She chose instead a site close to Amenemhet III’s other pyramid complex at Dahshur (its ruined pyramid is known today as the Black Pyramid). Credit: Andrew Collins The Mazghuna Pyramidsĭespite the El-Faiyum Oasis being seen as the sacred domain of the crocodile god, Sobekneferu made the decision not to be buried near her father’s pyramid complex at Hawara. Credit: Andrew CollinsĬrocodiles seen on a limestone block at the site of the Labyrinth at Hawara representing the power of the god Sobek. The site of the Egyptian Labyrinth today. Indeed, excavations carried out there in 1910 by British archaeologist Sir Finders Petrie (1853-1942) uncovered several statues and reliefs of Sobek ( Petrie, 1912, 31-32), confirming his role as its principal deity. The presence inside Egypt’s great Labyrinth, as it became known, of sacred crocodiles makes it clear Sobek was its chief god. He wrote that, “no words can tell its wonders … were all that Greeks have builded and wrought added together the whole would be seen to be a matter of less labour and cost than was this labyrinth ,” adding that it had around 1500 double sets of chambers making 3000 in total, and that beneath ground there were underground chambers containing “the burial vaults of the kings who first built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles ( Histories, II, 148 ).”Īmenemhat III’s pyramid at Hawara. The Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BC), who visited Egypt around 455 BC, saw this vast complex for himself on a trip to Lake Moeris. Immediately to the south of the main pyramid the king commissioned the construction of an enormous funerary monument named Amenemhat-ankh, the “Life of Amenemhat.” Various inscriptions found at the site tell us that Sobekneferu added to the existing monument during her own reign. Seven kilometers (4 miles) to the southeast is Hawara, the site of a pyramid complex built by Amenemhat III. The site of Crocodopolis corresponds with what is today the city of Medinet el-Faiyum in the heart of the El-Faiyum Oasis.
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This included a temple in which a live crocodile was worshipped as an incarnate form of the god. Founded originally by the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhat I, it would later become the center for the worship of the crocodile god Sobek during the reigns of Amenemhat III and his daughter Sobekneferu. Here next to Birket Quran, the Lake Moeris of antiquity, was the city of Shedet, called by the Greeks Crocodopolis, the city of crocodiles. We go first to the El-Faiyum Oasis, her seat of power around 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Giza. To better understand Sobekneferu’s lasting legacy we will need to examine monuments directly or indirectly associated with her, for these can provide certain clues regarding her actions in life. Whether Egypt’s first female pharaoh died of natural causes or met a sticky end is nowhere recorded.Īrtist impression of Sobekneferu by London artist Russell M.
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Her own brief reign of just four years ended Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty, although what became of her is unclear. We know she might have shared the throne with her father, the powerful pharaoh Amenemhat III, and that following his death she probably entered into an incestuous relationship with her brother Amenemhat IV.
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Despite this, Sobekneferu’s achievements in life remain an enigma. Her mysterious life and devotion to primeval gods such as the crocodile god Sobek no doubt helped foster this romantic image. In part one, we saw how Egypt’s first female pharaoh Sobekneferu (also written Neferusobek) has emerged as a major character both in literary fiction and in the cinema.