Khaankhre Sobekhotep (now believed to be Sobekhotep II or Sobekhotep IV; known as Sobekhotep I in older studies) was a pharaoh of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period.
Evidence of Khaankhre Sobekhotep
Sobekhotep appears in the Karnak king list as Khaankhre. A name Sobek[hote]pre is also given in column 6, line 15 of the Turin canon, which could be Sobekhotep I. However, this identification is not specific, and Sobekhotep I’s chronological position within the 13th Dynasty is debated. Contemporary attestations of this pharaoh comprise reliefs from a chapel that once stood in Abydos and a fragment of an inscribed column. Furthermore, the king’s name appears in an inscription on a granite statue pedestal once in the Amherst collection and, since 1982, in the British Museum (exhibit BM 69497). His reign was most likely short, amounting to three to four-and-a-half years.
Theories
According to egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, Khaankhre Sobekhotep was the 13th pharaoh of the Dynasty and had a short reign ca. 1735 BC. Alternatively, Jürgen von Beckerath sees him as the 16th pharaoh of the Dynasty.
Ryholt mentions that pharaoh Sobekhotep I may be identical to Sobekhotep II, who is only mentioned as Sobekhotep in the Turin King List. Others, like Dodson, consider Khaankhre Sobekhotep II and Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep I to be two different rulers from the 13th Dynasty. At the same time, Bierbrier lists Khaankhre Sobekhotep I and Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep II. Recently Simon Connor and Julien Siesse investigated the style of the king’s monument and argued that he reigned much later than previously thought (after Sobekhotep IV – who would become Sobekhotep III).
