Ruler
Sobekneferu
Last ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty
c. 1777 – 1773 BCE
Approximate regnal dates after Shaw (2000); other authorities differ by a few decades.
Biography
The first woman securely known to have ruled Egypt as king with full royal titles. The Turin king list gives her a reign of almost four years, and with it the Twelfth Dynasty came to an end.
Key facts
Certainty: Probable
Sobekneferu is the first woman securely attested with the full titulary of a king of Egypt.
Scholarly note: Women ruled before her, such as Merneith, but the evidence that they bore the king’s titles is less clear.
- Ian Shaw (ed.) (2000) “The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt” Oxford University Press