The precise pharaoh under whom Ankhtifi served is anything but certain; the sequence and number of kings in the 9th and 10th dynasties is a matter of widely varying conjecture.

Some Egyptologists have proposed identifying this Ka-nefer-Re with the throne name Neferkare, attested only on the Turin Canon (and several times there) for this dynasty.

Ankhtifi, as nomarch or governor of the third nome of Upper Egypt, built and extensively decorated his tomb at El-Mo'alla, and inscribed the tomb’s walls with his autobiography, which details his initiatives in re-establishing order in the land, his resistance against Thebes, and the appalling suffering of the people of Egypt during his lifetime.

I was the man who found the solution when it was lacking in the country thanks to poor decisions, and my speech was clever and my bravery won the day when it was necessary to join the three provinces together.

[4] However, since 2000, new archaeological evidence has suggested that Ankhtifi's comments concerning the severity of the famine--at least during the early First Intermediate Period--are indeed based on fact and not propaganda.

An Egyptian scientist, Fekri Hassan from University College London, has put forth clear evidence that a sudden global climate change caused the complete drying up of Lake Faiyum—--a major body of water which was fed by the Nile and is 65 metres deep--between 2200 and 2150 BC, around the start of the Old Kingdom's collapse.

[5] [6] The evaporation of the lake's water, which occurred over a period of many years, hints at the severity of the drought which affected Egypt during this time.