Queen Nitocris

Queen Nitocris (Ntikrty in Egyptian) left no archeological record. She is known to us only from the Turin Canon, Manetho and Herodotus.

Herodotus recorded that her husband, Merenre II, was murdered. The Queen took her revenge on the murderers and then took her own life.

Nitocris was the beautiful and virtuous wife and sister of King Metesouphis II, an Old Kingdom monarch who had ascended to the throne at the end of the Sixth Dynasty but who had been savagely murdered by his subjects soon afterwards. Nitocris then became the sole ruler of Egypt and determined to avenge the death of her beloved husband-brother. She gave orders for the secret construction of a huge underground hall connected to the river Nile by a hidden channel. When this chamber was complete she threw a splendid inaugural banquet, inviting as guests all those whom she held personally responsible for the death of the king. While the unsuspecting guests were feasting she commanded that the secret conduit be opened and. As the Nile waters flooded in, all the traitors were drowned. In order to escape the vengeance of the Egyptian people she then committed suicide by throwing herself into a great chamber filled with hot ashes and suffocating

Manetho described her as "braver than all men of her time, the most beautiful of all women, fair skinned with red cheeks', but then he also claimed that she built the third pyramid at Giza (due to his missreading of Menkaure as Menkare (her prenomen).