Ankhesenpepi II or Ankhesenmeryre II was a queen consort during the

Sixth Dynasty of Egypt The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt. Pharaohs Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below. Manetho a ...

. She was the wife of Kings

Pepi I Pepi I Meryre (also Pepy I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, third king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled for over 40 years at the turn of the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, toward the end of the Old Kingdom period. He was the son of ...

and

Merenre Nemtyemsaf I Merenre Nemtyemsaf I (meaning "Beloved of Ra, Nemty is his protection") was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the fourth king of the sixth dynasty. He ruled Egypt for six to 11 years in the 23rd century BC, succeeding his father Pepi I Meryre on th ...

, and the mother of

Pepi II Pepi II Neferkare (2284 BC – after 2247 BC, probably either 2216 or 2184 BC) was a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom who reigned from 2278 BC. His second name, Neferkare (''Nefer-ka-Re''), means "Beautiful is ...

. She likely served as regent during the minority of her son. She was buried in a pyramid in

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis ...

Biography

Ankhesenpepi II was the daughter of Khui and the female

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

Nebet Nebet (“Lady”) was created vizier during the late Old Kingdom of Egypt by Pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty, her son-in-law. She is the first recorded female vizier in Ancient Egyptian history; the next one was in the 26th Dynasty.Naguib Kan ...

. Her sister

Ankhesenpepi I Ankhesenpepi I (also Ankhenespepi I or Ankhenesmeryre I) was a queen consort during the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. Biography Ankhesenpepi was a daughter of the female vizier Nebet and her husband Khui, nomarch of Abydos. Ankhesenpepi's sister ...

was also married to King

and her brother

Djau Djau was a vizier of Upper Egypt during the Sixth Dynasty. He was a member of an influential family from Abydos; his mother was the vizier Nebet, his father was called Khui. His two sisters Ankhesenpepi I and Ankhesenpepi II married Pharaoh Pepi ...

served as

.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, , pp.71-74 Both Ankhesenpepi II and her sister

were married to

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

whose throne name was ''Meryre''; their name was taken when the marriage took place, since it means "Her life belongs to Pepi/Meryre". Both queens gave birth to the kings: the son of Ankhesenpepi I was

, who ruled only for a few years; the son of Ankhesenpepi II was

, who succeeded after Nemtyemsaf's death. Pepi II was a young boy when he succeeded to the throne. There are indications that Ankhesenpepi II served as a regent for her son in those early years of his reign. A statue which shows her with her son on her lap (now in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

) shows the queen much larger in size than her son. Some have interpreted this statue as Ankhesenpepi II and her son Pepi II assuming the roles of the goddess

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

and her son Horus. Ankhesenmeryre

She is also mentioned together with her sister on their brother's stela in Abydos, at her pyramid and in that of her daughter-in-law

Neith Neith ( grc-koi, Νηΐθ, a borrowing of the Demotic form egy, nt, likely originally to have been nrt "she is the terrifying one"; Coptic: ⲛⲏⲓⲧ; also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early ancient Egyptian deity. She was said to b ...

. She further appears in a decree in Abydos. She is depicted in the Sinai, where she is shown equal in size to her son.

Royal titles of Ankhesenpepi II

Her titles as queen were: ''Great one of the hetes-sceptre'' (wrt-hetes), ''She who sees Horus and Seth'' (m33t-hrw-stsh), ''Great of Praises'' (wrt-hzwt), ''King’s Wife of Mennefer-Meryre'' (hmt-niswt-mn-nfr-mry-r`), ''King’s Wife, his beloved'' (hmt-nisw meryt.f), ''God’s Daughter'' (s3t-ntr), ''This Daughter of a God'' (s3t-ntr-wt), ''Attendant of the Great One'' (khtt-wr), ''Companion of Horus'' (tist-hrw), ''Companion of Horus'' (smrt-hrw). However, it is now known that she was also the chief queen of Merenre after the death of Pepi I, her first husband. In 1999/2000, excavation work at her Saqqara funerary temple uncovered several stone blocks inscribed with a previously unknown royal title for her: :" heKing's Wife of the Pyramid of Pepy I, King's Wife of the Pyramid of Merenre, King's Mother of the Pyramid of Pepy II." Since the temple was constructed under Pepi II because it makes a reference to king Pepi II, this shows that Merenre married Queen Ankhesenpepi II after Pepi I died. Merenre was Ankhesenpepi II's nephew. As the

South Saqqara Stone {{No footnotes, date=August 2020 The South Saqqara Stone is the lid of the sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian queen Ankhenespepi, which was inscribed with a list for the reigns of the pharaohs of the 6th Dynasty from Teti, Userkare, Pepi I, Meren ...

document, an annal document created under Pepi II, shows that no period of coregency existed under Pepi I and Merenre, this suggests that Merenre and Ankhesenpepi II were rather the parents of Pepi II (rather than Pepi I) particularly since this document also assigns Merenre an independent reign of about a decade to Merenre. After her son Pepi came to the throne, Ankhesenpepi added the titles ''Mother of the Dual King Men-ankh-Neferkare'' (mwt-niswt-biti-mn-kh`-nfr-k3-r`), ''King’s Mother of Men-ankh-Neferkare'' (mwt-niswt- mn-kh`-nfr-k3-r`), and ''King’s Mother'' (mwt-niswt).Grajetzki, Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Golden House Publications, London, 2005,

Death and burial

Ankhesenpepi II's pyramid in

was found and excavated in 1998. The finds show that Ankhesenpepi's pyramid contained the first known examples of the pyramid texts in a Queen's pyramid. The texts refer to her as a queen mother, hence the construction of her pyramid dates to the reign of her son. In 1963, the burial chamber was discovered and remains which could be those of the queen were found. The burial was disturbed and the mummy found in and near the sarcophagus was incomplete. The bones belong to a middle aged woman. Next her pyramid were also found the remains of an obelisk. It is one of the largest of the Old Kingdom.Archaeologists unearth largest-ever discovered obelisk fragment from Egypt’s Old Kingdom, on ahramonline
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ankhesenpepi 02 Queens consort of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt Women rulers of Egypt Ancient women regents 24th-century BC women 23rd-century BC women Pepi I Meryre Regents of Egypt