Sahure
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Statuary image of pharoah Sahure |
Sahure was the second king of
ancient Egypt's
5th Dynasty. He was a son of queen
Khentkaus I, who, in her tomb at
Giza, is said to have been the "mother of two kings". His father probably was
Userkaf. There are no wives or children known to him and at least no children of his seem to have outlived him, since he was succeeded by his brother,
Neferirkare, the first king known to have used separate names.
His birth name means "He who is Close to
Ra". His
Horus name was
Nebkhau, and it is believed he ruled Egypt from around
2487 BC to
2475 BC. The
Turin King List gives him a reign of twelve years. The
Palermo stone notes seven cattle counts, which would indicate a reign of at least 13 years if the cattle counts were held biannualy(every two years) as this Annal document indicates for the early Fifth Dynasty period.
It is probable that Khentkaus I was the character of
Redjedet in the
Papyrus Westcar, who according to the magician
Djedi, was destined to give birth to the children of
Ra and the first kings of the 5th Dynasty. But if Khentkaus I was his mother, a scene in her tomb at Giza showing her with the royal
uraeus and beard might indicate that she may have acted as a regent for Sahure.
His
pyramid complex was the first built at the new royal burial ground at
Abusir a few kilometres north of
Saqqara (though Userkaf had probably already built his solar temple there) and marks the decline of pyramid building, both in the size and quality, though many of the reliefs are very well done.
His pyramid provides us most of the information we know of this king. The reliefs in his mortuary and valley temple depict a counting of foreigners by or in front of the goddess
Seshat and the return of a fleet from
Asia, perhaps
Byblos. This may indicate a military interest in the
Near East, but the contacts may have been diplomatic and commercial as well. As part of the contacts with the Near East, the reliefs from his funerary monuments also hold the oldest known representation of a
Syrian bear.
When it was excavated in the first years of the
1900s, a great amount of fine reliefs were found to an extent and quality superior to those from the dynasty before. Some of the low relief-cuttings in red
granite are masterpieces of their kind and still in place at the site. The construction of the pyramid was on the other hand (like the others from this dynasty) made with an inner core of roughly hewn stones in a step construction held together in many sections with a mortar of mud.
While this was under construction a corridor was left into the shaft where the grave chamber was erected separately and later covered by leftover stone blocks and debris. This working strategy is clearly visible from two unfinished pyramids and was the old style from the
Third dynasty now coming back after being temporary abandoned by the builders of the five great pyramids at
Dahshur and Giza during the
Fourth dynasty.
Few depictions of the king are known, but in a sculpture he is shown sitting on his throne with a local
nome deity by his side.
Today only the inner construction remains partly visible in a pile of rubble originating from the crude filling of debris and mortar behind the casing stones taken away a thousand years ago. The whole inner construction is badly damaged and not possible to access today.
The entrance at the north side is a short descending corridor lined with red granite followed by a passageway ending at the burial chamber. It has a gabled roof made of big limestone layers and fragments of the
sarcophagus were found here when it was entered in the early
1800s.
Most foreign relations during the reign of Sahure were economic, rather than combative. In one scene in his pyramid, we find great ships with Egyptians and Asiatics on board. It is believed they are returning from the port of Byblos in
Lebanon with huge
cedar trees. For this, we have corraborating evidence in the form of his name on a piece of thin gold stamped to a chair, as well as other evidence of
Fifth dynasty king's
cartouches found in Lebanon on stone vessels. Other scenes in his temple depict what we are told are Syrian bears. We also have the first documented expedition to the land of
Punt, which apparently yielded a quantity of
myrrh, along with
malachite and
electrum, and because of this, Sahure is often credited with establishing an Egyptian
navy. There are also scenes of a raid into
Libya which yielded various livestock and showed the king smiting the local chieftains. The
Palermo stone also corroborates some of these events and also mentions expeditions to the Sinai and to the exotic land of Punt, as well as to the
diorite quarries northwest of
Abu Simbel, thus, far into
Nubia.
However, this same scene of the Libyan attack was used two thousand years later in the mortuary temple of
Pepi II and in a
Kawa temple of
Taharqa. The same names are quoted for the local chieftain. Therefore, we become somewhat suspicious of the possibility that Sahure was also copying an even earlier representation of this scene.
He apparently built a sun temple, as did most of the 5th Dynasty kings. Its name was
Sekhet-re, meaning "the Field of ", but so far its location is unknown. We know of his palace, called
Uetjesneferusahure ("Sahure's splendor soars up to heaven"), from an inscription on
tallow containers recently discovered in
Neferefre's mortuary temple. It may have been located at
Abusir as well. We also know that under Sahure, the
turquoise quarries in the Sinai were worked (probably at
Wadi Maghara and
Wadi Kharit), along with the diorite quarries in Nubia.
Sahure is further attested by a statue now located in New York's
Museum of Modern Art, in a biography found in the tombs of
Perisen at
Saqqara and on a false door of
Niankhsakhment at Saqqara, and is also mentioned in the tombs of
Sekhemkare and
Nisutpunetjer, kings of the
Twelfth dynasty at their tombs in Giza.
*
Sahure: Second King of the Fifth Dynasty
