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In Photos: Egypt’s Queer History

June 30, 2020
A painting that shows Niankhkhum and Khnumhotep in an embrace found in their tomb (photo: Jon Bodsworth/Egypt Archive)

Egyptian history spans thousands of years and its human landscape throughout has always reflected a unique diversity and a wealth of gender and sexual expressions, as well as racial, cultural and religious identities. With the recent public debate about LGBTQ+ rights and as Pride Month comes to an end, it is more important now than ever to examine Egypt’s queer history. No two figures have cast more doubt on Ancient Egyptian society’s heteronormativity than Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, two Egyptian manicurists to Pharoah Niuserre who ruled in the late 25th century BCE. They are considered by many scholars to be the first same-sex couple in the country’s recorded history. The two men were buried together and in their tombs, archeologists found paintings that depicted them embracing each other and touching noses, which was an expression of intimacy in ancient Egyptian cultural norms. More visually explicit depictions of homosexuality also exist in a Ramesside ostracon, which suggests that same-sex acts were not uncommon in Ancient Egypt’s sexually liberated society. According to most archeologists, Ancient Egyptian social norms didn’t discourage homosexuality and generally placed little importance on people’s private lives, personal choices and desires….


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