Sobekneferu: First Confirmed Female Pharaoh of Egypt

Sobekneferu was the last ruler of Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty, reigning for nearly four years around 1806–1802 BC (another widely used chronology places her reign about 1777–1773 BC). She is the first woman confirmed by contemporary evidence to have ruled Egypt as king, using a full set of royal names. Her reign closed one of the most stable periods of Egyptian history, the Middle Kingdom’s Twelfth Dynasty.

Background

The Twelfth Dynasty had ruled Egypt for about two centuries, reaching its height under Senusret III and his son Amenemhat III. Amenemhat III reigned for about 45 years, and his successor, Amenemhat IV, ruled for roughly nine years. Amenemhat IV seems to have left no male heir who could take the throne.

Sobekneferu was very probably a daughter of Amenemhat III. On her monuments she associated herself with him rather than with Amenemhat IV, which suggests she based her claim on descent from the great king. The later Egyptian historian Manetho calls her the sister of her predecessor, but whether that is accurate is unknown.

Ruling as a female king

Egyptian kingship was imagined as a male office, held by the living Horus. Sobekneferu adopted the traditional five-part royal titulary but used feminine grammatical forms. Her Horus name was Meryt-Ra, “beloved of Ra”, and her throne name Sobekkara, “Sobek is the ka (spirit) of Ra”. Her personal name honoured Sobek, the crocodile god of the Faiyum.

Her reign is recorded in several later king lists. The Turin King List gives her 3 years, 10 months and 24 days, and she appears in the king lists of Saqqara and Karnak. The Abydos king list, made under Seti I, leaves her out, just as later lists omitted Hatshepsut.

Little is known of the events of her reign. Some inscriptions record building work, and a cylinder seal in the British Museum bears her name.

The state she inherited was still wealthy and well organised. Expeditions, temple building and the frontier fortresses in Nubia had all flourished under Amenemhat III, and nothing suggests a sudden collapse during her reign. The problem of the age was succession rather than weakness: with no obvious male heir, a royal daughter was the strongest available candidate, and the court appears to have accepted her as the legitimate king.

Her monuments and statues

Sobekneferu appears to have completed or added to Amenemhat III’s monuments. Petrie found inscriptions with her name at the great temple beside the Hawara pyramid, which Greek writers called the Labyrinth.

Several statues show how she wished to be portrayed. A headless quartzite torso in the Louvre shows her wearing a woman’s close-fitting dress combined with the king’s pleated kilt and the striped royal nemes headcloth, an unusual blend of female and male regalia. Three headless statues inscribed with her name were found at Tell el-Dab’a in the eastern Nile Delta and are now in Cairo.

A sculpted head once in Berlin, attributed to her by some scholars, was lost during the Second World War and is now known mainly from photographs and casts. Other heads have been suggested as her portraits, but without inscriptions these identifications remain uncertain.

Death and succession

How Sobekneferu’s reign ended is not known. There is no evidence of violence, and no record of a husband or children. After her death the throne passed to the kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty, beginning with Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep or Wegaf, depending on the reconstruction. The new dynasty continued to rule from Itjtawy, at first with much continuity in administration.

Her tomb has never been found. One of two unfinished pyramids at Mazghuna, south of Dahshur, has been proposed as hers, but they bear no royal names.

Key people

• Sobekneferu: last ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty, throne name Sobekkara.
• Amenemhat III: her probable father, builder of the pyramids at Dahshur and Hawara.
• Amenemhat IV: her predecessor, whose exact relationship to her is uncertain.
• Flinders Petrie: the archaeologist whose work at Hawara in 1888–1889 recovered inscriptions bearing her name.

Myths and facts

Sobekneferu is sometimes called the first female pharaoh in history. More precisely, she is the first whose kingship is firmly established by her own monuments. Earlier women, notably Merneith of the First Dynasty, may have governed as regents. A queen called Nitocris, said by Herodotus to have ruled at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, is now thought by many scholars to be legendary, partly based on a misread king’s name.

Timeline

• c. 1860–1814 BC: Reign of Amenemhat III, probably Sobekneferu’s father (dates vary by chronology).
• c. 1815–1807 BC: Reign of Amenemhat IV, possibly overlapping with his predecessor.
• c. 1806 BC: Sobekneferu becomes king (in the chronology used here).
• c. 1802 BC: Her reign ends after 3 years, 10 months and 24 days; the Twelfth Dynasty ends.
• c. 1479 BC: Hatshepsut, the next well-known female king, begins her reign.

Why it matters

Sobekneferu shows that, in a time of dynastic crisis, Egyptian tradition could accept a woman as a fully crowned king. Her careful use of royal titles and mixed regalia provided a precedent for later female rulers such as Hatshepsut.