Horus name: Merytre
Nebty name: Sat-sekhem-nebettawy
Golden Falcon name: Djed-et-kha
Burial place: Unknown, maybe Mazghuna?
This Queen's name
is sometimes written as Nefrusobek.
She was a Queen-Pharoah and the 8th ruler
of the 12th
Dynasty. Probably the daughter of Amenemhet III and the half sister of
Sobekneferu ruled at the end of the Twelfth
Dynasty. Some have suggested that she ruled alongside Amenemhat III
Amenemhat IV. According to Egyptian tradition, she ruled independently.
The Turin Canon gives almost 4 years of
rule, as does Manetho.
More specifically, the
Turin Kinglist states
"The King of Upper and Lower
Egypt [Sobek]-nef[ru]-re, 3 years, 10 months and 24 days"
Statues from Tell el-Daba and the Fayoum as well as an
architrave from Herakleopolis have been found.
Inscription on the nilometer at Nubian Semna records 3 years of her
rule. An inscription from Hawara shows her name (see below).
She is thought to have built a pyramid at
Mazghuna. The structure was apparently not been completed, and
never used. Only its underground part was finished.
of Sobekneferu, from the Fayoum.
Now in the Louvre.
Statues from the reign of
Sobekneferu have only partially survived. A statue from the louvre
shown an inetresting mix of female and male characteristics. The head
is missing, but Queen Sobekneferu clearly wore a nemes headress. She is
depicted as wearing a female dress, but she wore a kilt as usually worn
by pharaohs over the top of it.
On Digitalegypt an inscription from
Hawara naming Neferusobek can be seen:
For a better quality image see digitalegypt: UC
The names come from the digitalegypt website:
A selection of articles from the AEB (Annual Egyptological
von Beckerath, J., Nochmals zur
Chronologie der XII. Dynastie, Orientalia 64 (1995), 445-449.
(The descriptions come from the AEB site - usually the actual AEB
description are much longer.)
An improved reconstruction of the chronology of the XIIth Dynasty is
attempted. In this new reconstruction, the end of queen Nefrusobek’s
reign, the last ruler of the dynasty, fell in 1794/1793 B.C. and the
accession of Amenemhat I in 1976 B.C.
Vandersleyen, C., L’Égypte et
la Vallée du Nil. Tome II: De la fin de l’Ancien Empire à
la fin du Nouvel Empire, Paris, Presses Universitaires de
In part II, which contains seven chapters, much more room is given to
the XIIth Dynasty.[..] The reigns of Amenemhat II, Sesostris II,
Amenemhat IV and Neferusobek (Sobekneferu?) are only briefly reviewed.
Cimmino, F., Sesostris. Storia del
Medio Regno Egiziano, Milano, Rusconi, 1996
ch. 9, Amenemhat IV, Sobekneferure and the end of the M.K.
Leprohon, R. J., The Programmatic
Use of the Royal Titulary in the Twelfth Dynasty, JARCE 33
(1996), 165-171. (fig.).
An examination of the royal titulary in the XIIth Dynasty indicates
that, in addition to the general wHm-mswt in the Horus name of
Amenemhat I, every king wished to announce a given policy of his own.
[...] The programmatic use of the royal titularies of Amenemhat I,
Sesostris I, Amenemhat II, Sesostris II, Sesostris II, Amenemhat III,
Amenemhat IV, and Sobeknofru is reviewed in this light.