She was the daughter of PharaohAmenemhat III. Manetho's Aegyptiaca states that she also was the sister of Amenemhat IV, but this claim is unproven; researchers have yet still to find proof. Sobekneferu had an older sister named Neferuptah, who was the intended heir. Neferuptah's name was enclosed in a cartouche and she had her own pyramid at Hawara. Neferuptah died at an early age, however, allowing Sobekneferu to be next in line.
Reign
Sobekneferu was the first known woman reigning as pharaoh for which there is confirmed proof. There are women who are believed to have ruled as early as the First Dynasty, such as Neithhotep and Meritneith, but there is no definitive proof they ruled in their own right. Another candidate, Nitocris, would have ruled in the Sixth Dynasty; however, there is little proof of her historicity, and many scholars believe she is merely a legend deriving from a mistranslation of the pharaoh Neitiqerty Siptah's name. 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 three years, ten months, and 24 days in the late 19th century BC. She died without heirs/children, and the end of her reign concluded Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty and the Golden Age of the Middle Kingdom, which inaugurated the Thirteenth Dynasty.
Monuments and tomb
Few monuments have been discovered for her, although many of her statues have been preserved including the base of a representation of a king's royal daughter that was discovered in Gezer and bears her name. One statue with a head is known. A bust in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, lost in World War II, could be identified as belonging to her. Today, the sculpture is known only from photographic images and plaster casts. It came in 1899 to the museum. The head fits on top of the lower part of a royal statue discovered at Semna. The latter can definitely be identified as royal because the royal symbol "unification of the two countries" appears on the side of her throne. It is known that she made additions to the funerary complex of Amenemhat III at Hawara and also built structures at Heracleopolis Magna. A fine cylinder seal bearing her name and royal titulary is located in the British Museum. A Nile graffito, at the Nubian fortress of Kumma records the Nile inundation height of 1.83 meters in Year 3 of her reign. Another inscription discovered in the Eastern Desert records "year 4, second month of the Season of the Emergence". Her monumental works consistently associate her with Amenemhat III rather than Amenemhat IV, supporting the theory that she was the royal daughter of Amenemhat III and perhaps, only a stepsister of Amenemhat IV. The Danish Egyptologist, Kim Ryholt, notes that the contemporary sources from her reign show that Sobekneferu never adopted the title of King's Sister-only "King's Daughter"-which supports this hypothesis. Additionally, all Egyptian rulers were given the title "king", regardless of gender. Her tomb has not been identified positively, although she may have been interred in a pyramid complex in Mazghuna that lacks inscriptions. It is immediately north of a similar complex ascribed to Amenemhat IV. A place called Sekhemneferu is mentioned in a papyrus found at Harageh. This just might be the name of her pyramid.
