Khafre
 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding articlein German.(September 2021)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
| Khafre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Khefren, Suphis II, Saophis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Khafre Enthroned,a funerary statue of Khafre indiorite.Egyptian Museum in Cairo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | About 26 years, ca. 2570 BC[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Djedefre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Bikheris(?),Menkaure | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consort | Meresankh III,Khamerernebty I,Persenet,Hekenuhedjet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | Nebemakhet,Duaenre,Niuserre, Khentetka, Shepsetkau,Menkaure,Khamerernebty II,Sekhemkare,Nikaure,Ankhmare,Akhre,Iunmin,Iunre,Rekhetre,andHemetre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Father | Khufu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mother | Meritites IorHenutsen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | Pyramid of Khafre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monuments | Pyramid of Khafre,Great Sphinx of Giza | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | 4th Dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Khafre(/ˈkæfreɪ,ˈkɑːfreɪ/KA(H)F-ray) orKhafra(Ancient Egyptian:ḫꜥ.f-rꜥ,lit. 'He appears as Ra'), also known asKhephrenorChephren(/ˈkɛfrən/KEF-rən;Ancient Greek:Χεφρῆν,romanized:Chephrên), was anancient Egyptianpharaohof theFourth Dynastyduring theOld Kingdom.He was the son ofKhufuand the successor ofDjedefre.
According to the ancienthistorianManetho,Khafre was followed by kingBikheris,but according toarchaeologicalevidence he was instead followed by kingMenkaure.Khafre was the builder who made the second largestpyramidatGiza.The view held by modernEgyptologyat large continues to be that theGreat Sphinx of Gizawas built in approximately 2500 BC for Khafre.[2]Not much is known about Khafre, except from the reports ofHerodotus,writing 2,000 years after his life.
Family[edit]
Khafre was a son of kingKhufuand the brother and successor ofDjedefre.[3]Khafre is thought by some to be the son of QueenMeritites Idue to an inscription where he is said to honor her memory.
Kings-wife, his beloved, devoted to Horus, Mertitytes.
King's-wife, his beloved, Mertitytes; beloved of the Favorite of
the Two Goddesses; she who says anything whatsoever and it is done
for her. Great in the favor of Snefr[u]; great in the favor
of Khuf[u], devoted to Horus, honored under Khafre. Merti[tyt]es.[Breasted; Ancient Records]
Others argue that the inscription just suggests that this queen died during the reign of Khafre.[4]Khafre may be a son of QueenHenutseninstead.[5]
Khafre had several wives and he had at least 12 sons and 3 or 4 daughters.
- QueenMeresankh IIIwas the daughter ofKawabandHetepheres IIand thus a niece of Khafre. She was the mother of Khafre's sonsNebemakhet,Duaenre,Niuserre and Khentetka, and a daughter named Shepsetkau.
- QueenKhamerernebty Iwas the mother ofMenkaureand his principal queenKhamerernebty II.
- Hekenuhedjetwas a wife of Khafre. She is mentioned in the tomb of her sonSekhemkare.
- Persenetmay have been a wife of Khafre based on the location of her tomb. She was the mother ofNikaure.[3]
Other children of Khafre are known, but no mothers have been identified. Further sons includeAnkhmare,Akhre,Iunmin,andIunre.Two more daughters namedRekhetreandHemetreare known as well.[3]
Reign[edit]
There is no agreement on the date of his reign. Some authors say it was between 2558 BC and 2532 BC. While theTurin King Listlength for his reign is blank, and Manetho exaggerates his reign as 66 years, most scholars believe it was between 24 and 26 years, based upon the date of the Will of Prince Nekure which was carved on the walls of this Prince'smastabatomb. The will is dated anonymously to the Year of the 12th Count and is assumed to belong to Khafre since Nekure was his son. Khafre's highest year date is the "Year of the 13th occurrence" which is a painted date on the back of a casing stone belonging to mastaba G 7650.[6]This would imply a reign of 24–25 years for this king if thecattle countwas biannual during the Fourth Dynasty.
Pyramid complex[edit]
Khafre built the second-largestpyramidatGiza.The Egyptian name of the pyramid wasWer(en)-Khafrewhich means "Khafre is Great".[7]
The pyramid has a subsidiary pyramid, labeledG2-a.It is not clear who was buried there. Sealings have been found of a King's eldest son of his body etc. and the Horus name of Khafre.[7]
Valley Temple[edit]
The valley temple of Khafre was located closer to the Nile and would have stood right next to the Sphinx temple. Inscriptions from the entrance way have been found which mention Hathor and Bubastis. Blocks have been found showing the partial remains of an inscription with the Horus name of Khafre (Weser-ib). Mariette discovered statues of Khafre in 1860. Several were found in a well in the floor and were headless. But other complete statues were found as well.[7]
Mortuary Temple[edit]
The mortuary temple was located very close to the pyramid. From the mortuary temple come fragments of maceheads inscribed with Khafre's name as well as some stone vessels.[7]
Great Sphinx and Sphinx temple[edit]
Thesphinxis said to date to the time of Khafre. This is supported by the proximity of the sphinx to Khafre's pyramid temple complex, and a certain resemblance (despite damage) to the facial structure seen in his statues. The Great Sphinx of Giza may have been carved out as a guardian of Khafre's pyramid, and as a symbol of royal power. It became deified during the time of the New Kingdom.[8]
Khafre in ancient Greek traditions[edit]
The ancient Egyptian historianManethocalled Khafre "Sûphis II".and credited him with a rulership of 66 years, but didn't make any further comments about him.[9][10][11][12]
Contrary to modern Egyptologists and archaeological findings, Greek historiansDiodorusandHerodotus,writing more than 2,000 years after King Khafre, depicted him as atyrantwho had followed his fatherKhêopson the throne. Herodotus and Diodorus say that Khafre ruled for 56 years.[9][10][11]
They describe a king Menkaure (whom they call "Mykerînós" ) as the follower of Khafre and that this king was the counterpart of his two predecessors: Herodotus describes Menkaure as bringing peace and piety back to Egypt.[9][10][11]
Of all the rulers of the Old Kingdom, Khafre is evidenced by the greatest number of statues. Almost all of them come from Giza, partly from the official necropolis there, but mainly from the area around the temple complexes of the Khafre pyramid. In a large hall of the valley temple, 23 depressions have been made in the ground, in which originally life-size statues stood. One of these depressions is wider than the others, there may have been two statues here. It has been suggested that these 24 statues are related to the hours of the day. All of these statues were removed from their location at some point after the reign of Khafre. Auguste Mariette found nine of them during excavations in 1860 (Inv.No. CG 9 to CG 17)[21] and fragments of a tenth (CG 378) [22] in a pit within the valley temple. These statues are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
References[edit]
- ^Thomas Schneider:Lexikon der Pharaonen.Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002,ISBN3-491-96053-3,page 102.
- ^"Sphinx Project: Why Sequence is Important".2007. Archived fromthe originalon July 26, 2010.RetrievedFebruary 27,2015.
- ^abcDodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004.ISBN0-500-05128-3
- ^Grajetzki, Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Golden House Publications, London, 2005,ISBN978-0-9547218-9-3
- ^Tyldesley, Joyce. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2006.ISBN0-500-05145-3
- ^Anthony Spalinger, Dated Texts of the Old Kingdom, SAK 21 (1994), p.287
- ^abcdPorter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings Volume III: Memphis, Part I Abu Rawash to Abusir. 2nd edition (revised and augmented by Dr Jaromir Malek, 1974. Retrieved fromgizapyramids.orgArchived2008-10-11 at theWayback Machine
- ^Markowitz, Haynes, Freed (2002).Egypt in the Age of the Pyramids.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^abcSiegfried Morenz:Traditionen um Cheops.In:Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde,vol. 97, Berlin 1971, ISSN 0044-216X, page 111–118.
- ^abcDietrich Wildung: Die Rolle ägyptischer Könige im Bewußtsein ihrer Nachwelt. Band 1: Posthume Quellen über die Könige der ersten vier Dynastien (= Münchener Ägyptologische Studien. Bd. 17). Hessling, Berlin 1969, page 152–192.
- ^abcWolfgang Helck:Geschichte des Alten Ägypten(=Handbuch der Orientalistik,vol. 1.;Chapter 1: Der Nahe und der Mittlere Osten,vol 1.). BRILL, Leiden 1968,ISBN9004064974,page 23–25 & 54–62.
- ^Aidan Dodson:Monarchs of the Nile.American Univ in Cairo Press, 2000,ISBN9774246004,page 29–34.
Further reading[edit]
- James H. Breasted,Ancient Records of Egypt,Part I, §§ 192, (1906) on 'The Will of Nekure'.
External links[edit]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
