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=                               Sahure                               =
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                             Introduction                             
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Sahure (also Sahura, meaning "He who is close to Re") was a pharaoh of
ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty ( -  BC). He
reigned for about 13 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old
Kingdom Period. Sahure's reign marks the political and cultural high
point of the Fifth Dynasty. He was probably the son of his predecessor
Userkaf with Queen NeferhetepesII, and was in turn succeeded by his
son Neferirkare Kakai.

During Sahure's rule, Egypt had important trade relations with the
Levantine coast. Sahure launched several naval expeditions to
modern-day Lebanon to procure cedar trees, slaves, and exotic items.
His reign may have witnessed the flourishing of the Egyptian navy,
which included a high-seas fleet as well as specialized racing boats.
Relying on this, Sahure ordered the earliest attested expedition to
the land of Punt, which brought back large quantities of myrrh,
malachite, and electrum. Sahure is shown celebrating the success of
this venture in a relief from his mortuary temple which shows him
tending a myrrh tree in the garden of his palace whose name means
'"Sahure's splendor soars up to heaven"'. This relief is the only one
in Egyptian art depicting a king gardening. Sahure sent further
expeditions to the turquoise and copper mines in Sinai. He also
ordered military campaigns against Libyan chieftains in the Western
Desert, bringing back livestock to Egypt.

Sahure had a pyramid built for himself in Abusir, thereby abandoning
the royal necropolises of Saqqara and Giza, where his predecessors had
built their monuments. This decision was possibly motivated by the
presence of the sun temple of Userkaf in Abusir, the first such temple
of the Fifth Dynasty. The Pyramid of Sahure is much smaller than the
pyramids of the preceding Fourth Dynasty but the decoration and
architecture of his mortuary temple is more elaborate. The valley
temple, causeway and mortuary temple of his pyramid complex were once
adorned by over 10000 m2 of exquisite polychrome reliefs, representing
the highest form reached by this art during the Old Kingdom period.
The Ancient Egyptians recognized this particular artistic achievement
and tried to emulate the reliefs in the tombs of subsequent kings and
queens. The architects of Sahure's pyramid complex introduced the use
of palmiform columns (columns whose capital has the form of palm
leaves), which would soon become a hallmark of ancient Egyptian
architecture. The layout of his mortuary temple was also innovative
and became the architectural standard for the remainder of the Old
Kingdom period. Sahure is also known to have constructed a sun temple
called '"The Field of Ra"', and although it has not yet been located,
it is presumably also in Abusir.

Sahure was the object of a funerary cult, the food offerings for which
were initially provided by agricultural estates set up during his
reign. This official, state-sponsored cult endured until the end of
the Old Kingdom. Subsequently, during the Middle Kingdom period,
Sahure was venerated as a royal ancestor figure but his cult no longer
had dedicated priests. For unknown reasons, during the New Kingdom
Sahure was equated with a form of the goddess Sekhmet. The cult of
'"Sekhmet of Sahure"' had priests and attracted visitors from all over
Egypt to Sahure's temple. This unusual cult was celebrated far beyond
Abusir, and persisted up until the end of the Ptolemaic period nearly
2500 years after Sahure's death.


 Parentage 
===========
Excavations at the pyramid of Sahure in Abusir under the direction of
Miroslav Verner and Tarek El-Awady in the early 2000s provide a
picture of the royal family of the early Fifth Dynasty. In particular,
reliefs from the causeway linking the valley and mortuary temples of
the pyramid complex reveal that Sahure's mother was queen
NeferhetepesII. She was the wife of pharaoh Userkaf, as indicated by
the location of her pyramid immediately adjacent to that of Userkaf,
and bore the title of "king's mother". This makes Userkaf the father
of Sahure in all likelihood. This is further reinforced by the
discovery of Sahure's cartouche in the mortuary temple of Userkaf at
Saqqara, indicating that Sahure finished the structure started most
probably by his father.

This contradicts older, alternative theories according to which Sahure
was the son of queen Khentkaus I, believed to be the wife of the last
pharaoh of the preceding Fourth Dynasty, Shepseskaf and a brother to
either Userkaf or Neferirkare.


 Children 
==========
Sahure is known to have been succeeded by Neferirkare Kakai, who until
2005 was believed to be his brother. That year, a relief originally
adorning the causeway of Sahure's pyramid and showing Sahure seated in
front of two of his sons, Ranefer and Netjerirenre, was discovered by
Verner and another Egyptologist, Tarek El-Awady. Next to Ranefer's
name the text "Neferirkare Kakai king of Upper and Lower Egypt" had
been added, indicating that Ranefer was Sahure's son and had assumed
the throne under the name "Neferirkare Kakai" at the death of his
father. Since both Ranefer and Netjerirenre are given the titles of
"king's eldest son", Verner and El-Awady speculate that they may have
been twins with Ranefer born first. They propose that Netjerirenre may
have later seized the throne for a brief reign under the name
"Shepseskare", although this remains conjectural. The same relief
further depicts queen Meretnebty, who was thus most likely Sahure's
consort and the mother of Ranefer and Netjerirenre. Three more sons,
Khakare, Horemsaf, and Nebankhre are shown on reliefs from Sahure's
mortuary temple, but the identity of their mother(s) is unknown.

Netjerirenre bore several religious titles corresponding to
high-ranking positions in the court and which suggest that he may have
acted as a vizier for his father. This is debated, as Michel Baud
points out that at the time of Sahure, the eviction of royal princes
from the vizierate was ongoing if not already complete.


 Relative chronology 
=====================
The relative chronology of Sahure's reign is well established by
historical records, contemporary artifacts and archeological evidence,
which agree that he succeeded Userkaf and was in turn succeeded by
Neferirkare Kakai. An historical source supporting this order of
succession is the 'Aegyptiaca' (Αἰγυπτιακά), a history of Egypt
written in the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II (283-246
BC) by Manetho. No copies of the Aegyptiaca have survived and it is
now known only through later writings by Sextus Julius Africanus and
Eusebius. According to the Byzantine scholar George Syncellus,
Africanus wrote that the 'Aegyptiaca' mentioned the succession
"Usercherês → Sephrês → Nefercherês" at the start of the Fifth
Dynasty. Usercherês, Sephrês (in Greek, Σϵϕρής), and Nefercherês are
believed to be the Hellenized forms for Userkaf, Sahure and
Neferirkare, respectively. Manetho's reconstruction of the early Fifth
Dynasty is in agreement with those given on two more historical
sources, the Abydos king list where Sahure's cartouche is on the 27th
entry, and the Saqqara Tablet where Sahure's name is given on the 33rd
entry. These lists of kings were written during the reigns of Seti I
and RamsesII, respectively.


 Reign length 
==============
The Turin canon, a king list written during the Nineteenth Dynasty in
the early Ramesside era (1292-1189 BC), credits him with a reign of
twelve years five months and twelve days. In contrast, the near
contemporary royal annal of the Fifth Dynasty known as the Palermo
Stone records his second, third, fifth and sixth years on the throne
as well as his final 13th or 14th year of reign and even records the
day of his death as the 28th of Shemu I, which corresponds to the end
of the ninth month. Taken together these pieces of information
indicate that the royal annal of the Fifth Dynasty recorded a reign of
13 years 5months and 12 days for Sahure, only one year more than given
by the Turin Canon and close to the 13 years figure given in Manetho's
'Aegyptiaca'.

Sahure appears in two further historical records: on the third entry
of the Karnak king list, which was made during the reign of Thutmose
III (1479-1425 BC) and on the 26th entry of the Saqqara Tablet dating
to the reign of Ramses II (1279-1213 BC). Neither of these sources
give his reign length. The absolute dates of Sahure's reign are
uncertain but most scholars date it to the first half of the 25th
century BC, see note 1 for details.


 Trade and tribute 
===================
Historical records and surviving artifacts suggest that contacts with
foreign lands were numerous during Sahure's reign. Furthermore, these
contacts seem to have been mostly economic rather than military in
nature. Reliefs from his pyramid complex show the return of a naval
expedition to Lebanon, the boats laden with the trunks of precious
cedar trees. Other ships are represented loaded with "Asiatics", both
adults and children who were either slaves, or merchants, greeting
Sahure:

The same relief strongly suggests that interpreters were on board the
ships, tasked with translations to facilitate trade with foreign
lands.
A relief, unique to Egyptian art, depicts several Syrian brown bears,
presumably brought back from the Levantine coast by seagoing ships as
well. These bears appear in association with 12 red-painted
one-handled jars from Syria. The Egyptologists Karin Sowada and
William Stevenson Smith have proposed that, taken together, the bears
and jars are likely to constitute a tribute.

Trade contacts with Byblos took place during Sahure's reign.
Excavations of the temple of Baalat-Gebal yielded an alabaster bowl
inscribed with Sahure's name. The layout of the fourth phase of this
temple might even have been influenced by the architecture of Sahure's
valley temple, although this remains debated.
There is further corroborating evidence for trade with the wider
Levant during the Fifth Dynasty, several stone vessels being inscribed
with cartouches of pharaohs of this dynasty discovered in Lebanon. So
much so that the archeologist Gregory Mumford points to the fact that
"Sahure is [the] best attested [king] for international relations" and
has the highest number of texts inscribed in Sinai proportionally to
his reign length.

In his last year, Sahure sent the first documented expedition to the
fabled land of Punt, probably along the Somalian coast. The
expedition, which is conjectured to have departed Egypt from the
harbor of Mersa Gawasis, is reported on the Palermo Stone where it is
said to have come back with 80,000 of an unspecified measure of myrrh,
along with malachite, 6000 measures of electrum and 2600 or 23,020
staves, possibly made of ebony.
In his last year Sahure sent another expedition abroad, this time to
the copper and turquoise mines of Wadi Maghareh and Wadi Kharit in
Sinai, which had been active since at least the beginning of the Third
Dynasty. This expedition, also mentioned by the Palermo stone, brought
back over 6000 units of turquoise to Egypt and produced two reliefs in
Sinai, one of which shows Sahure in the traditional act of smiting
Asiatics and boasting "The Great God smites the Asiatics of all
countries". In parallel with these activities, diorite quarries near
Abu Simbel were exploited throughout Sahure's reign.


 Military campaigns 
====================
Sahure's military career is known primarily from reliefs in his
mortuary complex. It apparently consisted of campaigns against Libyans
from 'Tjemehu', a land possibly located in the northern Western
desert. These campaigns are said to have yielded livestock in huge
numbers and Sahure is shown smiting local chieftains. The historical
veracity of these depictions remains in doubt as such representations
are part of the standard iconography meant to exalt the king. The same
scene of the Libyan attack was used two hundred years later in the
mortuary temple of PepiII (2284-2184 BC) and in the temple of Taharqa
at Kawa, built some 1800 years after Sahure's lifetime. In particular,
the same names are quoted for the local chieftains. Therefore, it is
possible that Sahure too was copying an even earlier representation of
this scene. Nonetheless, several overseers of the Western Nile Delta
region were nominated by Sahure, a significant decision as these
officials occupied an administrative position that existed only
irregularly during the Old Kingdom period and which likely served to
provide "traffic regulation across the Egypto-Libyan border". At the
same time, Sahure's mortuary temple presents the earliest known
mention of pirates raiding the Nile Delta, possibly from the coast of
Epirus.

Sahure's pretensions regarding the lands and riches surrounding Egypt
are encapsulated in several reliefs from his mortuary temple which
show the god Ash telling the king "I will give you all that is in this
[Libya] land", "I give you all hostile peoples with all the provisions
that there are in foreign lands" and "I grant thee all western and
eastern foreign lands with all the Iunti and the Montiu bowmen who are
in every land".


 Religious activities 
======================
The majority of Sahure's activities in Egypt recorded on the Palermo
stone are religious in nature. This royal annal records that in the
"year of the first time of traveling around", Sahure journeyed to the
Elephantine fortress, where he may have received the submission of the
Nubian chiefs in a ceremonial act connected with the commencement of
his reign. The fashioning of six statues of the king as well as the
subsequent opening of the mouth ceremonies are also reported.
During Sahure's fifth year on the throne, the Palermo stone mentions
the making of a divine barge, possibly in Heliopolis, the appointment
of 200 priests and the exact quantity of daily offerings of bread and
beer to Ra (138, 40 and 74 measures in three temples), Hathor (4
measures), Nekhbet (800 measures) and Wadjet (4800 measures) fixed by
the king. Also reported are gifts of lands to temples of between 1and
204 arouras (0.7 to nearly 140 acres). Concerning Lower Egypt, the
stone register corresponding to this reign gives the earliest known
mention of the city of Athribis in the Delta region.

Further indication of religious activities lies in that Sahure is the
earliest known king to have used the Egyptian title of 'Nb írt-ḫt'.
This title, possibly meaning "Lord of doing effective things",
indicates that he personally performed physical cultic activities to
ensure the existence and persistence of the Maat, the Egyptian concept
of order and justice. This title remained in use until the time of
Herihor, some 1500 years later. Sahure's reign is also the earliest
during which the ceremony of the "driving of the calves" is known to
have taken place. This is significant in the context of the
progressive emergence of the cult of Osiris throughout the Fifth
Dynasty, as this ceremony subsequently became an integral part of the
Osiris myth. In subsequent times, the ceremony corresponded to Seth's
threshing of Osiris by driving calves trampling fields of barley.

Sahure reorganized the cult of his mother, NepherhetepesII, whose
mortuary complex had been built by Userkaf in Saqqara. He added an
entrance portico with four columns to her temple, so that the entrance
was not facing Userkaf's pyramid any more.


 Building and mining activities 
================================
Archeological evidence suggests that Sahure's building activities were
mostly concentrated in Abusir and its immediate vicinity, where he
constructed his pyramid and where his sun temple is probably located.
Also nearby was the palace of Sahure, called 'Uetjes Neferu Sahure',
"Sahure's splendor soars up to heaven". The palace is known from an
inscription on beef tallow containers discovered in February 2011 in
Neferefre's mortuary temple. A second palace, "The Crown of Sahure
appears", is known from an inscription in the tomb of his chief
physician.
Both palaces, if they were different buildings, were likely on the
shores of the Abusir lake.

The stones for Sahure's buildings and statues were quarried throughout
Egypt. For example, the limestone cladding of the pyramid comes from
Tura, while the black basalt used for the flooring of Sahure's
mortuary temple comes from Gebel Qatrani, near the Faiyum in Middle
Egypt. South of Egypt, a stele bearing Sahure's name was discovered in
the diorite quarries located in the desert north-west of Abu Simbel in
Lower Nubia.

Further mining and quarrying expeditions may be inferred from indirect
evidence. An inscription of Sahure in the Wadi Abu Geridah in the
Eastern desert as well as other Old Kingdom inscriptions there suggest
that iron ore was mined in the vicinity since the times of the Fourth
Dynasty. The lower half of a statue with the name of the king was
discovered in 2015 in Elkab, a location possibly connected with
expeditions to the Eastern desert and south of Egypt to Nubia.
Sahure's cartouche has been found in graffiti in Tumas and on seal
impressions from Buhen at the second cataract of the Nile in Lower
Nubia.


 Development of the Egyptian Navy 
==================================
Sahure's reign may have been a time of development for the Egyptian
navy. His expeditions to Punt and Byblos demonstrate the existence of
a high seas navy and reliefs from his mortuary complex are described
by Shelley Wachsmann as the "first definite depictions of seagoing
ships in Egypt", some of which must have been 100-cubits long (c. 50m,
170ft).
Because of this, Sahure has been credited by past scholars with
establishing the Egyptian navy. It is recognized today that this is an
overstatement: fragmentary reliefs from Userkaf's temple depict
numerous boats, while a high seas navy must have existed as early as
the Third Dynasty. The oldest known sea harbor, Wadi al-Jarf on the
Red Sea was operating under Khufu. Finally, there is the distinct
possibility that some of the reliefs are copied from earlier examples.
Nonetheless, Sahure remains the earliest known ruler to have depicted,
and thus possibly made use of, sea power for transporting troops over
the Mediterranean sea, to Syria.

The extensive nautical scenes from Sahure's mortuary complex are
sufficiently detailed to show that specialized racing boats for the
military and perhaps for ceremonial training were built at the time.
They also give the earliest depiction of specific rope uses aboard
ships, such as that of a hogging-truss. They permit precise estimates
regarding shipbuilding, for example indicating that the mid-ship
freeboard for seagoing vessels was of 1 m,
and that the masts employed at the time were bipodal, resembling an
inverted Y.
Further rare depictions include the king standing in the stern of a
sailing boat with a highly decorated sail, and one of only two reliefs
from ancient Egypt showing men aboard a ship paddling in a wave
pattern, possibly during a race.


 Officials 
===========
Several high officials serving Sahure during his lifetime are known
from their tombs as well as from the decoration of the mortuary temple
of the king. Niankhsekhmet, chief physician of Sahure and first known
rhinologist in history, reports that he asked the king that a false
door be made for his [Niankhsekhmet's] tomb, to which the king agreed.
Sahure had the false door made of fine Tura limestone, carved and
painted blue in his audience-hall, and made personal daily inspections
of the work. The king wished a long life to his physician, telling
him:

A similar though much less detailed anecdote is reported by Khufuankh,
who was overseer of the palace and singer of the king.
Other officials include Hetepka, who was keeper of the diadem and
overseer of the hairdressers of the king,
Pehenewkai, priest of the cult of Userkaf during the reigns of Sahure
and Neferirkare Kakai, then vizier for the latter; Persen, a mortuary
priest in the funerary cult of Sahure's mother Nepherhetepes; and
Washptah, a priest of Sahure, then vizier of Neferirkare Kakai. The
high-official Ptahshepses, probably born during the reign of Menkaure,
was high priest of Ptah and royal manicure under Sahure, later
promoted to vizier by Nyuserre Ini.

Two viziers of Sahure are known: Sekhemkare, royal prince, son of
Khafre and vizier under Userkaf and Sahure; and Werbauba, vizier
during Sahure's reign, attested in the mortuary temple of the king.


 Evolution of the high offices 
===============================
Sahure pursued Userkaf's policy of appointing non-royal people to high
offices. This is best exemplified by the office of vizier, which was
exclusively held by princes of royal blood with the title of "King's
son" since the mid-Fourth Dynasty and up until the early Fifth
Dynasty. Toward the end of this period princes were progressively
excluded from the highest office, an evolution undoubtedly correlated
with changes in the nature of kingship. This process, possibly
initiated by Menkaure because of dynastic disputes, seems to have been
completed by Sahure's time as from then onwards no royal prince was
promoted to vizier. Those already in post were allowed to keep their
status and so in the early part of Sahure's reign vizier Sekhemkare
was a "King's son" while his successor, Werbauba, seems to have been
non-royal. In response to this change, the state administration began
its expansion as it included more and more non-royal people.

Concurrently with these developments, architectural and artistic
innovations relating to tombs of private individuals can be dated to
Sahure's reign. These including torus molding and cornices for false
doors, first found in Persen's tomb. This feature would subsequently
become common and here demonstrates the particularly high esteem in
which Persen must have been held by the king. Another innovation is
the depiction of small unusual offerings such as that of seven sacred
oils on false doors, first found in Niankhsekhmet's tomb. The
canonical list of offerings was also developed during or shortly
before Sahure's time in the tombs of the royal family, and spread to
those of non-royal high-officialsthe earliest of whom was Seshemnefer
Iunder Sahure.


 Sekhetre 
==========
Sahure built or started to build a temple dedicated to the sun god Ra,
the second such temple of the Fifth Dynasty. Yet to be located, it is
known to have existed thanks to an inscription on the Palermo stone
where it is called 'Sekhetre' (also spelt 'Sekhet Re'), meaning "The
Field of Ra" as well as mentions of it in 24 tombs of administration
officials. A few limestone blocks bearing reliefs which once adorned
the temple have been found embedded in the walls of the mortuary
complex of Nyuserre Ini, Sahure's fourth successor. This suggests
either that these blocks were leftovers from the construction of the
temple, or as Wener Kaiser has posited, that Nyuserre dismantled
Sahure's temple, using it as a quarry for construction materials
because it was largely unfinished. Indeed, the rather meager evidence
for the 'Sekhetre' leads Miroslav Verner to propose that it never
fully functioned as a sun temple.

New analyses of the verso of the Palermo stone performed in 2018 by
the Czech Institute of Archeology enabled the reading of further
inscriptions mentioning precisely the architecture of the temple as
well as lists of donations it received, establishing firmly that it
was a distinct entity from the earlier sun temple of Userkaf, the
'Nekhenre' but leaving its ultimate fate uncertain. Further precision
as to the architecture of the temple may be inferred from the absence
of the obelisk determinative in some hieroglyphic variants of the name
'Sekhetre' and its presence in others. For Anthony Spalinger this
possibly indicates that Sahure's sun temple was effectively built and
acquired such an obelisk at some point after its construction, perhaps
after Sahure's reign.


 Nekhenre 
==========
Userkaf was the first king to build a sun temple in Abusir. Known to
the ancient Egyptians as the 'Nekhenre', or "Fortress of Re", it was
unfinished at his death. Construction works continued in at least four
building phases, the first of which may have taken place under Sahure,
and then under his successors Neferirkare Kakai and Nyuserre Ini.


                           Pyramid complex                            
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Sahure built a pyramid complex for his tomb and funerary cult, named
'Khaba Sahura', which is variously translated as "The Rising of the Ba
Spirit of Sahure", "The Ba of Sahure appears", "Sahure's pyramid where
the royal soul rises in splendor", or "In glory comes forth the soul
of Sahure". The builders and artisans who worked on Sahure's mortuary
complex lived in an enclosed pyramid town located next to the causeway
leading up to Sahure's pyramid and mortuary temple. The town later
flourished under Nyuserre and seems to have still been in the
existence during the First Intermediate Period.

In terms of the size, volume, and the cheap construction techniques
employed, Sahure's pyramid exemplifies the decline of pyramid
building. At the same time, the quality and variety of the stones
employed in other parts of the complex increased, and the mortuary
temple is considered to be the most sophisticated one built up to that
time.
With its many architectural innovations, such as the use of palmiform
columns, the overall layout of Sahure's complex would serve as the
template for all mortuary complexes constructed from Sahure's reign
until the end of the Sixth Dynasty, some 300 years later. The highly
varied colored reliefs decorating the walls of the entire funerary
complex display a quality of workmanship and a richness of conception
that reach their highest level of the entire Old Kingdom period.


 Location 
==========
Sahure chose to construct his pyramid complex in Abusir, thereby
abandoning both Saqqara and Giza, which had been the royal
necropolises up to that time. A possible motivation for Sahure's
decision was the presence of the sun temple of Userkaf, something
which supports the hypothesis that Sahure was Userkaf's son.
Following Sahure's choice, Abusir became the main necropolis of the
early Fifth Dynasty, as pharaohs Neferirkare Kakai, Neferefre,
Nyuserre Ini and possibly Shepseskare built their pyramids there. In
their wake, many smaller tombs belonging to members of the royal
family were built in Abusir, with the notable exceptions of those of
the highest-ranking members, many of whom chose to be buried in Giza
or Saqqarah.


 Mortuary temple 
=================
Sahure's mortuary temple was extensively decorated with an estimated
10000 m2 of fine reliefs. This extensive decoration seems to have been
completed within Sahure's lifetime.
The walls of the entire 235 m-long causeway were also covered with
polychrome bas-reliefs. Miroslav Bárta describes the reliefs as "the
largest collection known from the third millennium BCE".

Many surviving fragments of the reliefs which decorated the walls of
the mortuary complex are of very high quality and much more elaborate
than those from preceding mortuary temples.
Several of the depictions are unique in Egyptian art. These include a
relief showing Sahure tending a myrrh tree ('Commiphora myrrha') in
his palace in front of his family; a relief depicting Syrian brown
bears and another showing the bringing of the pyramidion to the main
pyramid and the ceremonies following the completion of the complex.
The high craftmanship of the reliefs is here manifested by the finely
rounded edges of all figures, so that they simultaneously blend in
with the background and stand out clearly.
Reliefs are sufficiently detailed to permit the identification of the
animals shown, such as hedgehogs and jerboas, and even show
personified plants such as corn represented as a man with corn-ears
instead of hair.

The many reliefs of the mortuary, causeway and valley temples also
depict, among other things, Sahure hunting wild bulls and
hippopotamuses, Sahure being suckled by Nekhbet,
the earliest depictions of a king fishing and fowling, a counting of
foreigners by or in front of the goddess Seshat, which Egyptologist
Mark Lehner believes was "meant to ward off any evil or disorder", the
god Sopdu "Lord of the Foreign Countries" leading bound Asiatic
captives, and the return of an Egyptian fleet from Asia, perhaps
Byblos. Some of the low relief-cuttings in red granite are still in
place at the site. Among the seminal innovations of Sahure's temple
are the earliest relief depictions of figures in adoration, either
standing or squatting with both arms raised, their hands open and
their palms facing down.

The mortuary temple featured the first palmiform columns of any
Egyptian temple, massive granite architraves inscribed with Sahure's
titulary overlaid with copper, lion-headed waterspouts, black basalt
flooring and granite dados.


 Pyramid 
=========
The pyramid of Sahure reached 47 m at the time of its construction,
much smaller than the pyramids of the preceding Fourth Dynasty. Its
inner core is made of roughly hewn stones organized in steps and held
together in many sections with a thick mortar of mud. This
construction technique, much cheaper and faster to execute than the
stone-based techniques hitherto employed, fared much worse over time.
Owing to this, Sahure's pyramid is now largely ruined and amounts to
little more than a pile of rubble showing the crude filling of debris
and mortar constituting the core, which became exposed after the
casing stones were stolen in antiquity.

While the core was under construction, a corridor was left open
leading into the shaft where the grave chamber was built separately
and later covered by leftover stone blocks and debris. This
construction strategy is clearly visible in later unfinished pyramids,
in particular the Pyramid of Neferefre. This technique also reflects
the older style from the Third Dynasty seemingly coming back into
fashion after being temporarily abandoned by the builders of the five
great pyramids at Dahshur and Giza during the Fourth Dynasty.

The entrance at the north side is a short descending corridor lined
with red granite followed by a passageway ending at the burial chamber
with its gabled roof comprising large limestone beams of several tons
each. Today all of these beams are fractured, which weakens the
pyramid structure. Fragments of a basalt sarcophagus, likely Sahure's,
were found here in the burial chamber when it was first entered by
John Shae Perring in the mid 19th century.

The mortuary complex immediately around the pyramid also includes a
second smaller cult pyramid which must have stood nearly 12 m high,
originally built for the Ka of the king.


 Artistic and architectural legacy 
===================================
The painted reliefs covering the walls of Sahure's mortuary temple
were recognized as an artistic achievement of the highest degree by
the Ancient Egyptians. A New Kingdom inscription found in Abusir for
example poetically compares the temple to the heaven lit by full moon.

Subsequent generations of artists and craftsmen tried to emulate
Sahure's reliefs, using them as templates for the tombs of later kings
and queens of the Old Kingdom period. The layout of Sahure's high
temple was also novel and it became the standard template for all
subsequent pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom. Some of its
architectural elements, such as its palmiform columns, became
hallmarks of Egyptian architecture.

This trend continued to hold in later times. For example, in the
Middle Kingdom, Senusret I had reliefs for his temple directly copied
from those of Sahure. He also chose to follow the innovative layout of
Sahure's complex once again. At the time, Senusret I's decision was in
stark contrast with the burial customs of the 11th Dynasty pharaohs,
who were buried in saff tombs. These consisted of an open courtyard
fronting a row of entrances into subterranean corridors and chambers
dug in the hillsides of El-Tarif and Deir el-Bahari, near Thebes.


 Old Kingdom 
=============
Sahure was the object of a funerary cult from the time of his death
and which continued until the end of the Old Kingdom, some 300 years
later. At least 22 agricultural estates were established to produce
the goods necessary for providing the offerings to be made for this
cult. Decorated reliefs from the upper part of the causeway represent
the procession of over 150 personified funerary domains created by and
for Sahure, demonstrating the existence of a sophisticated economic
system associated with the king's funerary cult. The enormous
quantities of offerings pouring into the mortuary and sun temples of
Sahure benefitted other cults as well, such as that of Hathor, which
had priests officiating on the temple premises.

Several priests serving the mortuary cult or in Sahure's sun temple
during the later Fifth and Sixth Dynasties are known thanks to
inscriptions and artifacts from their tombs in Saqqara and Abusir.
These include Tjy, overseer of the sun temples of Sahure, Neferirkare,
Neferefre and Nyuserre; Neferkai priest of Sahure's funerary cult;
Khabauptah priest of Sahure, Neferirkare, Neferefre, and Niuserre,
Atjema, priest of the sun temple of Sahure during the Sixth Dynasty;
Khuyemsnewy, who served as priest of the mortuary cult of Sahure
during the reigns of Neferirkare and Nyuserre; Nikare, priest of the
cult of Sahure and overseer of the scribes of the granary during the
Fifth Dynasty. Further priests are known, such as Senewankh, serving
in the cults of Userkaf and Sahure and buried in a mastaba in Saqqara;
Sedaug, a priest of the cult of Sahure, priest of Ra in the sun-temple
of Userkaf and holder of the title of royal acquaintance; Tepemankh,
priest of the cults of kings of the Fourth to early Fifth Dynasty
including Userkaf and Sahure, buried in a mastaba at Abusir.


 Middle Kingdom 
================
No priest serving in the funerary cult of Sahure is known from the
Middle Kingdom period. Evidence from this period rather come from
works undertaken in the Karnak temple by 12th Dynasty pharaoh Senusret
I (fl. 20th century BC), who dedicated statues of Old Kingdom kings
including one of Sahure. The statue and the accompanying group of
portraits of deceased kings indicates the existence of a generic cult
of royal ancestor figures, a "limited version of the cult of the
divine" as Jaromir Málek writes.
The statue of Sahure, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (catalog
number CG 42004), is made of black granite and is 50 cm tall. Sahure
is shown enthroned, wearing a pleated skirt and a round curly wig.
Both sides of the throne bear inscriptions identifying the work as a
portrait of Sahure made on the orders of Senusret I.

Sahure's legacy had endured sufficiently by the Middle Kingdom period
that he is mentioned in a story of the Westcar Papyrus, probably
written during the 12th Dynasty although the earliest extent copy
dates to the Seventeenth Dynasty. The papyrus tells the mythical story
of the origins of the Fifth Dynasty, presenting kings Userkaf, Sahure
and Neferirkare Kakai as three brothers, sons of Ra and a woman named
Rededjet destined to supplant Khufu's line.


 New Kingdom: emergence of Sekhmet of Sahure 
=============================================
As a deceased king, Sahure continued to receive religious offerings
during the New Kingdom as part of the standard cult of the royal
ancestors. For example, Sahure is present on the Karnak king list, a
list of kings inscribed on the walls of the 'Akhmenu', the Karnak
temple of ThutmoseIII. Unlike other ancient Egyptian king lists, the
kings there are not listed in chronological order. Rather, the purpose
of the list was purely religious, its aim being to name the deceased
kings to be honored in the Karnak temple.

In the second part of the Eighteenth Dynasty and during the Nineteenth
Dynasty numerous visitors left inscriptions, stelae and statues in the
temple.
These activities were related to a cult then taking place in the
mortuary temple of Sahure since the time of ThutmoseIII. This cult was
devoted to the deified king in a form associated with the goddess
Sekhmet named "Sekhmet of Sahure".
For example, the scribe Ptahemuia and fellow scribes visited Sahure's
temple in the 30th year of RamsesII's reign (c. 1249 BC) to ask
Sekhmet to grant them a long life of 110 years. The reason for the
appearance of this cult during the New Kingdom is unknown. In any
case, the cult of Sekhmet of Sahure was not a purely local phenomenon
as traces of it were found in the Upper Egyptian village of Deir
el-Medina, where it was celebrated during two festivals taking place
every year, on the 16th day of the first month of Peret and on the
11th day of the fourth month of that season.

During the same period, prince Khaemwaset, a son of RamsesII,
undertook works throughout Egypt on pyramids and temples which had
fallen into ruin, possibly to appropriate stones for his father's
construction projects while ensuring a minimal restoration for cultic
purposes. Inscriptions on the stone cladding of the pyramid of Sahure
show that it was the object of such works at this time. This renewed
attention had negative consequences as the first wave of dismantlement
of the Abusir monuments, particularly for the acquisition of valuable
Tura limestone, arrived with it. Sahure's mortuary temple may have
been spared at this time due to the presence of the cult of Sekhmet.
The cult's influence likely waned after the end of RamsesII's reign,
becoming a site of local worship only.


 Third intermediate, late and Ptolemaic periods 
================================================
During the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (744-656 BC) at the end of the Third
Intermediate Period, some of Sahure's temple reliefs were copied by
Taharqa, including images of the king crushing his enemies as a
sphinx.
Shortly after, under the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664-525 BC) of the Late
Period, a statue of Sahure was among a group of statues of Old Kingdom
kings hidden in a cachette of the Karnak temple, testifying to some
form of cultic interest up to that time.
In parallel, a new period of dismantlement of the pyramids of Abusir
took place, yet Sahure's was once again spared. This might be because
of the cult of Sekhmet of Sahure the temple hosted well into the
Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC), albeit with a very reduced influence.
Several graffiti dating from the reigns of Amasis II (570-526 BC),
Darius II (423-404 BC) and up until the Ptolemaic period attest to
continued cultic activities on the site. For example, a certain Horib
was "Priest of Sekhmet of the temple of Sekhmet of Sahure" under the
Ptolemaic dynasty.

The dismantlement of Sahure's pyramid started in earnest in the Roman
period, as shown by the abundant production of mill-stones, presence
of lime production facilities and worker shelters in the vicinity.


 In Contemporary Culture 
=========================
Sahure’s name and that of his father were used in the 1983 Sesame
Street special Don%27t Eat the Pictures. A cursed child from ancient
Egypt introduces himself as “Prince Sahure of Egypt, son of the god
Userkof, king of kings, lord of the two lands, conquered of the east
and west, and fabulous fisherman.”


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=========
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahure