Middle Kingdom
Amenemhat IV (Maakherure)
12th Dynasty · 1985-1773 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Amenemhat IV, throne name Maakherure, spent roughly the first two years of his reign as co-regent with the elderly Amenemhat III before ruling alone for about seven more years. His comparatively brief and poorly documented reign nonetheless left several genuine achievements, including the completion of a temple in the Faiyum and continued long-distance expeditions, and it closed the direct male line of the Twelfth Dynasty, since he died without a surviving son and was succeeded by a woman, Sobekneferu. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; Metropolitan Museum.
Reign dates: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The beginning of the decline
Amenemhat IV had a brief and unremarkable reign of about nine years. He briefly served as co-regent alongside the aging Amenemhat III. His solo reign was marked by a sudden decline in monumental building and a slow weakening of the central government's authority. He died without leaving a clear male heir.
Finishing his father's temple
At Medinet Maadi in the Faiyum, Amenemhat IV completed a small temple to the cobra goddess Renenutet that his father Amenemhat III had begun, its central chapel decorated with a large statue of the goddess flanked by images of both kings. Remarkably, it survives today as the only Middle Kingdom temple still standing essentially intact rather than as a ruin or a later reconstruction, making it a rare direct architectural witness to how a small Twelfth Dynasty cult building actually looked.
A voyage to Punt and an uncertain end
An inscribed ostracon found at the Red Sea harbor site of Wadi Gawasis records an expedition to the land of Punt in Amenemhat IV's eighth regnal year, showing that the long-distance trading ventures of earlier Twelfth Dynasty kings continued into his reign. Despite this activity, he died without an eligible male heir, and the throne passed to Sobekneferu, generally identified as his half-sister or aunt — the first woman confirmed to have ruled Egypt as king in roughly a millennium and a half, a transition many historians treat as an early symptom of the dynastic strain that would end the Twelfth Dynasty within a generation.
Sources for this profile
- Baker, D. D. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume 1. Stacey International.
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- Ryholt, K. (2004). The Turin King-list. Ägypten und Levante, 14, 135–155.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
- University College London. Digital Egypt for Universities.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.