Queens

Himiko

Himiko (3rd century) was the first recorded ruler of Japan. The Chinese chroniclers described her as a great shaman queen who united 30 warring clans, established the imperial throne, sent ...

Jezebel

The pop culture image of Jezebel bears almost no resemblance to the woman who was queen of Israel in the 9th century BCE. There is nothing remotely sexy about Jezebel in the Bible; she's just mean. ...

Lady Six Monkey

Lady Six Monkey (1073-1101) was a Mixtec warrior queen whose story is known from the Mixtec Group Codices. She and her arch nemesis, Lord Eight Deer, loomed large in the legends of Oaxaca for many ...

Liliuokalani

Queen Liliuokalani (1838-1917) was the last reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. She came to the throne in 1891 as a pro-native, pro-woman advocate for her people, and quickly found herself at ...

Minoan Queen

We don't know her name. And unless somebody deciphers Linear A, we probably never will. All we know is that she existed, and that her world was beautiful. The centerpiece of our main illustration ...

Nefertiti

Her face is one of the most famous in the world. Nefertiti (ca. 1370–1330 BCE) was the Great Royal Wife of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten, and her sublime portrait bust is one of the glories of ...

Nzinga

Nzinga (1582-1663) was the queen of Ndongo and Matamba, historical states in what is now Angola. This altogether remarkable woman seized the throne and held it for 40 years, successfully resisting ...

Puabi

There's bling and there's bling. And then there's Queen Puabi (ca. 2600 BCE). When Leonard Woolley excavated her tomb at Ur in the 1920s, the world gasped. So much gold! So many jewels! Her ...

Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba (ca. 950 BCE?) is claimed by both Ethiopia and Yemen. It’s not impossible that both are right; the ancient realm of Saba (Sheba) may have spanned the Red Sea. Or perhaps she was ...

Razia Sultan

Razia Sultan (1205–1240) was the first female Muslim ruler in South Asia. Remembered as a brilliant general and politician, she reigned as the fifth Sultan of Dehli from 1236 to 1240. The ...

Tin Hinan

Tin Hinan (4th century) was the legendary queen of the Tuareg people, the matrilineal desert-dwelling Berbers who are famous for their blue clothing---and for the fact that it's their men, rather ...

Tomyris

Tomyris (6th century BCE), the warrior queen of the Massagetae, was the woman who defeated and killed Cyrus the Great. In revenge for Cyrus's trickery and the death of her son, Tomyris led her ...