| Menkare | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The cartouche of Menkare on the Abydos King List. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | ||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | Probably short, c. 2181 BC | |||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Netjerkare Siptah | |||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Neferkare II | |||||||||||||||||
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| Dynasty | Eighth Dynasty | |||||||||||||||||
Menkare was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the first or second[1] ruler of the Eighth Dynasty. Menkare probably reigned a short time at the transition between the Old Kingdom period and the First Intermediate Period, in the early 22nd century BC.[2] The rapid succession of brief reigns at the time suggests times of hardship, possibly related to a widespread aridification of the Middle East, known as the 4.2 kiloyear event. As a pharaoh of the Eighth Dynasty, according to Manetho, Menkare's seat of power would have been Memphis.
- ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : Philip von Zabern, 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6, see pp.66–67, king No 2.
- ^ Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, ISBN 978-1-905299-37-9, 2008, p. 197