Ankhnesneferibre

Dynasty 26 (Saite Dynasty)
Nubian Museum, Egypt

Ankhnesneferibre was the last God's Wife of Amun and Divine Adorice of Amun, head of the priesthood of Amun and Governor of Thebes. Note the cartouches on the base of her statue: this was a ruler, and not only that, but arguably the very last native ruler of Egypt.

Throughout the long history of Egypt, but especially after the century-long decline of the New Kingdom in the 20th Dynasty, the power of the pharaohs was decreasing , and the power of the priesthood was increasing. This is because the priesthood gradually came to control both the religious and the economic functions of the state, even as the military basis of pharaoh's rule was fatally weakened by the rise of foreign powers: the Sea Peoples, Assyria, Nubia, Persia, Greece, and ultimately Rome.

As one intimately connected to the ruling pharaoh, the God's Wife combined theological and political functions. Originally a pharaonic attempt to control the priesthood, the institution evolved into a power-sharing arrangement between court and temple.

Princess Ankhnesneferibre, a daughter of Psammetichus II, became Divine Adorice in 595 BC and God's Wife in 586 BC, holding both offices until the Persians conquered Egypt in 525 BC.