David Stubbs of The Guardian described the film as "part insight into the enigma of a very early feminist icon, part watching people build a giant model kit." Paul Whitelaw of The Scotsman praised the film for depicting a "convincing case to support the hypothesis that, contrary to popular belief, the ancient Egyptians possessed the technological wherewithal to sail the high seas," but sardonically remarked that the narrator "sounded like Miriam Margolyes as the sexy rabbit from the Cadbury's Caramel adverts," a choice that was "tenuously apt" because of the "soft-focus dramatic reconstructions, Hatshepsut feeding grapes to her royal monkey etc" that "resembled a Flake ad."
