Sobekneferu: The First Female Pharaoh of Egypt’s Legacy, Regin & Family
Sobekneferu or Neferusobek was the first confirmed queen regnant of ancient Egypt and the last pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty and the Middle Kingdom. She was crowned queen after the passing of Amenemhat IV, who could be her brother or husband-his relationship is unproven. Instead, she made her claim through being the daughter of Amenemhat III. According to the Turin Canon, she reigned for almost four years.
Why was this Queen important?
Because she adopted the full royal titulary. She was also the first ruler to associate herself with the crocodile god Sobek through her regnal name. Contemporary evidence for her reign is scant. There are a few partial statues, one with her face, now lost, and some inscriptions that have been uncovered.
It is assumed that the Northern Mazghuna pyramid was intended for her, though this assignment is speculative with no firm evidence to confirm it. The monument was abandoned immediately after its substructure was completed. A papyrus discovered in Harageh mentions a place called Sekhem Sobekneferu that may refer to the pyramid. Her rule is also attested to on several king lists.
Sobekneferu
Sobekneferu family tree
- Sobekneferu was maybe the daughter of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, but her mother’s identity is unknown. Amenemhat III had two known wives, Aat and an unnamed queen. These queens are buried in his pyramid at Dahshur. He had at least one other daughter, Neferuptah, who had a burial at his second pyramid at Hawara that was eventually moved to her own pyramid.
- Neferuptah was apparently prepared to become the king since she had her name inscribed in a cartouche. The complex was also used to bury royalties of the Thirteenth Dynasty, so it is not clear whether these princesses were his daughters; however, evidence of burials of three other princesses namely Hathorhotep, Nubhotepet, and Sithathor, was found at the Dahshur complex.
King Amenemhat III – Neues Museum – Berlin
- Amenemhat III’s eventual heir, Amenemhat IV, was the son of Hetepti, though her titulary lacks reference to her being a ‘King’s Wife’. The relationship between Amenemhat IV and Sobekneferu remains unclear. They are said by Manetho’s Aegyptiaca to have been brother and sister; according to Gae Callende, they were possibly married too.
- Although neither the title of ‘King’s Wife’ nor ‘King’s Sister’ are attested for Sobekneferu. Sobekneferu’s accession may have been motivated by the lack of a male heir for Amenemhat IV. Nevertheless, two kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty, Sobekhotep I and Sonbef, have been theorised to be his sons, due to their similar nomen of Amenemhat. In this instance, Sobekneferu might have become pharaoh when Amenemhat IV was dead since she considered them invalid.
Sobekneferu Reign
By the time of Sobekneferu’s accession to the throne, the Middle Kingdom was in decline. It had peaked during the reigns of Senusret III and Amenemhat III. Senusret III formed the basis for the legendary character Sesostris described by Manetho and Herodotus. He led military expeditions into Nubia and into Syria-Palestine and built a 60 metres (200 ft; 110 cu) tall mudbrick pyramid as his monument. He reigned for 39 years, as evidenced by an inscription in Abydos, where he was buried.
Amenemhat III, on the other hand, had to preside over a calm Egypt consisting of gigantic buildings, Faiyum development, some mining activities, and two pyramids-one at Dahshur and another at Hawara. The reign might have lasted at least 45 years, maybe even longer. According to Nicolas Grimal, such long reigns brought about the extinction of the Twelfth Dynasty though not amounting to a full collapse like that which ended the Old Kingdom. Amenemhat IV, for his part, ruled for nine or ten years; very little is known about his reign.
Queen Sobekneferu
It is to this backdrop that Sobekneferu acquired the throne. She is the earliest confirmed woman to rule Egypt as a ‘female king’ and the first to adopt the full royal titulary. She was also the first ruler associated with the crocodile god Sobek by name, whose identity appears in both her nomen and praenomen. She reigned for around four years, but as with her predecessor, there are few surviving records. Her death brought a close to the Twelfth Dynasty and began the Second Intermediate Period, which lasted the following two centuries.
This period is poorly understood owing to the paucity of references to the rulers of the time. She was succeeded by either Sobekhotep I or Wegaf, who inaugurated the Thirteenth Dynasty. Stephen Quirke proposed, based on the numerosity of kingships and brevity of their rule, that a rotating succession of kings from Egypt’s most powerful families took the throne.
They retained Itỉ-tawy as their capital through the Thirteenth Dynasty. Their role, however, was relegated to a reduced status, and power rested within the administration. It is generally accepted that Egypt remained unified until late into the dynasty. Kim Ryholt proposes that the Fourteenth Dynasty arose in the Nile Delta at the end of Sobekneferu’s reign as a rival to the Thirteenth.
Graffiti and seals of Sobekneferu
Only a small collection of sources attests to Sobekneferu’s rule as pharaoh of Egypt.
- In Nubia, a graffito in the fortress of Kumma records the height of the Nile inundation at 1.83 m (6 ft) during her third regnal year.
- Another inscription discovered in the Eastern Desert records ‘year 4, second month of the Season of the Emergence’.
- The British Museum has a fine cylinder seal bearing her name and royal titulary in its collection. The seal is made of glazed steatite and is 4.42 cm long with a diameter of 1.55 cm. The British Museum also possesses an inscribed scarab, measuring 2.03 cm by 1.32 cm and 0.86 cm in height, made of glazed steatite bearing the name of Sobekneferu.
Sobekneferu Statuary
A handful of headless statues of Sobekneferu have been identified. In one quartzite image, she blends feminine and masculine dress with an inscription reading ‘daughter of Re(?), of his body, Sobekneferu, may she live like Re forever’. On her torso rests a pendant modelled on that worn by Senusret III. Three basalt statues of the female king were found in Tell ed-Dab’a; two depict her in a seated posture, and another shows her kneeling.
Sobekneferu statue
In one, she is depicted trampling the Nine Bows, representing the subjugation of Egypt’s enemies. The three statues appear to be life-sized. One statue with her head is known. The bust was held in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin but was lost during World War II. Photographic images and plaster casts confirm its existence.
It sits on the lower half of a seated statuette found at Semna, with the royal symbol smtwy incised on the side of the throne. The lower half is kept at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Sobekneferu Buildings
There is evidence that she had structures built in Heracleopolis Magna and added to the Pyramid of Amenemhat III in Hawara.
Columns Amenemhat III Sobekneferu
- She left inscriptions on four granite papyriform columns found at a temple in Kom el-Akârib, while a further ten granite beams there may date to the same period.
- Her monumental works consistently associate her with Amenemhat III rather than Amenemhat IV, supporting the theory that she was the royal daughter of Amenemhat III and perhaps only a stepsister to Amenemhat IV, whose mother was not royal.
How did Sobekneferu die?
She reigned for around four years, but as with her predecessor, there are few surviving records. Her death brought a close to the Twelfth Dynasty and began the Second Intermediate Period, spanning the following two centuries. This period is poorly understood owing to the paucity of references to the rulers of the time.
Burial Sobekneferu
The tomb of Sobekneferu is yet to be positively recognised. A papyrus discovered at Harageh refers to a place known as Sekhem Sobekneferu, and this is possibly the name of her pyramid. An Abydos funerary stela, in Marseille, speaks of a storeroom administrator of Sobekneferu called Heby. The stela is the 13th Dynasty stela that bears testimony to the continuity of the cult of the funerals.
The Northern Mazghuna pyramid is assumed to be her monument. There is, however, no clear evidence to confirm this assignment, and the pyramid may date to a period well after the end of the Twelfth Dynasty. Only its substructure was completed; construction of the superstructure and wider temple complex was never begun. The passages of the substructure had a complex plan. A stairway descended south from the east side of the pyramid, leading to a square chamber which connected to the next sloping passage leading west to a portcullis.
The portcullis consisted of a 42,000-kilogram quartzite block intended to slide into and block the passage. Beyond the passage wound through several more turns and a second smaller portcullis before terminating at the antechamber. South of this lay the burial chamber, which was almost entirely occupied by a quartzite monolith which acted as the vessel for a sarcophagus.
In a deep recess lay a quartzite lid which was to be slid into place over the coffin and then locked into place by a stone slab blocking it. The builders had all exposed surfaces painted red and added lines of black paint. A causeway leading to the pyramid was built of mudbrick, which must have been used by the workers. Though the burial place had been constructed, no burial was interred at the site.
Conclusion
The brief reign of Sobekneferu lasted only a few years. Her greatness is due to having been the first widely recognised female pharaoh and to her challenging the gender construct of leadership and divine rights. Through her devotion to the god Sobek, her ambitious building projects, and her ability to balance tradition with innovation, Sobekneferu set a remarkable example of strength and adaptability.
Though her death marked the end of Egypt’s 12th Dynasty, her legacy continued to echo through the ages, inspiring later queens and pharaohs who would follow her path. Sobekneferu remains a symbol of courage, intelligence, and determination. a woman who dared to rule a kingdom built for kings and left an indelible mark on the story of ancient Egypt.
