Ancient Egyptian Queens

The Top 40 Most Notable Ancient Egyptian Queens

Women in ancient Egypt had a prominent role in all aspects of life, making them a partner to men if not one of the main reasons for the growth of Egyptian civilization, so it was not surprising for ancient society to respect women and look at them with reverence for thousands of years, making them strongly present in religious and mundane scenes, and women in Egyptian civilization have been nicknamed throughout the ages, including (Lady of Egypt), (Lady of Egypt), (Lady of Egypt), (Lady of Egypt),

Old Kingdom’s Queens

1. Queen Nithotep: She is the earliest Egyptian queen that historians have discovered. She is the wife of King Narmer, the Pharaonic dynasty’s founder. As a result, this monarch is regarded as the first woman in history to be given a nickname (The First Lady). The queen gave birth to a son named Hor-Aha or Horus the Warrior, which means The Name of Natehotep in Egyptian (the goddess’s name is Nate Radhiya), and the goddess Nate was the guardian of the delta, according to Egyptian religion. In Abydos, King Narmer erected a tomb for his wife (Nithotep), which is regarded one of the most beautiful tombs ever discovered.
2. Queen Merit Nate: She is one of the first family’s rulers, having inherited the throne after her husband’s death. She is the wife of King (Jar) and is of northern descent, with the name meaning (Beloved of the Lord Nate). Her tombs were discovered in two locations: the first in Saqqara, Egypt’s greatest city, and the second in Abydos, Egypt’s second largest city.
3. Hetepheres I, Queen of the Fourth Dynasty: She is the daughter of Ruler (Huni), the Third Dynasty’s final king. And they discovered remnants of her, which are currently housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the meaning of the queen’s name in Egyptian is (the sick one).
4. Queen Hanutsen: Her Egyptian name has the following meaning: (their lady). Queen Hanutsen was one of King Sneforu’s daughters, and she married her brother, King Khufu, who erected a pyramid for her on the south side of his pyramid, close to his own.
5. Queen Hehotephere II: She is the daughter of King Khufu, and she married her crown prince’s brother (Kaweeb).
6. Mers Ankh III (Queen Mers): Three queens of the Fourth Dynasty were given the name Mers Ankh, which means “those who enjoy life or love life.” The queen’s tomb, located east of the Great Pyramid, is regarded one of the most important rock tombs in the Giza cemetery. It consists of three halls and is located on the cemetery’s walls. The Queen’s and royal family members’ statues were etched.
7. Queen Khentkaus: She is just the second Egyptian queen to take the country’s throne and govern alone. She is the mother of two monarchs (Sahure and Sahure II) (Neferir-Kara). She married one of the sun’s priests, (Userkaf), the Fifth Dynasty’s first monarch, and bore him a son named (Sahure), On a limestone base, a pyramid in the shape of a rectangular coffin was created for the queen. Queen Khentkaus was the first Egyptian queen to establish a new type of architecture that combined the pyramidal and mastaba shapes.
8. Queen Rhodopes: The queen’s name was only referenced in Greek sources, and her name means “rosy-cheeked” in Greek. The queen was from Thrace, and her name means “rosy-cheeked” in Greek. The majority of the stories about this Queen are more legends than historical truths. K-Santos Samoyed transported her to Egypt to be sold as a slave. In Egypt, she was set free. She was able to acquire great fortune as a Queen due to her beauty.
9. Queen Eibot I (6th Dynasty): King (Titi) was the founder of the Sixth Dynasty (2420-2280 BC) B.C.E., and she was his wife. His pyramid can be seen at Saqqara. Queen Eibot had a son named (Pepi I), who became the dynasty’s second monarch. Pepi, I constructed a hierarchical group for his mother close to his father King Titi’s funeral temple.
10. Queen Emtsy: She is one of King (Bibi Iwives, )’s and he accused her of infidelity with his minister, and the king commissioned the judge (Wani) to research the case and conduct investigations with the queen, and the documents did not reveal the punishment that the king inflicted on his wife, but he married another wife, the daughter of one of Girga’s greats, and they had a child.
11. Nitocris) (Queen Nate Iqrit): She is the late Sixth Dynasty’s (Nitocris), and she was able to reign Egypt for two years before her period ended without a trace, and the throne of that family crumbled after that, and it has a pyramid in the northwest side close to King Pepi II’s pyramid at Saqqara.

Middle Kingdom (12th Dynasty) Queens

1. Queen Mersger: She is the wife of Ruler (Senusret III), the Twelfth Dynasty’s most powerful king (1991-1778 BC). During his campaigns in Nubia, Senusret III built a temple at the Semna fortification, and the name of this queen is etched on one of the objects now in the British Museum in London.
2. Queen (Sobekneferu): she was known as (Sobek Kare) and was the eldest daughter of King (Amenemhat III) (1841-1792) BC. She was dubbed (The Lady of the Two Lands). According to the Turin papyrus, Queen Sobek governed the land for three years. One of its most noteworthy achievements is that Nubia has become one of Egypt’s lands, with many strongholds and castles, and the Nuba mines have become a major source of gold and ivory extraction. Queen Sobekneferu erected a pyramid near her father’s in Fayoum’s Hawara region, and the Twelfth Dynasty came to an end with Queen Sobek’s reign.

Second Intermediate Period / 17th Dynasty Queens

1. Queen Tetishari: The king’s wife (Taa’a I) gave birth to a boy named (Saqanun Ra) and a daughter named (Taa’a I) (Ahhotep). The queen survived until her grandson, King Ahmose I, took over the throne.
2. Eahhotep I: Her given name has the following meaning: (the moon is satisfied). She married Seqenen Ra and had two children with him, Kamose and Ahmose. During Egypt’s conflict with the Hyksos, she played a crucial role. She dispatched her two sons, Kamos and Ahmose, to the fight, and in 1859, the sarcophagus of Queen Iahhotep was discovered in the arm area Abu al-Naga in Qena, where he discovered the queen’s royal treasures in the coffin, as well as the queen’s mummy and a scarab and a gold chain in the name of King Ahmose.

18th Dynasty Queens of The New Kingdom

1. Queen Ahmose-Nefertari: She was the daughter of King Seqenenre and his wife Queen EahHotep. Princess Merit-Amun, the oldest daughter, Princess Sat-Amun, Prince Saba-er, and Prince Sa-Amun were the children of Queen Ahmose Nefertari’s first marriage to her brother Camus, and after his death in the Independence battle, she married her brother Ahmose I and gave birth to Princess Merit-Amun, Princess Sat-Amun, Prince Saba-er, and Prince Sa-Amun. She and her son, King Amenhotep I, shared the kingdom of Egypt. Her reign was a prosperous one. Following her death, the ancient Egyptians began to worship this Queen, and she became a popular divinity among all Egyptians until she took on the form of a common cult, making her one of the Egyptian goddesses alongside god Amun.
2. Queen Eahhotep II: She is the sister of Ruler (Amenhotep I), the eighth dynasty’s second king. According to Egyptian legend, King Amenhotep I married his sister, Aahhotep II. The queen is at Luxor’s Deir el-Bahari, which is conserved in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, and the mummy has yet to be discovered
3. Hatshepsut, Queen of Egypt: She is the 18th Dynasty’s 5th King. She was the daughter of King Thutmose I and was known as “The Daughter of Amun.” She was a great Queen who possessed all the titles of the Pharaohs as the Son of God Ra, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and was known as “The Daughter of Amun.”
4. Queen Neferura: She is the daughter of King Tuthmosis II and Queen Hatshepsut. Tuthmosis III was her husband, and the meaning of her name was (The Beauty of God Ra). Several statues depicting (Senmut) embracing Princess (Nefrura) exist, and some of them may be found in the Egyptian Museum. During Hatshepsut’s reign, an inscription in the name of Queen Neferura was discovered on the mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahari; the queen died in the 16th year of Hatshepsut’s reign.
5. Queen Meritre (Hatshepsut II): She is Queen (Hatshepsut’s) second daughter from her husband, King (Tuthmosis II), and she is King (Thutmosis III’s) second wife after Queen Neferrua. For Queen Meritre, a statue in the shape of the Sphinx was discovered. Thutmose III’s name was carved on the statue’s breast, and it is presently housed in the Barocco collection in Italy, with replicas at the Turin and Berlin museums.
6. Queen Tiaa: She was the wife of King (Amenhotep II), who governed Egypt for roughly 25 years, and her name means “strength” in the ancient Egyptian language. Her name was carved on the walls of (King Hor Moheb’s) tomb in the Valley of the Kings, where he named King (Tuthmosis IV), the queen’s son, and disclosed the queen’s remains in her husband’s burial temple west of Luxor.
7. Queen Mutemwiya: She was the king’s wife (Thutmose IV), and this was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence in Egyptian history. A pharaoh of Egypt married a foreign princess for the first time and made her his first wife. This union was the result of Egypt’s progress during the 18th dynasty’s reign. Goddess Mut was one of the members of the (Thebes Holy Trinity) with whom her husband (God Amun, the main god of the kingdom) was coupling, according to ancient Egyptian religion. The king (Amenhotep III) gave birth to Queen Mutemwiya, who had a holy ship carved out of granite with the queen’s name and titles.
8. Queen Tiye: Her son was Akhenaten, and she was the wife of King Amenhotep III. Despite the fact that she was not of royal blood, but rather a commoner’s daughter, she played a significant role during her husband’s and son’s reigns. Her family came from the Sohag city of Akhmim, and she had a brother named Mohammad (Anan). He worked in the king’s court as one of the four great priests. In her name, Amenhotep III issued many scarabs. The king authorised the construction of an artificial lake for Queen Tiye near to the royal palace in the 11th year of his reign. In the north of Nubia, he also built a temple for his bride. Queen Tiye had four daughters and a son named Akhenaten. The queen was entombed in the Valley of the Kings in her tomb.
9. Queen Nefertiti: She was the wife of King Akhenaten, who reigned from 1353 BCE to 1353 BCE. Because of her exquisite bust statue in the Berlin Museum, Nefertiti is one of the most well-known Queens of the 18th Dynasty. She and her husband relocated from Luxor to Amarna, where he founded a new capital. Nefertiti vanished from historical books all of a sudden.
10. Queen Merit Aten: She is the eldest daughter of King Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, and her name means “I am the eldest daughter of King Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti” (Beloved of Aten). She lived in the royal palace with her father when he divorced his wife Nefertiti and made his daughter the first lady of the palace. Akhenaten declared Queen Merit Aten, the king’s half-brother (Samnekh Kare), as his partner in government. After her father died, the queen moved to Thebes with her husband. A cartouche bearing the queen’s name and title (the king’s great wife) was discovered.
11. Princess Makt Aten: She is King Akhenaten’s and Queen Nefertiti’s second daughter. Little is known about the princess’s life because she died early in the thirteenth year of her father’s reign, and was buried in the royal cemetery in Akhet Aten.
12. Queen Ankhs in Amun: She is the wife of King Tutankhamun, also known as “Tut,” the Golden Pharaoh, whose tomb was discovered intact. She is Akhenaten’s third daughter. After splitting from his wife, Nefertiti, after her father’s death, he married his daughter, Queen Ankhs, and she bore him two children. Their mummies were discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb.

The 19th Dynasty’s Queens

1. Queen Tuya: She is a member of the royal family and holds various titles, including that of the hereditary prince’s great nanny. She is King Seti I’s wife and the mother of four children, two daughters and two sons. Ramses II, the youngest of her children, ascended to the throne after his father’s death, and Queen Tuya gained prominence. After her son ascended to power, he commissioned sculptures of her to be carved in the Ramesseum temple in Luxor and at his new capital, east of the Delta, and he constructed a modest sandstone temple for her on the northern side of the Ramesseum. Queen Tuya has a statue in the Vatican Museum inscribed with the name of her daughter, Princess (Hent Mai Ra), and another in Ramses III’s Habu city. In the Valley of the Queens, west of Thebes, he buried his mother. In the twenty-second year of Ramses reign, she died at the age of 60.
2. Queen Nefertari: She is the beautiful queen, King Ramses II’s wife, and one of her titles is heir to the throne and priestess of Hathor. She gave birth to King Ramses II’s children, the majority of whom died young. King Ramses II erected a splendid temple for Queen Nefertari next to his temple in Abu Simbel in her honour. In the Brussels Museum, there is a portion of Queen Nefertari’s statue etched with the queen’s titles. The queen died young, and her husband, the king, grieved for her and constructed her a tomb in the Valley of the Queens cemetery, which is one of the most exquisite in terms of construction and art.
3. Queen Astnefert: She is King Ramses II’s third wife. Eight years after his marriage to Queen Nefertari, the king married her. He was 24 years old at the time, and her given name signifies (the beautiful Goddess Isis). Queen Este had four children, and a statue of the Queen and her son may be found in the Brussels Museum.
4. Queen Hent Mai Ra: She is the sister of King Ramses II and one of King Seti I’s daughters by his wife, Queen Tuya. He married her and now holds titles such as king’s daughter, king’s wife, and queen’s duaghter. The name of this queen, as well as her portrait, was discovered carved on a statue at the Vatican Museum, as well as on various monuments of King Ramses II Abu Kabir discovered in the Sharkia Governorate. In the fortieth year of her husband’s reign, the queen died. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo has the mummy of this queen.
5. ‏Queen Maat Neferrea: She is a Hittite queen, and he, King Ramses II, married her for political reasons following the peace pact, which is the first treaty in human history. It was a fight between him (Ramses II) and the other gods (King of the Hittites – Messis II). The marriage took place in Ramses II’s thirty-fourth year of rule, when he was fifty-seven years old. The king gave his queen an Egyptian name (Maat Nefer Raa), which means “God’s Ra Justice’s beautify.” He commissioned a statue of her father to be erected on the memorial plaque on the Abu Simbel temple’s walls, and he built a palace for her at a town near Fayoum. A papyrus containing an inventory of the queen’s clothing was discovered there.
6. Queen Bint Anta: She is Ramses II’s eldest daughter and his wife, and the first of Ramses’ marriages from his daughters. Her titles include royal daughter and royal wife. Her name means “daughter of the goddess Anat” in Canaanite, and she is one of the Asian deities with a sister named Anat (Ishtar). In Karnak Temple, there is a carved pink granite monument of this queen with Ramses II. Her husband constructed her a tomb in the Valley of the Queens cemetery from the quarries of Aswan and engraved her name on the walls of Abu Simbel exile in the nation of Nubia, and after her death, her husband made her a tomb in the Valley of the Queens cemetery.
7. Queen Merit Amun: She is Ramses II’s fourth daughter. Queen Nefertari, from whom he bore her, was his mother. Her father married her because she looks like her mother, and one of her titles is “Daughter of the Queen” (Lady of the Two Lands). Merit Amun is an Egyptian name that means “merit of the gods” (the beloved of Amun). Merit Amun appears in one of the inscriptions on the walls of the temple of Abu Simbel and was also featured on one of King Ramses II’s sculptures. Scarabs with her name and nicknames were discovered. In the Sohag governorate’s Akhmen region, there is a statue of her. The Egyptian Museum also has a colourful wood sarcophagus for her. The queen was laid to rest near the Valley of the Queens, and her casket is today housed in one of the Turin Museum’s galleries.
8. Queen Bint Tawi: Her given name means (Lady of the Two Lands), and she is King Ramses II’s sixth daughter. The title belonged to the queen (the Great Royal Wife). The queen (Bint Tawi) appeared alongside King Ramses II on one of his gigantic sculptures in the temple of Abu Simbel and engraved her name in the list of the temple of Durr in Nubia because she is the third daughter of this pharaoh, whom she married. The queen’s tomb can be found in the Valley of the Queens.
9. Queen (Tausert): She is the nineteenth dynasty’s last king. She was Egypt’s ruler for seven years. Her given name has the following meaning: (Strong Land). She married King (Merneptah Saptah), who succeeded his brother on the throne (Imenmus). Following the death of King (Saptah), the queen married a man named (Siti), who became the ruler of Nubia. The queen requested that a burial temple be built for her north of Merneptah’s palace. The queen’s tomb is beside the grave of her husband, Sabtah, in Thebes.

Queens of the 21st dynasty

1. Queen Mut Najmat: The family of king Ramses XI, the last king of the Ramesses era, is said to have produced Queen Mut Najmat. To take advantage of Queen Mut Najmat’s royal status, King (Smendes) wedded her and is credited with founding the twenty-first dynasty. The crown prince, “Prince Psusennes I,” was the son Queen Mutt-Najmat. Her titles include (second priestess) to Amun, ruler of the gods, and (his majesty’s first and greatest royal bride). Queen Mutt Najm’s grave was discovered in Tanis. A granite sarcophagus with her name etched on it was discovered inside her tomb.
2. Queen Maat Kare: Her eldest son is the priest, and she is the daughter of King (Psusennes I) and married King (Bangim I) (Bankhi). She was dubbed the King of the Two Lands’ royal daughter. The queen died during her labour, as did her small daughter, and two wooden coffins were obtained for them, dubbed (the death of Em Hat).
3. Queen Tahfnis: She is a queen who is maybe the wife of one of the twenty-first or twenty-second dynasty’s monarchs. This queen was alive during King Solomon’s reign.

Greek era Queens

1. Cleopatra VII 69-20 B.C: Cleopatra VII, the renowned queen of Egypt in history and drama in her relationships with (Julius Caesar) and then (Marcus Antonius), the mother of (Ptolemy XV), became queen when her father (Ptolemy XII) died in 51 BC, and she is one of Egypt’s ruling queens. She is the sole member of the Ptolemaic dynasty who took it upon herself to study Egyptian and emulate the goddess (Isis), claiming that she embodies her existence on earth.

Many of the Queens’ mummies survived and are now displayed in many Egyptian Museums. Take one of our Egypt tour packages, and enjoy strolling around the ancient temples, tombs, and museums in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan while boarding a superb Nile River Cruise with Egypt Fun Tours.