Great royal wife. God’s wife. Daughter of God. The ancient Egyptian language had no specific and separate word for ‘queen’ as we know it, yet for three thousand years, queens had occasion to share responsibility with Egypt’s pharaohs for ruling one of the most powerful countries of the ancient world. But were Egyptian queens ever the equal of their male counterparts? Could the authority of a woman measure up to the power of a male ruler in pharaonic times? Drawing upon written sources and the latest archaeological research, as well as myths, artwork, and religious texts, The Queens of Ancient Egypt attempts to answer these questions and more by examining the variety of roles of an Egyptian queen through time: queen consort, mother of kings, priestess, co-ruler with a pharaoh, or even sovereign in her own right. From Hatshepsut to Cleopatra, via Nefertiti and Nefertari, all the best known and lesser known queens of ancient Egypt are here. Over 250 color photographs of statues, paintings, and reliefs supplement the text.

Rosanna Pirelli is a professor of Egyptology at the University of Naples L’Orientale. She has taken part in the excavation and study of numerous sites of Egyptian antiquity, including the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir al-Bahari and the pharaonic port of Wadi Gawasis. She has published extensively on topics ranging from archaic statuary, royal iconography, and New Kingdom anthropology to Egyptian cults outside of Egypt. Dorothea Arnold is Lila Acheson Wallace Curator and chairman of the Department of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.