Woman pharaohs of Egypt

MERYT-NEITH (1st Dynasty c.3000-2890 BC)

Meryt-Neith is believed to have ruled at the start of the dynastic period, possibly the third ruler of the dynasty, and is known principally for her funerary monuments. Her reign lasted less than three years. Her name means 'Beloved of the Goddess Neith' and she has a funerary monument and solar boat at Sakkara. This boat would enable her spirit to travel to the Afterlife, a honour reserved only for a king. She also has another funerary tomb at Abydos. Both these tombs are surrounded by over fifty graves of attendants and servants, demonstrating that she was buried with the power of a king and was full honours of a powerful ruler.

NIMAETHAP (3rd Dynasty 2686-2613 BC) may have been the dowager of Khasekhemwy, but certainly acted as regent for her son, Djoser, and may have reigned as pharaoh in her own right.

KHENTKAUS (4th Dynasty 2613-2494 BC)

Titled "King's Mother" and "God's Daughter," Khentkaus was characterized in an inscription as the mother of "Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt," presumably Sahure and Neferirke, Fifth Dynasty. She may have served as a regent for a time. She seems to have been daughter of Menkaure, or of Hordjedef, son of Khufu. She was married to Shepseskhaf (Dynasty 4) or Userkaf(Dynasty 5). Khentkaus is said to have married a priest and her sons inherited and initiated the fifth dynasty.

WIFE OF DJEDKARE-IZEZI (5th Dynasty 2494-2345 BC)

In the 1950s, a mortuary temple was excavated, though the excavation remains unpublished. Reportedly, royal insignia were found related to the wife of Djedkare-Izezi. She may have had no son and ruled as king. But the temple was destroyed so completely that the details are not clear, and her name cannot even be identified

ANKHNESMSRYRE II or ANKHESERPEPE II or ANKH-MERI-RA (6th Dynasty 2345-2181 BC)

She may have served as regent for her son, Pepi II, who was about six when he assumed the throne when Pepi I (her husband, his father) died.

NITOCRIS (6th Dynasty 2345-2181 BC)

Nitocris came to the throne during much dispute, when there was no apparent male heir. But she has become entangled with romantic legend and myth, so much so, that very little true facts are known about her reign. She would be remembered later in Egyptian history as 'The bravest and most beautiful woman of her time'. No structures were commissioned by her and she is left unmentioned in many Egyptian records. She is, however, referred to in the Turin King-list, by the Greek traveller Herodotos who wrote that she caused the deaths of hundreds of Egyptians in revenge for the killing of her brother, the king. This was done by inviting all those guilt of his murder to a banquet then, when the party was in full swing, she opened flood gates and let the River Nile in on them, drowning them all. According to legend she then flung herself into a room of ashes to escape her punishment. Again, her reign lasted less than three years.

SOBEKNOFRU (Neferusobek) (12th Dynasty ?1767-1759 BC)

Sobeknofru ruled only briefly at a time of civil unrest, followed by a period of anarchy. Monuments which record the troubled times have allowed Egyptologist to piece together her reign. Manetho states she was probably the sister of Ammenemes, whom she succeeded and he tells us that her reign lasted for 3 years and 10 months. She is mentioned in the Turin 'List of Kings' and is mentioned at Karnak Temple (Luxor) and Saqqara (near Cairo). Portraits show her wearing the royal head cloth and kilt over her female attire, a way of declaring that she is as fit to rule as any man.

She ruled Egypt for a few years. She was the daughter of Amenemhet III and half-sister of Amenemhet IV and, perhaps, also his wife. She claimed to have been co-regent with her father. The dynasty ends with her reign, as she apparently had no son. Titles found with her image include Female Horus, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Daughter of Re.

Sobeknefru is also depicted in the cloak associated with her coronation. Yet a more complete portrait was identified as Sobeknefru in 1993, and it’s in this that the strong family resemblance to her father, Amenemhat III, can be seen.

Sobeknefru created temples at the northern sites Tell Dab’a and Herakleopolis, and also completed her father’s pyramid complex at Hawara. She seems to have built her own pyramid at Mazghuna near Dahshur, but no trace of her burial has been found. If she is mentioned at all in modern histories, it is only to be dismissed as the last resort of an otherwise male dynasty. Yet the throne passed smoothly to a succession of male kings who followed her lead by naming themselves after the crocodile god.

Her innovations inspired the next female pharaoh Hatshepsut (ruled c1479–1458 BC), who adopted the same kingly regalia and false beard. The modern tendency to cast Hatshepsut as a cross-dresser is only possible because her female forerunners have been played down or ignored. Such is the case with Nefertiti. She is judged almost entirely on her beautiful bust, yet evidence suggests she wielded the same kingly powers as her husband and may have succeeded him as sole ruler.

ASHOTEP I, lauded as a warrior queen, may have been a regent between the reigns of two of her sons, Kamose and Ahmose I, at the end of the seventeenth dynasty and the beginning of Hatshepsut's own eighteenth dynasty.

Amenhotep I, also preceding Hatshepsut in the eighteenth dynasty, probably came to power while a young child and his mother, AHMOSE-NEFERTARI, is thought to have been a regent for him.

HATSHEPSUT (18th Dynasty c.1473-1458 BC) read full article

NEFERTITI (18th Dynasty c.1336 BC) read full article

TWOSRET (Tausert) (19th Dynasty c.1187-1185 BC)

As with Nitocris and Sobeknofru above, Twosret's reign was during troubled times and lasted less than three years. She was the last Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. Tausert was the very beloved wife of Seti II even though she was not his first wife and it is believed that it was Seti II who ordered her tomb to be built in the Valley of the Kings; an honour given to very few queens. Again the evidence is sketchy, however the general consensus is that, upon the death of her husband Queen Twosret became co-regent with the king's young son, (Ramesses-Siptah), by another of his wives, and then after his death (approximately six years later) ascended to the throne herself, proclaiming herself Pharaoh.

ARSINOE II (Ptolemaic Dynasty 330-30 BC)

Queen of Macedonia (& Thrace), King of Upper and Lower Egypt. Born c316 BC, most likely at Memphis, died probably 16 or 17 July 268 BC

The legacy of Egypt’s female pharaohs certainly inspired Arsinoe II. Married to two successive kings of Macedonia, Arsinoe II then returned to her Egyptian homeland and the court of her younger brother Ptolemy II, marrying him to become queen for a third time. Yet she also became his full co-ruler, with the same combination of names as a traditional pharaoh.

Although these titles were long assumed to have been awarded posthumously, recent research has revealed that Arsinoe II was acknowledged as King of Upper and Lower Egypt during her own lifetime. Like Hatshepsut over a thousand years earlier, Arsinoe became Daughter of Ra and adopted the same distinctive regalia to demonstrate continuity with past practice. Further exploiting Egyptian tradition, Arsinoe was likened to the goddess Isis, twinned with her laid-back brother-husband Osiris. As married siblings, Arsinoe and Ptolemy were equated with classical deities Zeus and Hera for their Greek subjects.

Joint portraits of Arsinoe and Ptolemy highlighted the family resemblance to putative uncle Alexander, whose mummified body, entombed in their royal capital Alexandria, was further evidence of their divinely inspired dynasty.

CLEOPATRA VII (c. 51-30 BC) read full article

Almost certainly, these female Pharaohs were all of royal blood and were at one time queen-consort to their husbands. It is also believed that most of them did not produce heirs and therefore, upon the death of their husbands/brothers/fathers, they ascended to the throne.