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Egypt’s story: Women, too, could become pharaohs in ancient times

Published: 24 Apr. 2026, 00:05

Kwack Min-soo

The author is the director of the Korea Institute of Egyptology.

Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt from 1473 to 1458 B.C., is often described as the first female pharaoh. However, she was not the earliest woman to assume that role. Earlier figures include Nitocris of the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, believed to have ruled around 2180 B.C., and Sobekneferu of the 12th Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom, who reigned from 1777 to 1773 B.C. Even earlier, during Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period, shortly after the emergence of its civilization, there appears to have been a female pharaoh: Merneith of the First Dynasty.

Merneith’s name is inscribed on a stela from her tomb. The artifact is housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. [Kwack Min-soo]

Merneith, whose name means “beloved of the goddess Neith,” is known primarily through her tomb at Umm el-Qa’ab in Abydos, one of the most important royal burial grounds of early Egypt. Constructed within a royal necropolis, her burial complex is remarkable for its scale, including about 40 subsidiary graves. The size and structure of the site closely resemble those of nearby male pharaohs, and in some respects even surpass them, placing her tomb among the largest of the period.

Yet inscriptions found inside the tomb and on associated stelae do not present her name within a “serekh,” the conventional frame used to display the names of kings during the Early Dynastic Period. The serekh functioned as a royal emblem that underscored the sacred authority of kingship. Some scholars interpret the absence of this format as reflecting a degree of contemporary resistance to fully recognizing a female ruler within established royal conventions and naming practices.

Despite this, the sheer scale of her tomb and its placement within an exclusive royal burial ground strongly suggest that Merneith exercised the authority of a pharaoh. Additional evidence reinforces this interpretation. Her name appears on a cylindrical seal discovered in the tomb of her son, King Den, where it is listed alongside those of other First Dynasty rulers. This inclusion indicates that she was regarded as an equal among male pharaohs at the time.

Scholars have also proposed that her name may have originally appeared in a damaged section of the Palermo Stone, a royal annal compiled during the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. If correct, this would suggest that she continued to be remembered by later generations as a de facto pharaoh, at least into the Old Kingdom period.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.