Behenu was an ancient Egyptian queen of the

Sixth Dynasty 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 acc ...

. She is thought to have been the wife of either

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 ...

or 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 ...

. The remnants of her pyramid were first discovered in 2007, and news of the discovery of her burial chamber was made public in March 2010. The complex was discovered in the vicinity of the pyramid of the Pepi II, and it is thought that she was "most probably" the wife of this pharaoh, but no inscription has been uncovered that would positively link her to him. A set of

Pyramid Texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterrane ...

was uncovered along with the burial chamber. This is only the second known instance of these ancient religious texts being used in association with a Queen instead of the pharaoh.

References

24th-century BC women 23rd-century BC women 22nd-century BC women Queens consort of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt {{Africa-royal-stub