Pharaohs, Kings and Rulers of Egypt: Sobekneferu

Sobekneferu

Fragmented statue of Sobekneferu (Louvre Museum). Sobekneferu was an Egyptian female pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty.

Sobeknefru (sometimes written "Neferusobek") was an Egyptian female pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty. Her name meant "the beauties of Sobek." She was the daughter of Pharaoh Amenemhat III; Manetho states she was also the sister of Amenemhat IV.

It is not until the end of the Middle Kingdom that we find, for the first time, clear evidence for a female king of Egypt. Her name was Sobekneferu (Nefrusobk, Neferusobek, Sobekkara). The name 'Sobekneferu' means, "The beauties of Sobek", the crocodile god. The rulers of the 12th Dynasty established a religious and economic center in the Fayoum where the crocodiles were nurtured and worshipped.

Reign

She is not known from many monuments, though many of her (headless) statues have been preserved including the base of a king's daughter with her name that was discovered in Gezer. She also made additions to the funerary complex of Amenemhat III at Hawara (called a labyrinth by Herodotus) and built at Herakleopolis Magna while a fine cylinder seal bearing her name and royal titulary is now located in the British Museum. A Nile graffito, at the Nubian fortress of Kumma records the Nile inundation height of 1.83 metres in Year 3 of her reign. Her monumental works consistently associate her with Amenemhat III rather than Amenemhat IV, supporting the theory that she was Amenemhat III's daughter and was perhaps only a step-sister of Amenemhat IV. The Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt notes that the contemporary sources from her reign show she never adopted the title of "Queen or King's sister", only 'King's Daughter' which supports this hypothesis.

Her tomb has not been positively identified, though she may have been interred in an uninscribed pyramid complex in Mazghuna, immediately north of a similar complex ascribed to Amenemhat IV. A place called Sekhem-Neferu is mentioned in a papyrus found at Harageh. This is perhaps the name of her pyramid.

During the prosperity and innovations of this period, it is possible that Amenemhat III may have even contemplated a female as his heir. A daughter of the king named Nefruptah was invested with a cartouche around her name, something never before done for anyone other than a king, and she was given titles often used by a king's wife, though apparently she was never married to a king. After her death, she was first buried in her father's burial chamber, but was then reburied in her own pyramid some two kilometers away.

However, she did not succeed Amenemhat III. After Amenemhat III's death, Amenemhat IV came to the throne, but he died early and was succeeded on the throne by a woman named Sobekneferu, who was presumably a sister of Nefruptah. She may have been the wife and sister of Amenemhat IV as well. Sobekneferu apparently ruled for only some four years, but is known from a number of monuments and artifacts, including five statues, fragments relating to the mortuary temple of Amenemhat III at Hawara, scarabs, seals and beads, as well as from a Nile inundation record. This latter document from the Nubian fortress of Kumma relates a poor flood of some 1.83 meters, and dates to Sobekneferu's last year.

Usually, the queen uses feminine titles, but several masculine ones were also used. Three headless statues of the queen, discovered in the Fayoum, and a few other items contain her name. In one damaged statue of the queen of unknown origin, the costume she wears is unique in its combination of elements from male and female dress, echoing her occasional use of male titles in her records. In another intriguing statuette of the queen now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the queen wears a sed-festival cloak and a most unusual crown, which may have resulted from an attempt to combine unfamiliar iconographic elements of male and female rulers. She contributed to Amenemhat III's Labyrinth, and also built at Herakleopolis Magna.

Generally, Sobekneferu is known as the last Egyptian king of the Middle Kingdom, prior to the confusion of the Second Intermediate Period. She is the last ruler prior to the New Kingdom to appear in the offering lists found at Abydos and Saqqara, which suggests some kind of posthumous verdict that separates her from the kings who followed her with equally short reigns.

Nothing is known of Sobekneferu's death or burial. Some have suggested that her burial might be one of the pyramids at Mazghuna, but this is very unlikely. Thus, one of the most powerful women of early world history final destiny remains a mystery to us.

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