable Player in the National Basketball Association, who grew up in Victoria and played youth basketball at St. Michael's University School and Mount Douglas Secondary School. Furthermore, there are several current NHL hockey players from Greater Victoria, including brothers Jamie Benn and Jordie Benn of the Dallas Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs, respectively; Tyson Barrie of the Edmonton Oilers, and Matt Irwin of the Washington Capitals. Current Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Nick Pivetta was born in Victoria and played summer collegiate baseball for the Victoria HarbourCats. Former professional racing cyclist and 2012 Giro d'Italia winner, Ryder Hesjedal was born in Victoria and still calls the city home. Victoria has also been home to many Olympic Games athletes, including multi-time medalists such as Silken Laumann, Ryan Cochrane, and Simon Whitfield.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The Jordan River Diversion Dam is Vancouver Island's main hydroelectric power station. It was built in 1911.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The city's water is supplied by the Capital Regional District's Water Services Department from its Sooke Lake Reservoir. The lake is connected to a treatment plant at Japan Gulch by the Kapoor Tunnel. The lake water is very soft and requires no filtering. It is treated with chlorine, ammonia and ultraviolet light to control micro-organisms.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Until the tunnel was completed in 1967, water flowed from the lake through the circuitous, leaky and much smaller Sooke Flowline.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The Hartland landfill is the waste disposal site for Greater Victoria area. Since 1985, it has been run by the Capital Regional District environmental services. It is on top of a hill, between Victoria and Sidney, at the end of Hartland Avenue () There is a recycling centre, a sewer solid waste collection, hazardous waste collection, and an electricity generating station. This generating station now creates 1.6 megawatts of electricity, enough for 1,600 homes. The site has won international environmental awards. The CRD conducts public tours of the facility. It is predicted to be full by 2045.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: As of December 15, 2020 the CRD announced that core municipalities within Greater Victoria no longer discharge screened wastewater into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The wastewater treatment facility was required to comply with federal regulations that forbid untreated discharge into waterways. The wastewater treatment project included pump stations at Clover Point and Macaulay Point in addition to the wastewater treatment plant at McLoughlin Point and the residuals treatment facility at Hartland landfill. The wastewater treatment plant serves Victoria, Esquimalt, Saanich, Oak Bay, View Royal, Langford, Colwood and the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The Saanich Peninsula wastewater treatment plant serves North Saanich, Central Saanich and the Town of Sidney as well as the Victoria International Airport, the Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Tseycum and Pauquachin First Nations. This is a secondary level treatment plant which produces Class A biosolids.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria International Airport has non-stop flights to and from Toronto, Seattle, Montreal (seasonal), select seasonal sun destinations, and many cities throughout Western Canada. Multiple scheduled helicopter and seaplane flights are available daily from Victoria Inner Harbour Airport to Vancouver International Airport, Vancouver Harbour, and Seattle.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is also home to the world's largest all-seaplane airline, Harbour Air. Harbour air offers flights during daylight hours at least every 30 minutes between Victoria's inner harbour and Vancouver's downtown terminal or YVR south terminal. Harbour Air also operate scenic tour flights over the Victoria harbour and gulf islands area.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Due to Victoria's mild year round weather with mostly rainy winters, commuting by bicycle is practical year-round compared to other Canadian cities. For this reason, the Greater Victoria area had the highest rate of bicycle commuting to work of any census metropolitan area in Canada in the 2011 and 2016 census. Greater Victoria also has an expanding system designed to facilitate bicycles and electrically assisted bicycles via bike lanes on many roads as well as separated multi-use paths for bicycles and pedestrians known as the Galloping Goose Regional Trail, Lochside Regional Trail and the E&N rail trail. These multi-use trails are designed exclusively for foot traffic and cyclists and pass through many communities in the Greater Victoria area, beginning at the downtown core and extending into areas such as Langford and Central and North Saanich.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Bike to Work Week Victoria is a bi-annual event held in communities throughout greater Victoria, British Columbia. It is organized by the Greater Victoria Bike to Work Society with a Spring bike to work week scheduled in late May every year and a Fall bike to work week scheduled in October. The purpose of the event is to encourage bicycle commuting. Bike to Work Week began in 1995 in Victoria and has expanded to include other communities in BC through their local bicycle advocacy groups all supported by the Bike to Work BC Society. In 2008, the Bike to Work BC Society was formed as a legal entity to run the event in other communities around BC. Since its inception ridership in the yearly event has steadily increased, and in 2017 over 7000 people participated in Greater Victoria. Bike to Work Week is first a marketing initiative and secondarily a cycling event that aims to attract new daily riders to commuting by bicycle. The behaviour change (public health) model, relying on research conducted by both the provincial and federal governments that identified barriers to cycling and reasons for choosing cycling, was applied as a way to accomplish the goal of recruiting employees to bicycle to work.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is building a protected bike lane network intended for all ages and abilities (AAA). The first lane opened in Spring 2017 on Pandora Avenue, between Store street and Cook street in the downtown core. The protected lane makes for an easy cycling connection across the new (April 2018) Johnson Street bridge, to the Galloping Goose Trail and E&N rail trail. The second protected bike lane in the network opened on Fort Street May 27, 2018. The next two roads added to the downtown area bike network were Wharf and Humboldt streets, completed in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Vancouver street and Graham/Jackson streets were also added to the AAA bike network in 2021. The next round of streets to be upgraded starting in 2021 as complete streets with AAA cycling infrastructure include Richardson, Haultain, Government (north of Pandora avenue and up to Gorge road), Kimta road (connecting the network to the E&N rail trail). New connector routes in Fernwood, Oaklands and between Haultain street and the Vancouver street network that will avoid hills and add safer biking/walking crossings will also to be constructed starting in 2021. In 2022 the city plans to construct further AAA bicycle connections along Montreal street, Superior street, Government street (south, between Humboldt street and Dallas road), Fort street (between Cook street and up to the municipal border with Oak Bay), and Gorge Road (between Government street and up to the municipal border with Saanich).


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is served by several ferries with the Lower Mainland, Gulf Islands and the United States. BC Ferries provides service between Swartz Bay, up the Saanich peninsula from Victoria, to Tsawwassen on the Lower Mainland for cars, bus, trucks, pedestrians and cyclists. The Coho ferry operates as a car and pedestrian/cyclist ferry between the inner harbour of Victoria and Port Angeles, Washington. The Victoria Clipper is a passenger-only (no vehicles) ferry which operates daily, year-round between downtown Seattle and the inner harbour of Victoria. The Washington State Ferries runs a ferry for cars, pedestrians and cyclists between Friday Harbor, Orcas Island and Anacortes in Washington State from the port at Sidney, up the Saanich peninsula from Victoria.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Local public transportation is run by the Victoria Regional Transit System, which is part of BC Transit. Since 2000, double-decker buses have been introduced to the fleet, and have become an icon for the city. Rider fare payments can be made in cash, monthly bus passes, disability yearly passes, day-passes purchased from the driver or tickets purchased from a store. As of April 1, 2016 bus drivers do not provide transfers as proof of payment. Transfers were a source of disagreement and delay on the bus, due to improper transfer use, and disagreements over expired transfers or transfers used for return trips. Instead, a day-pass was added that can be purchased from the bus driver for $5, or two bus tickets (purchased from a retailer) for the equivalent of $4.50. To improve bus reliability and reduce delays, a bike and bus priority lane was opened in 2014 during peak traffic periods with fines for motorists operating in the bus/bike lane who are not turning in the same block. The dedicated bike and bus lane on Douglas street is being expanded from Downtown to near Uptown and may be changed to be restricted to only buses and bikes 24/7 rather than just during peak traffic periods depending on direction of travel. Most buses operating in the Greater Victoria area have a bike rack installed at the front of the bus that can accommodate two bicycles.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Passenger rail service previously operated by Via Rail provided a single daily return trip along between Victoria – Courtenay, along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, to the cities of Nanaimo, Courtenay, and points between. The service was discontinued along this line indefinitely on 19 March 2011, due to needed track replacement work. Prior to further inspection of the track, service along the segment between Nanaimo and Victoria was originally planned to resume on 8 April, but lack of funding has prevented any of the work from taking place and it is unclear when or if the service will resume.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Local roadways are not based on a grid system as they are in Vancouver or Edmonton, and many streets do not follow a straight line from beginning to end as they wind around hills, parks, coastlines, and historic neighbourhoods, often changing names two or three times. There is no directional indication in street names that may be used in other cities with numbered roads where a street may run north–south or avenue may run east–west.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The compact size of the city with few steep hills lends itself readily to smaller, fuel efficient alternatives to full size passenger cars, such as scooters, Smart Cars, motorcycles and electric bicycles. Victoria incentivizes the use of smaller modes of transport by offering smaller metered parking spaces in the downtown core specifically designated for small vehicles and motorcycles. Rush hour traffic delays along the Trans-Canada Highway to western suburban municipalities (including Langford, Colwood, Sooke and Metchosin) is commonly referred to as the "Colwood Crawl".


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria serves as the western terminus (Mile Zero) for Canada's Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world. The Mile Zero marker is at the southernmost point of Douglas Street where it meets Dallas Road along the waterfront. The Mile Zero location includes a statue to honour Terry Fox.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Coach bus service between downtown Victoria and downtown Vancouver or the Vancouver International Airport, which includes the ferry fare is called the BC Ferries Connector run by Wilson's Transportation Limited. The coach bus travels on the ferry to Vancouver with separate trips for the bus to downtown and a bus to the Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Average travel time between the two cities is under 4 hours with an hour and half of that time spent on the ferry crossing.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Bus service from Victoria to points up island is run by Island Link Bus or Tofino Bus. Both bus services depart from the Victoria bus terminal at 700 Douglas Street, behind the Fairmont Empress Hotel and offer trips to destinations further up island and the west coast of the island.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: The city of Victoria lies entirely within the Greater Victoria School District. Victoria High School is the only public high school located within the municipal boundaries of the city of Victoria. Opened August 7, 1876, Victoria High School is the oldest High School in North America north of San Francisco and west of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Many of the elementary schools in Victoria offer both French immersion and English programs of instruction. École Victor-Brodeur in Esquimalt serves as a dedicated school for Francophones.


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Greater Victoria is served by three public post secondary educational institutions, listed by student population size below:


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: In addition, there are several private schools serving the Greater Victoria community, including the Chinese School in Chinatown, the Christ Church Cathedral School, Glenlyon-Norfolk School, Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific, Victoria College of Art, a Justice Institute of British Columbia campus, Pacific Rim College, and the Sprott Shaw College that has had a campus in Victoria since 1913


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: Victoria is the only Canadian provincial capital without a local CBC Television station, owned-and-operated or affiliate, although it does host a small CBC Radio One (CBCV-FM) station at 780 Kings Road. The region is considered to be a part of the Vancouver television market, receiving most stations that broadcast from across the Strait of Georgia, including CBC Television, Ici Radio-Canada Télé, CTV, Global, Citytv and Omni owned-and-operated stations. The two television stations based in Victoria are CHEK-DT (an independent station) and CIVI-DT (a CTV 2 owned-and-operated station).


title: Victoria, British Columbia

text: As of March 4, 2022, Victoria City Council voted to suspend the city's relationship with Khabarovsk, Russia as a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: The Disaster Artist is a 2017 American biographical comedy-drama film starring, co-produced and directed by James Franco. It was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell's 2013 non-fiction book of the same title. The film chronicles an unlikely friendship between aspiring actors Tommy Wiseau and Sestero that results in the production of Wiseau's 2003 film "The Room", widely considered one of the worst films ever made. "The Disaster Artist" stars brothers James and Dave Franco as Wiseau and Sestero, respectively, alongside a supporting cast featuring Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson, Jacki Weaver, and Seth Rogen.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Principal photography began on December 8, 2015. A work-in-progress cut of the film premiered at South by Southwest on March 12, 2017; it was later screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, and also played at the 2017 San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it became the first American film to win its top prize, the Golden Shell, since "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" in 2007.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Distributed by A24 in North America and Warner Bros. Pictures internationally, "The Disaster Artist" began a limited release on December 1, 2017, before opening wide on December 8, 2017. It received positive reviews from critics, with the chemistry of the Francos and their portrayals of Wiseau and Sestero, as well as the film's humor and screenplay, receiving praise, and was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2017. At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, James Franco won the award for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy; the film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Franco also received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the film earned a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: In San Francisco in 1998, 19-year-old Greg Sestero befriends Tommy Wiseau in Jean Shelton's acting class after Tommy gives a protracted and bizarre interpretation of a scene from "A Streetcar Named Desire". Greg is impressed by Tommy's fearlessness, though Tommy also exhibits unusual habits and mannerisms; for instance, he can afford apartments in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, but he will not discuss his personal life or the source of his wealth. Tommy also insists he is from New Orleans, despite his pronounced European accent. At Tommy's suggestion, the two move to Los Angeles to pursue acting careers.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Greg signs with talent agent Iris Burton and regularly attends auditions. At the same time, Tommy is consistently rejected by agencies, acting teachers, casting directors, and producers. He also seems to think that Amber, Greg's new girlfriend, is sabotaging his friendship with Greg. When Greg's auditions begin to dry up, he shares his frustrations with Tommy, who decides to make a film for them to star in. Tommy writes the screenplay for "The Room", a melodrama about a love triangle between banker Johnny (played by Tommy), his fiancée Lisa, and his best friend Mark (played by Greg, who is also given a line producer credit). They rent production space from Birns & Sawyer, from whom Tommy insists on buying, rather than renting, all of the production equipment he will need. He also decides to shoot the film on 35 mm film and HD Digital simultaneously, which is another costly and unnecessary measure. The production house employees introduce Tommy to Raphael Smadja and Sandy Schklair, who are hired as cinematographer and script supervisor, respectively. Actress Juliette Danielle is cast as Lisa.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Production starts relatively smoothly, but Tommy's controlling behavior and inexperience cause the situation to deteriorate. He forgets his lines, arrives late, and refuses to supply his crew with basic needs, such as drinking water and air conditioning. No one receives a full script, and the cast and crew are baffled by the film's nonsensical plot and Tommy's inexplicable directorial and acting choices. During preparation for a sex scene, which is being filmed shortly after Greg has told Tommy that he is moving in with Amber, Tommy refuses to film on a closed set, doesn't put on a robe between scenes, and humiliates Juliette by pointing out the acne on her shoulder to the entire crew. When confronted about this, Tommy responds by revealing that he regularly watches the extensive behind-the-scenes footage of the production, so he knows what the cast and crew members have been saying about him behind his back, and he accuses everyone, including Greg, of not supporting his vision.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: While "The Room" is still filming, Greg and Amber run into Bryan Cranston, who is in the same Pilates class as Amber, at a cafe. He says he is directing an upcoming episode of the TV show he is on, "Malcolm in the Middle", and invites Greg to play a lumberjack, mainly because Greg has a beard. Greg is scheduled to shave his beard soon for "The Room", so he begs Tommy to delay shooting those scenes, but Tommy refuses. Greg reluctantly chooses to finish the film and give up the opportunity to be on "Malcolm". On the last day of shooting, which is on location back in San Francisco, a frustrated Greg accuses Tommy of selfishness and duplicity throughout their friendship and questions his actual age and origins. The two fight, and Greg storms off.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: By June 2003, Amber and Greg have split up, and Greg has started working in theatre. Tommy has finished work on "The Room" in the eight months since their falling out, and he invites Greg to the premiere. Greg initially is reluctant, but Tommy convinces him to come and, to his surprise, the entire cast and crew also attend. The capacity audience reacts with bemused silence and then, increasingly, with laughter to Tommy's poor performance, script, and film making techniques. A devastated Tommy storms out of the theater, but Greg brings him back and points out that the audience's enthusiastic response is something to be proud of while reconciling their friendship. With renewed optimism, Tommy takes the stage as "The Room" ends and expresses his appreciation of the warm reception for his "comedic" film. He invites Greg to join him, and the pair receive a standing ovation.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: In a post-credits scene, Tommy meets Henry, a partygoer (played by the actual Tommy Wiseau) who asks Tommy if he wants to hang out. He refuses, though he does recognize Henry's familiar "New Orleans" accent.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Kristen Bell, Ike Barinholtz, Adam Scott, Kevin Smith, Keegan-Michael Key, Lizzy Caplan, Danny McBride and J. J. Abrams appear as themselves in a prologue discussing "The Room" and its reputation. Other roles include John Early as Burton's executive assistant Chris Snyder, Joe Mande as DP Todd Barron, Charlyne Yi as costume designer Safowa Bright-Asare, Kelly Oxford as makeup artist Amy Von Brock, Tom Franco as Karl, Zoey Deutch as Tommy's acting classmate Bobbi, Sugar Lyn Beard as an actress auditioning for Lisa, Brian Huskey as a bank teller, Randall Park as Greg's acting classmate Rob, Jerrod Carmichael as an actor friend of Greg's, Casey Wilson as a casting director, Lauren Ash as the florist in "The Room"s "Hi, doggie" sequence, and Angelyne as herself. Bryan Cranston makes an uncredited cameo appearance as himself. Greg Sestero appears as an assistant casting director, while Tommy Wiseau appears in a post-credits scene as a character named Henry.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: In February 2014, Seth Rogen's production company Point Grey Pictures announced it had acquired the book and film rights to "The Disaster Artist". James Franco was set to direct and play Wiseau, and his brother Dave Franco was cast as Sestero. James Franco stated "The Disaster Artist" was "a combination of "Boogie Nights" and "The Master"". According to Franco, Wiseau initially had hoped Johnny Depp would play him. In April 2016, the title was reported to have changed from "The Disaster Artist" to "The Masterpiece", though "The Disaster Artist" was confirmed as the official title when the film's SXSW premiere was announced.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: In June 2014, James Franco's younger brother, Dave Franco, informally announced at a midnight showing of "The Room" that he had been cast in the co-starring role of Greg Sestero. Wiseau praised the decision in a Q&A session. The film is the first collaboration of James and brother Dave, as the younger Franco has said that he had sought different projects deliberately, specifying in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, "I didn't want people to think I was riding his coattails." As New Line Cinema sought to acquire "The Disaster Artist" in October 2015, one of the film's producers, and frequent Franco collaborator, Seth Rogen, was in negotiations to play "The Room"s script supervisor, Sandy Schklair. The remainder of the principal cast were revealed in the days prior to the beginning of filming, in early December 2015: Josh Hutcherson as Philip Haldiman, Ari Graynor as Juliette Danielle, Jacki Weaver as Carolyn Minnott, Hannibal Buress as Bill Meur, Andrew Santino as Scott Holmes, and Zac Efron as Dan Janjigian. Dave Franco's wife, Alison Brie, joined the cast in the role of Sestero's then-girlfriend, Amber, and Sharon Stone was later announced to have been cast as Hollywood talent agent Iris Burton. Sestero stated in January 2016 that Bryan Cranston had been cast in the film in an undisclosed role. In November 2016, he was revealed to be playing himself during his time working on "Malcolm in the Middle".


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Principal photography began on December 8, 2015, in Los Angeles, and ended on January 28, 2016. Among the locations used was The Ojai Apartments on Whitley Terrace in Hollywood. Dave Porter composed the film's score.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: The film had its premiere, in a work-in-progress form, at South by Southwest on March 12, 2017. In May 2017, A24 acquired distribution rights to the film, and set the film for a limited release on December 1, 2017, before a wide release on December 8. Warner Bros. Pictures distributes the film internationally, and it received an IMAX release in selected areas as well. On October 25, 2017, A24 mounted a billboard on Highland Avenue in Los Angeles that replicated the original "The Room" billboard that Wiseau kept up from 2003 to 2008.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: The film was released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download on March 13, 2018. As of February 20, 2019, its estimated US home media sales were $1,288,213.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: "The Disaster Artist" grossed $21.1 million in the United States and Canada and $8.7 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $29.8 million, against a production budget of $10 million.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: The film grossed $1.2 million from 19 theaters in its limited opening weekend, finishing 12th at the box office and averaging $64,254 per venue, one of the highest averages of 2017. The film had its wide expansion the following week, alongside the opening of "Just Getting Started" and "I, Tonya" and was projected to gross around $5 million from 840 theaters over the weekend. It ended up making $6.4 million, finishing 4th at the box office. The following week, despite being added to 170 additional theaters, the film dropped a more-than-expected 57% to $2.7 million, finishing 8th. In its third weekend of wide release it made $884,576 ($1.2 million over the four day Christmas frame), dropping to 17th.


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: "The Disaster Artist" received a standing ovation at its initial screening at South by Southwest. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "The Disaster Artist" holds an approval rating of based on professional reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Oh, hai Mark. "The Disaster Artist" is a surprisingly poignant and charming movie-about-a-movie that explores the creative process with unexpected delicacy." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned "The Disaster Artist" a score of 76 out of 100 based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 81% overall positive score and a 66% "definite recommend".


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Erik Childress of "The Playlist" dubbed James Franco's performance his "best... since his Oscar-nominated turn in "127 Hours."" Further, he wrote that "as a director it is nice to finally see him embrace the comfort zone of comedy with enough cameos to rival Robert Altman's "The Player."" Peter Debruge of "Variety" said it had a "genuine capacity to delight, whether or not the audiences in question have seen "The Room"."


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Writing for "Rolling Stone", Peter Travers gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, saying: "As a director, Franco succeeds beautifully at bringing coherence to chaos, a word that accurately describes the making of this modern midnight-movie phenomenon. Do you need to see "The Room" to appreciate "The Disaster Artist"? Not really." Justin Chang of the "Los Angeles Times" called the film "a hilarious, heartening celebration of failure".


title: The Disaster Artist (film)

text: Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" wrote that it is "a divertingly funny movie, but its breeziness can also feel overstated, at times glib and a bit of a dodge". Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film three out of five stars, writing that it brings up unanswered questions, and "has room for improvement". Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a rating of "C", calling it a "lousy tribute" and asking, "will anyone who hasn't seen "The Room" actually be able to piece together a sense of this Z-grade sensation from watching "The Disaster Artist"?"


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: "ḥꜣt-špswt" "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, after Sobekneferu. (Various other women may have also ruled as pharaohs or at least regents before Hatshepsut, as early as Neithhotep around 1,600 years prior.)


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC. As the principal wife of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut initially ruled as regent to Thutmose III, a son of Thutmose II by another wife and the first male heir. While Thutmose III had inherited the throne at about two years old, Hatshepsut continued to rule by asserting her lineage as the daughter and only child of Thutmose I and his primary wife, Ahmose.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Her husband Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and a secondary wife named Mutnofret, who carried the title 'King's daughter' and was probably a child of Ahmose I. Hatshepsut and Thutmose II had a daughter named Neferure. Thutmose II with Iset, a secondary wife, would father Thutmose III, who would succeed Hatshepsut as pharaoh.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Although contemporary records of her reign are documented in diverse ancient sources, Hatshepsut was thought by early modern scholars as only having served as a co-regent from about 1479 to 1458 BC, during years seven to 21 of the reign previously identified as that of Thutmose III. Today Egyptologists generally agree that Hatshepsut assumed the position of pharaoh.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut was described as having a reign of about 21 years by ancient authors. Josephus and Julius Africanus both quote Manetho's king list, mentioning a woman called Amessis or Amensis who has been identified (from the context) as Hatshepsut. In Josephus' work, her reign is described as lasting 21 years and nine months, while Africanus stated it was 22 years. At this point in the history, records of the reign of Hatshepsut end, since the first major foreign campaign of Thutmose III was dated to his 22nd year, which also would have been Hatshepsut's 22nd year as pharaoh.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Dating the beginning of her reign is more difficult, however. Her father's reign began in either 1526 or 1506 BC according to the high and low estimates of her reign, respectively. The length of the reigns of Thutmose I and Thutmose II, however, cannot be determined with absolute certainty. With short reigns, Hatshepsut would have ascended the throne 14 years after the coronation of Thutmose I, her father. Longer reigns would put her ascension 25 years after Thutmose I's coronation. Thus, Hatshepsut could have assumed power as early as 1512 BC, or, as late as 1479 BC.


title: Hatshepsut

text: The earliest attestation of Hatshepsut as pharaoh occurs in the tomb of Ramose and Hatnofer, where a collection of grave goods contained a single pottery jar or amphora from the tomb's chamber—which was stamped with the date "Year 7". Another jar from the same tomb—which was discovered "in situ" by a 1935–36 Metropolitan Museum of Art expedition on a hillside near Thebes — was stamped with the seal of the "God's Wife Hatshepsut" while two jars bore the seal of "The Good Goddess Maatkare." The dating of the amphorae, "sealed into the [tomb's] burial chamber by the debris from Senenmut's own tomb", is undisputed, which means that Hatshepsut was acknowledged as pharaoh, and not queen, of Egypt by Year 7 of her reign.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut's legacy is oftentimes dominated by a debate regarding the extent of whether her reign challenged or upheld the patriarchy. On one hand, Hatshepsut was an innovator. She managed to rule as regent for a son who was not her own, defying the system which had previously only allowed direct mothers to rule on behalf of their biological sons. Moreover, she used this regency to manufacture her female kingship, constructing extensive temples to celebrate her reign, thereby forcing the public to grow accustomed to seeing a woman in such a powerful role. This ensured that when the oracle declared her king, the Egyptian public readily accepted her status. All the while, she did so while feigning a lack of ambition and cunning, thus ensuring that she would not alienate potential supporters.


title: Hatshepsut

text: However, Hatshepsut was not an innovator in other respects, and arguably was placed in power by males to further their own wealth. She gained power during a time when Egypt had recently amassed extensive wealth, implying that she was placed in power by Egyptian elites due to her record as successful in various domains - as High Priestess or as a placeholder serving for her father Thutmose I in Thebes while he was away on military campaigns. This record of success made such elites confident that she could handle Egyptian wealth and trade, capitalizing on Egypt's moment of prosperity. Indeed, historian Kara Cooney describes Hatshepsut as "the only woman to have ever taken power as king in ancient Egypt during a time of prosperity and expansion."


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut re-established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the Eighteenth Dynasty. She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. This trading expedition to Punt was during the ninth year of Hatshepsut's reign. It set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long, bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably frankincense and myrrh.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut's delegation returned from Punt bearing 31 live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her mortuary temple complex. Egyptians also returned with a number of other gifts from Punt, among which was frankincense. Hatshepsut would grind the charred frankincense into kohl eyeliner. This is the first recorded use of the resin.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahari, which is also famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Ati. Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and the Sinai Peninsula shortly after the Punt expedition. Very little is known about these expeditions. Although many Egyptologists have claimed that her foreign policy was mainly peaceful, it is possible that she led military campaigns against Nubia and Canaan.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders in Ancient Egypt, commissioning hundreds of construction projects throughout both Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Many of these building projects were temples to build her religious base and legitimacy beyond her position as God's Wife of Amun. At these temples, she performed religious rituals that had hitherto been reserved for kings, corroborating the evidence that Hatshepsut assumed traditionally male roles as pharaoh. Arguably, her buildings were grander and more numerous than those of her Middle Kingdom predecessors. Later pharaohs attempted to claim some of her projects as theirs. She employed the great architect Ineni, who also had worked for her father, her husband, and for the royal steward Senenmut. During her reign, so much statuary was produced that almost every major museum with Ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world has Hatshepsut statuary among their collections; for instance, the Hatshepsut Room in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art is dedicated solely to some of these pieces. The extant artifacts of the statuary provide archaeological evidence of Hatshepsut's portrayals of herself as a male pharaoh, with physically masculine traits and traditionally male Ancient Egyptian garb, such as a false beard and ram's horns.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Following the tradition of most pharaohs, Hatshepsut had monuments constructed at the Temple of Karnak. She also restored the original Precinct of Mut, the great ancient goddess of Egypt, at Karnak that had been ravaged by the foreign rulers during the Hyksos occupation. It later was ravaged by other pharaohs, who took one part after another to use in their own pet projects. The precinct awaits restoration. She had twin obelisks erected at the entrance to the temple which at the time of building were the tallest in the world. Only one remains upright, which is the second-tallest ancient obelisk still standing, the other having toppled and broken in two. The official in charge of those obelisks was the high steward Amenhotep.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Another project, Karnak's Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, was intended as a barque shrine and originally may have stood between her two obelisks. It was lined with carved stones that depicted significant events in Hatshepsut's life.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Later, she ordered the construction of two more obelisks to celebrate her 16th year as pharaoh; one of the obelisks broke during construction, and a third was therefore constructed to replace it. The broken obelisk was left at its quarrying site in Aswan, where it still remains. Known as the Unfinished Obelisk, it provides evidence of how obelisks were quarried.


title: Hatshepsut

text: The name, Pakhet, was a synthesis that occurred by combining Bast and Sekhmet, who were similar lioness war goddesses, in an area that bordered the north and south division of their cults. The cavernous underground temple, cut into the rock cliffs on the eastern side of the Nile, was admired and called the Speos Artemidos by the Greeks during their occupation of Egypt, known as the Ptolemaic Dynasty. They saw the goddess as akin to their hunter goddess, Artemis. The temple is thought to have been built alongside much more ancient ones that have not survived. This temple has an architrave with a long dedicatory text bearing Hatshepsut's famous denunciation of the Hyksos that James P. Allen has translated. The Hyksos occupied Egypt and cast it into a cultural decline that persisted until a revival of her policies and innovations. This temple was altered later, and some of its inside decorations were usurped by Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty in an attempt to have his name replace that of Hatshepsut.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Following the tradition of many pharaohs, the masterpiece of Hatshepsut's building projects was a mortuary temple. She built hers in a complex at Deir el-Bahri. It was designed and implemented by Senenmut at a site on the West Bank of the Nile River near the entrance to what now is called the Valley of the Kings because of all the pharaohs who later chose to associate their complexes with the grandeur of hers. Her buildings were the first grand ones planned for that location.


title: Hatshepsut

text: The complex's focal point was the Djeser-Djeseru or "the Holy of Holies," a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony built nearly one thousand years before the Parthenon. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of terraces that once were graced with lush gardens. Built into a cliff face that rises sharply above it, Djeser-Djeseru and the other buildings of Hatshepsut's Deir el-Bahri complex are significant advances in architecture. Another one of her great accomplishments is the Hatshepsut needle (also known as the granite obelisks).


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hyperbole is common to virtually all royal inscriptions of Egyptian history. While all ancient leaders used it to laud their achievements, Hatshepsut has been called the most accomplished pharaoh at promoting her accomplishments. This may have resulted from the extensive building executed during her time as pharaoh, in comparison with many others. It afforded her many opportunities to laud herself, but it also reflected the wealth that her policies and administration brought to Egypt, enabling her to finance such projects. Aggrandizement of their achievements was traditional when pharaohs built temples and their tombs.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Women had a relatively high status in Ancient Egypt and enjoyed the legal right to own, inherit, or will property. A woman becoming pharaoh was rare, however; only Sobekneferu, Khentkaus I and possibly Nitocris preceded her. Nefernferuaten and Twosret may have been the only women to succeed her among the indigenous rulers. In Egyptian history, there was no word for a "queen regnant" as in contemporary history, "king" being the ancient Egyptian title regardless of gender, and by the time of her reign, "pharaoh" had become the name for the ruler. Hatshepsut is not unique, however, in taking the title of king. Sobekneferu, ruling six dynasties prior to Hatshepsut, also did so when she ruled Egypt. Hatshepsut had been well-trained in her duties as the daughter of the pharaoh. During her father's reign she held the powerful office of "God's Wife". She had taken a strong role as queen to her husband and was well experienced in the administration of her kingdom by the time she became pharaoh. There is no indication of challenges to her leadership and, until her death, her co-regent remained in a secondary role, quite amicably heading her powerful army—which would have given him the power necessary to overthrow a usurper of his rightful place, if that had been the case.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut assumed all the regalia and symbols of the Pharaonic office in official representations: the Khat head cloth, topped with the uraeus, the traditional false beard, and shendyt kilt. Many existing statues alternatively show her in typically feminine attire as well as those that depict her in the royal ceremonial attire. After this period of transition ended, however, most formal depictions of Hatshepsut as pharaoh showed her in the royal attire, with all the Pharaonic regalia, and some previously feminine depictions were carved over to now be masculine. Hatshepsut was ambiguous and androgynous in many of her statues and monuments. She would create a masculine version of herself to establish herself in the Egyptian patriarchy.


title: Hatshepsut

text: She also named herself Maatkare, or "Truth is the Soul of the Sun God". This name emphasized the Pharaoh Maatkare Hatshepsut’s connection to one of the many evolutions of Amun while referencing a Pharaoh's responsibility to maintain "ma’at", harmony, through respecting tradition.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Moreover, the Osirian statues of Hatshepsut — as with other pharaohs — depict the dead pharaoh as Osiris, with the body and regalia of that deity. All the statues of Hatshepsut at her tomb follow that tradition. The promise of resurrection after death was a tenet of the cult of Osiris.


title: Hatshepsut

text: One of the most famous examples of the legends about Hatshepsut is a myth about her birth. In this myth, Amun goes to Ahmose in the form of Thutmose I and awakens her with pleasant odors. At this point Amun places the "ankh", a symbol of life, to Ahmose's nose, and Hatshepsut is conceived by Ahmose. Khnum, the god who forms the bodies of human children, is then instructed to create a body and "ka", or corporal presence/life force, for Hatshepsut. Heket, the goddess of life and fertility, and Khnum then lead Ahmose along to a lioness' bed where she gives birth to Hatshepsut. Reliefs depicting each step in these events are at Karnak and in her mortuary temple.


title: Hatshepsut

text: The Oracle of Amun proclaimed that it was the will of Amun that Hatshepsut be pharaoh, further strengthening her position. She reiterated Amun's support by having these proclamations by the god Amun carved on her monuments:


title: Hatshepsut

text: Furthermore, on Khnum's potter's wheel, she is depicted as a little boy to further cement her divine right to rule.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut claimed that she was her father's intended heir and that he made her the heir apparent of Egypt. Almost all scholars today view this as historical revisionism or prolepsis on Hatshepsut's part, since it was Thutmose II — a son of Thutmose I by Mutnofret — who was her father's heir. Moreover, Thutmose I could not have foreseen that his daughter Hatshepsut would outlive his son within his own lifetime. Thutmose II soon married Hatshepsut and the latter became both his senior royal wife and the most powerful woman at court. Biographer Evelyn Wells, however, accepts Hatshepsut's claim that she was her father's intended successor. Once she became pharaoh herself, Hatshepsut supported her assertion that she was her father's designated successor with inscriptions on the walls of her mortuary temple:


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut died in her 22nd regnal year as she approached what we would consider middle age given typical contemporary lifespans. The precise date of Hatshepsut's death—and when Thutmose III became the next pharaoh of Egypt—is considered "Year 22, II Peret day 10" of her reign, as recorded on a single stela erected at Armant or 16 January 1458 BC. This information validates the basic reliability of Manetho's king list records since Hatshepsut's known accession date was "I Shemu day 4" (i.e., Hatshepsut died nine months into her 22nd year as king, as Manetho writes in his Epitome for a reign of 21 years and nine months). No contemporary mention of the cause of her death has survived.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Hatshepsut had begun constructing a tomb when she was the Great Royal Wife of Thutmose II. Still, the scale of this was not suitable for a pharaoh, so when she ascended the throne, preparation for another burial started. For this, KV20, originally quarried for her father, Thutmose I, and probably the first royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, was extended with a new burial chamber. Hatshepsut also refurbished her father's burial and prepared for a double interment of both Thutmose I and her within KV20. Therefore, it is likely that when she died (no later than the 22nd year of her reign), she was interred in this tomb along with her father.


title: Hatshepsut

text: During the reign of Thutmose III, however, a new tomb (KV38), together with new burial equipment, was provided for Thutmose I, who then was removed from his original tomb and re-interred elsewhere. At the same time, Hatshepsut's mummy might have been moved into the tomb of her nurse, Sitre In, in KV60. It is possible that Amenhotep II, son to Thutmose III by a secondary wife, was the one motivating these actions in an attempt to assure his own uncertain right to succession. Besides what was recovered from KV20 during Howard Carter's clearance of the tomb in 1903, other funerary furniture belonging to Hatshepsut has been found elsewhere, including a lioness "throne" (bedstead is a better description), a senet game board with carved lioness-headed, red-jasper game pieces bearing her pharaonic title, a signet ring, and a partial shabti figurine bearing her name. In the Royal Mummy Cache at DB320, a wooden canopic box with an ivory knob was found that was inscribed with the name of Hatshepsut and contained a mummified liver or spleen as well as a molar tooth. There was a royal lady of the 21st dynasty of the same name, however, and for a while, it was thought possible that it could have belonged to her instead.


title: Hatshepsut

text: In 1903, Howard Carter had discovered tomb KV60 in the Valley of the Kings. It contained two female mummies: one identified as Hatshepsut's wetnurse and the other unidentified. In spring 2007, the unidentified body, called KV60A, was finally removed from the tomb by Dr. Zahi Hawass and brought to Cairo's Egyptian Museum for testing. This mummy was missing a tooth, and the space in the jaw perfectly matched Hatshepsut's existing molar, found in the DB320 "canopic box". Based on this, Hawass concluded that the KV60A mummy is very likely Hatshepsut.


title: Hatshepsut

text: While the mummy and the tooth could be DNA tested to see if belonged to the same person and confirm the mummy's identity, Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Cairo Museum and some egyptologists have refused to do it as it would require destroying the tooth to retrieve the DNA. Her death has since been attributed to a benzopyrene carcinogenic skin lotion found in possession of the Pharaoh, which led to her having bone cancer. Other members of the queen's family are thought to have suffered from inflammatory skin diseases that tend to be genetic. Assuming that the mummy is that of Hatshepsut, it is likely that she inadvertently poisoned herself while trying to soothe her itchy, irritated skin. It also would suggest that she had arthritis and bad teeth, which may be why the tooth was removed.


title: Hatshepsut

text: However, in 2011, the tooth was identified as the molar from a lower jaw, whereas the mummy from KV60 was missing a molar from its upper jaw, thus casting doubt on the supposed identification.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Toward the end of the reign of Thutmose III and into the reign of his son, an attempt was made to remove Hatshepsut from certain historical and pharaonic records — a "damnatio memoriae". This elimination was carried out in the most literal way possible. Her cartouches and images were chiseled off some stone walls, leaving very obvious Hatshepsut-shaped gaps in the artwork. Erasure methods ranged from full destruction of any instance of her name or image to replacement, inserting Thutmose I or II where Hatshepsut once stood. There were also instances of smoothing, patchwork jobs that covered Hatshepsut's cartouche, examples of this can be seen on the walls of the Deir el-Bahri temple. Simpler methods also included covering, where new stone was added to fully cover reliefs or sacred stone work.


title: Hatshepsut

text: At the Deir el-Bahari temple, Hatshepsut's numerous statues were torn down and in many cases, smashed or disfigured before being buried in a pit. At Karnak, there even was an attempt to wall up her obelisks. While it is clear that much of this rewriting of Hatshepsut's history occurred only during the close of Thutmose III's reign, it is not clear why it happened, other than the typical pattern of self-promotion that existed among the pharaohs and their administrators, or perhaps saving money by not building new monuments for the burial of Thutmose III and instead, using the grand structures built by Hatshepsut.


title: Hatshepsut

text: Amenhotep II, the son of Thutmose III, who became a co-regent toward the end of his father's reign, is suspected by some as being the defacer during the end of the reign of a very old pharaoh. He would have had a motive because his position in the royal lineage was not so strong as to assure his elevation to pharaoh. He is documented, further, as having usurped many of Hatshepsut's accomplishments during his own reign. His reign is marked with attempts to break the royal lineage as well, not recording the names of his queens and eliminating the powerful titles and official roles of royal women, such as God's Wife of Amun.


title: Hatshepsut

text: For many years, presuming that it was Thutmose III acting out of resentment once he became pharaoh, early modern Egyptologists presumed that the erasures were similar to the Roman "damnatio memoriae". This appeared to make sense when thinking that Thutmose might have been an unwilling co-regent for years. This assessment of the situation probably is too simplistic, however. It is highly unlikely that the determined and focused Thutmose—not only Egypt's most successful general, but an acclaimed athlete, author, historian, botanist, and architect—would have brooded for two decades of his own reign before attempting to avenge himself on his stepmother and aunt. According to renowned Egyptologist Donald Redford:


title: Hatshepsut

text: The erasures were sporadic and haphazard, with only the more visible and accessible images of Hatshepsut being removed; had it been more complete, we would not now have so many images of Hatshepsut. Thutmose III may have died before these changes were finished and it may be that he never intended a total obliteration of her memory. In fact, we have no evidence to support the assumption that Thutmose hated or resented Hatshepsut during her lifetime. Had that been true, as head of the army, in a position given to him by Hatshepsut (who was clearly not worried about her co-regent's loyalty), he surely could have led a successful coup, but he made no attempt to challenge her authority during her reign, and her accomplishments and images remained featured on all of the public buildings she built for 20 years after her death.