Khentetka or Khentetenka (fl. 26th century

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

) was a

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

; the wife of King

Djedefre Djedefre (also known as Djedefra and Radjedef – Modern Greek: ) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He is well known by the Hellenized form of his name Rhatoisēs (Ῥατοίσης) by Manetho. D ...

during the 4th Dynasty.

Biography

Khentetka's titles include ''King's Beloved Wife'' (''ḥm.t-nỉswt mrỉỉt=f''), ''She who sees Horus and Set'' (''m33.t-ḥrw-stš''), ''Attendant of Horus'' (''ḫt-ḥrw''), ''Priestess of Neith'' (''ḥm.t-nṯr nt''). It is not known who Khentetka's parents were. Khentetka was the wife of the 4th dynasty pharaoh Djedefre and it is possible she was the mother of some of his children. Djedefre had another wife named

Hetepheres {{Use dmy dates, date=May 2012 Hetepheres is the name of several queens, princesses and noble women from the Fourth dynasty of Egypt. * Hetepheres I, wife of Pharaoh Sneferu and mother of Khufu * Hetepheres A, daughter of Sneferu, wife of Ankhhaf ...

. Djedefre had four sons ( Hornit, Baka, Setka and Nikaudjedefre) and two daughters (Hetepheres C and

Neferhetepes Neferhetepes (''nefer-hetep-es''; '' nfr-ḥtp- s,'' "Her Peace/Grace Is Beautiful") was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 4th Dynasty; a daughter of Pharaoh Djedefre who ruled between his father Khufu and his brother Khafre. Her mother was Het ...

) but it is not known if Khentetka or Hetepheres (or even another woman) was the mother of these children.Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton, ''The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt'' 2004 It has been suggested that Princess Neferhetepes was the daughter of Djedefre by Hetepheres.

Statues and burial

Khentetka is known from statues found at

Abu Rawash Abu Rawash (also spelled ''Abu Roach'', Abu Roash; ar, ابو رواش , , , "flesh of sensual pleasures"), north of Giza, is the site of Egypt's most northerly pyramid, also known as the lost pyramid – the mostly ruined Pyram ...

. She is depicted kneeling beside the foot of king Djedefre. (Because of Egyptian art's use of

hierarchical proportion Hierarchical proportion is a technique used in art, mostly in sculpture and painting, in which the artist uses unnatural proportion or scale to depict the relative importance of the figures in the artwork. For example, in Egyptian times, people ...

, her figure is unnaturally tiny compared to the king's.) A structure in the southwest corner of

's pyramid complex at

has been suggested as a possible burial place for Khentetka. Maragioglio and Rinaldi believe it may be the pyramid belonging to the Queen consort, and that could point to the pyramid belonging to Queen Khentetka. It is not entirely clear however what the purpose of the pyramid was. Stadelmann and Jonosi believe it to be a cult pyramid. The cult pyramid usually stood in the southeast corner of the pyramid complex. The general orientation of the pyramid complex of

is north-west however and not east-south as is more common. The difference in orientation may mean the cult pyramid may not be located in its usual position, and the structure could be the cult pyramid for

's pyramid complex. Further excavations will be required to shed light on this question.M. Verner, The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments, Grove Press, 2002, pg 221

References

{{Queens of Ancient Egypt Queens consort of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths 26th-century BC Egyptian people 26th-century BC women