| Reign |
Her name is found in the History of Herodotus, but she is not mentioned, in any native Egyptian inscriptions and she probably did not exist
Her fame grew in the Ptolemaic Period in the guise of the mythical Rhodopis,
Herodotus Account
According to Herodotus she was the first female known queen to exercise political power over Egypt
She came into power when her brother and husband Merenre II was murdered.
She invited his murders to a banquet and then flooded the sealed banquet room with the Nile, all the traitors were drowned
Then she committed suicide by running into a room of burning embers and flinging herself into the flames
Manetho Account
Her Praenomen "throne name" is Menkaura, led to a historical confusion since Manetho thought she was the same person as Menkaura,
and attributed her with the construction of the third pyramid of Giza
Manetho described her physical appearance as "the most beautiful woman of her time with blond hair and fair complexion"
|
