Sobekneferu (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 but this claim is unproven. She is the first known female ruler of Egypt, though Nitocris may have ruled in the Sixth Dynasty, and there are five other women who are believed to have ruled as early as the First Dynasty.
Amenemhat IV most likely died without a male heir. Consequently, Amenemhat III's daughter Sobekneferu assumed the throne. According to the Turin Canon, she ruled for 3 years, 10 months and 24 days[1], between the years of 1799- 1795 BC. The end of her reign concluded Egypt's Twelfth dynasty and inaugurated the Thirteenth Dynasty.
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.[2]. 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.[3] A Nile graffito, at the Nubian fortress of Kumma records the Nile inundation height of 1.83 metres in Year 3 of her reign.[4] 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 stepsister of Amenemhat IV.[5] 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.[6]
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.
