Hetepheres I: King Sneferu’s wife and King Khufu’s mother

CAIRO – 15 January 2018: Ancient Egyptians captivate the minds of people all over the world because of their extraordinary contribution to civilization. Egypt Today presents in a series of articles a glimpse on Ancient Egypt’s greatest queens.

In the previous articles, Egypt Today shed light on the lives of Tutankhamen’s wife and half-sister, Ankhesenamun, and the first Egyptian female ruler, Queen Merneith, also known as Meritneith and Meryt-Neith. Today’s chosen queen is Queen Hetepheres I.


Actual Chair of Queen Hetepheres I – Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

Queen Hetepheres was the daughter of the Third Dynasty’s last king, King Huni. She was a legal heir to the throne and carried royal blood. However, her husband, King Sneferu, became the new ruler of Egypt, according to researcher and author Ismail Hamed’s book “Most Celebrated Queen in Ancient Egypt”. With King Snefreu’s declaration as a new king of Egypt, a new ruling dynasty was in place: the Fourth Dynasty.

The period of the Fourth Dynasty is widely known as Pyramids’ constructors’ period , according to most archaeologists such as prominent historian Salim Hassan, Zahi Hawas and Bassam el-Shamaa', due to their interest in pyramid construction. During that period, the pyramids of Snefreu, Khufu and Khafra were built.
Queen Hetepheres’ son is King Khufu, one of the most celebrated ancient Egyptian kings due to the great pyramid he built.




The Tomb of Queen Hetepheres I – Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

King Snefreu built a beautiful tomb for his wife near his pyramid in Saqqara. It was, however, robbed in the lifetime of King Khufu, who then directed workers to construct a new tomb for his mother near his great pyramid in the Giza Necropolis.

In 1926, an American archaeological mission supervised by Harvard University and Boston University unearthed the tomb of Queen Hetepheres. They uncovered her belongings which included pieces of funerary furniture like a carrying chair, bed and actual chair, in addition to a number of her personal belongings such as accessories, according to Hamed.