Khasekhemre Neferhotep I was an Egyptian pharaoh of the mid Thirteenth Dynasty ruling in the second half of the 18th century BC[2] during a time referred to as the late Middle Kingdom or early Second Intermediate Period, depending on the scholar.

[11] The grandson of a non-royal townsman from a Theban family with a military background, Neferhotep I's relation to his predecessor Sobekhotep III is unclear and he may have usurped the throne.

Little is known of his activities during his decade-long reign and the most important document surviving from his rule is a stela from Abydos recounting the fashioning of an image of Osiris and Neferhotep's determination that it be made "as instructed by the gods at the beginning of time".

[2] Haankhef is also explicitly recorded as the father of Neferhotep I in the Turin canon, a king list compiled during the early Ramesside era and which serves as the primary historical source for the rulers of this time period.

I saw the vigor of his majesty (i.e. Amun) at every single feast when I was a child who could not yet conceive.Similarly, Neferhotep I could well have been born in Thebes; even though the capital of Egypt during the 13th Dynasty was still Itjtawy in the north, near the modern village of el-Lisht.

[2][20] Other attestations include over 60 scarab seals,[15][21][22][23] 2 cylinder-seals,[24][25] a statue from Elephantine,[26] and 11 rock inscriptions from Wadi el Shatt el-Rigal,[27] Sehel Island,[28][29][30] Konosso[28][30] and Philae.

[2] Two stelae are known from Abydos one of which, usurped from king Wegaf and dated to his fourth regnal year, forbids the construction of tombs on the sacred processional way of Wepwawet.

[2][32] There are also a few attestations from the Faiyum region where the capital of Egypt was located at the time, in particular a statuette of the king dedicated to Sobek and Horus of Shedet, now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Bologna.

[3] On the other hand, the absolute chronological position of Neferhotep is debated, with Ryholt and Baker seeing him respectively as the 26th and 27th pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty while Detlef Franke and Jürgen von Beckerath contend that he was only the 22nd ruler.

The Egyptologist Kim Ryholt believes that the Canaanite 14th Dynasty was already in existence at the time, forming an independent realm controlling at least the Eastern Nile Delta.

While this analysis is accepted by some scholars, among whom are Gae Callender, Janine Bourriau and Darrell Baker,[3][7][38] it is rejected by others, including Manfred Bietak, Daphna Ben-Tor and James and Susan Allen, who contend that Neferhotep I reigned over the whole of Egypt.

[39][40][41] Examples of evidence for this point of view are the several attestations of Neferhotep found northeast of Egypt, in the Levant, in particular the stela of the Governor of Byblos Yantinu[42] and four scarab seals from Canaan,[21] indicating that he retained enough power to maintain trade relations with this region.

[6] More generally, Neferhotep's time on the throne was likely prosperous as there are many private monuments datable to his reign and that of his brother,[51] and especially in sculpture some remarkably high quality art works were produced.

Since 2013 a team of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of Josef W. Wegner has been excavating a Late Middle Kingdom—Second Intermediate Period royal necropolis in Abydos, at the foot of a natural hill known to the ancient Egyptians as the Mountain of Anubis.

As a corollary, Wegner has suggested that the anonymous, large, neighboring tomb S9 could have belonged to Neferhotep I. Egyptologists have also noted that both kings were very active in the Abydos region during their reigns.

[3][57] Some Egyptologists see this as evidence of a coregency between these two kings, while others, including Ryholt, reject this interpretation and believe the inscription was made by Sobekhotep to honour his deceased brother.

[2][3] A stela bearing Neferhotep I's name is of great importance to archaeologists and historians alike as it enables a concordance between the Egyptian and Near Eastern chronologies.

[2] This is significant for two reasons: first, Yakin is plausibly identifiable with a Yakin-Ilu of Byblos known from a cylinder seal of Sehetepibre, indicating that this king and Neferhotep are separated by a generation.