The rulers of ancient Egypt, Pharaohs, were almost all men. The evidence for a few women Pharaohs is sketchy at best. Here is a list of the women most commonly thought to have served as Pharaoh, or to have assumed the power of the Pharaoh as a regent.
1. Meryt-Neith or Merytneith or Merneith
First Dynasty (~3000 BC)Wife of Djet, Mother of Den. Her tomb is with the tombs of other First Dynasty Pharaohs, she was buried with honors usually used for kings including a boat to travel to the next world, and her name is found on a seal with the names of other First Dynasty Pharaohs. But on that seal, her symbol is that of a King's Mother and the other names have the sign of Horus, for a Pharaoh. So perhaps she was a regent, but the evidence is not clear
2. Nimaethap or Ni-Maat-Heb
Third Dynasty"King's Mother" of Djoser, who was probably the second king of the Third Dynasty, the builder of the step pyramid at Saqqara. She may have served as regent for him.
3. Khentkaus
Fourth DynastyTitled "King's Mother" and "God's Daughter," Khentkaus was characterized in an inscription as the mother of "Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt," presumably Sahure and Neferirke, Fifth Dynasty. She may have served as a regent for a time. She seems to have been daughter of Menkaure, or of Hordjedef, son of Khufu. She was married to Shepseskhaf (Dynasty 4) or Userkaf(Dynasty 5). Khentkaus is said to have married a priest and her sons inherited and initiated the fifth dynasty. In an inscription she may have a kingly title -- but there may have been two women of the same name, and a later regent of the same name may be confused with the earlier queen, their stories conflated.
4. Wife of Djedkare-Izezi
Fifth DynastyIn the 1950s, a mortuary temple was excavated, though the excavation remains unpublished. Reportedly, royal insignia were found related to the wife of Djedkare-Izezi. She may have had no son and ruled as king. But the temple was destroyed so completely that the details are not clear, and her name cannot even be identified.
5. Ankhnesmeryre II or Ankhesenpepe II or Ankh-Meri-Ra
Sixth DynastyShe may have served as regent for her son, Pepi II, who was about six when he assumed the throne when Pepi I (her husband, his father) died.
6. Neithhikret or Nitocris or Neith-Iquerti or Nitokerty
Sixth Dynasty (~2148-44 BCE)She is known only through a story in Herodotus and several brief mentions of her name elsewhere, but there is no other historical or archaeological evidence for her existence, much less ruler-ship. She is mentioned on one king list (Turin) and not another (Abydos). If she existed, she lived at the end of the dynasty, may have been married to a husband who was not royal and may not even have been a king, and probably had no male offspring.
She may have been the daughter of Pepi II. In Herodotus, she is said to have succeeded her brother Metesouphis II upon his death, and then to have avenged his death by drowning his murderers and committing suicide.
7. Sobeknefru or Neferusobek or Nefrusobek or Sebek-Nefru (Meryetre)
Twelfth Dynasty (~1787-1783 BCE)She ruled Egypt for a few years. She was the daughter of Amenemhet III and half-sister of Amenemhet IV and, perhaps, also his wife. She claimed to have been co-regent with her father. The dynasty ends with her reign, as she apparently had no son. Titles found with her image include Female Horus, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Daughter of Re.
There are some now-headless statues of her that remain, and other artifacts and mentions in the archaeological record. She was depicted in female clothing but wearing male objects related to kingship, and was sometimes referred to in terms using the male gender, perhaps to reinforce her role as Pharaoh.
8. Ashotep
Eighteenth DynastyMother of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty and New Kingdom, Ahmose I, himself the pharaoh who defeated the Hyksos (foreign rulers of Egypt). Ahmose I credited her in an inscription with holding the nation together during his minority, when she seems to have been regent for her son.
9. Ahmose-Nefertari
Eighteenth DynastyWife and sister of the dynasty's founder, Ahmose I, and mother of the second king, Amenhotep I, Ahmose-Nefertari served as regent for her son. Her daughter, Ahmose-Meritamon, was the wife of Amenhotep I.
10. Hatshepsut (Maatkare)
From a public domain image.
Widow of Thutmosis II, she ruled first as regent for his minor son and heir, and then as Pharaoh, a female Horus. Her titles include "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maatkare, Daughter of Re."
She is depicted in a fake beard and with the objects that a Pharaoh is usually depicted with, and in male attire, after a few years of ruling in female form. She reported herself heading up a military campaign and going on a journey to the Land of Punt. She disappears suddenly from history, and her son apparently ordered the destruction of images of Hatshepsut and mentions of her rule.
