Famous Pharaohs

Merenre II (2261-2260)

Cartouche of King Merenre II

Merenre II was the son of Pepy II (2246-2152 B.C.E.) and Queen Neith. Merenr II was gave to a local deity, Anti. He predominated only one year at the close of the dynasty with his consort, Queen Nitocris, as the dynasty was insecure by general unrest and the ambitiousnesses of powerful nomarchs who hot independence for their kinship groups. When he died, Nitocris dominated alone. She is referred in the Turin Canon. Her replacement was perhaps Neferkure, the son of Queen Ankhnes-Pepi and King Pepy II.

Tombs of Pepi-Nakht and Harkhuf

That two rooms assigned to Hekajib, named here Pepi-Nakht. Overseer of foreign troops for Pepy II, taken colonial campaigns in Asia and Nubia Harkhuf held the same set for Pepy I, Merenkre, and Pepy II. Dancing dwarf from the land of looks is a pygmy from tropical Africa.

Intriguing forit's monumentiality Father and son. After Mekhu was defeated in Nubia, his sone Sabni decorated a punative excursion to recover the clay Pepy II sent his own anbassadors, and Sabni wanted to thank him personally. The tomb is crudely constructed and decorated Sarenput II, Governer and Guardian of the South in the middle kingdom, is most precious.

The Ruin Pyramid of Queen Udjebten (Wedjebten)

The ruin Pyramid of Queen Udjebten beside to pepy II's

Southeastern corner of King Pepy's inclosure wall, queen Udjebten was daugther of King Pepy I and wife of Pepy II. Mortuary temple is said simple, entering on the north, a vestibule, a courtyard without pillars, a chapel and 2 statue niches, and an offering hall. Completely ruined, single an alabaster offering table remains

The pyramid of Queen Udjebten is the most ruined of the queens pyramids in 6th dynasty. It was discovered by Jequier. Core is scarce visible, but letterings imply that the pyramidion was sheathed in gold. Interior construction is the same at the other pyramids the walls are continued in pyramid texts, of which 84 fragments were recovered, about 1/10 the actual letterings. Has an enclosure wall, but a 2nd wall confines both the main cplmexa nd secondary complex house and storehouse facilities. Each of her beneficiaireas held a chamber here.

Pyramid of Queen Ipwet (Iput II)

pyramid of queen Iput II next to neith's pyramid

Queen Ipwet was one of the common attested queens. In this sixth dynasty, pyramids were not built for queens who didn't hold pharaohs. Southwest of Nieth's complex Mortuary temple is l-shaped, including a lobby, open couryard, and a bidding hall. Pyramid is completely ruined, and is microscopic than Neith's. A granite sarcophagus ws discovered in the westward storeroom of the mortuary temple. It may have belonged to Queen Ankhnesmerire IV, another of Pepi II's checks and may have been the mother of Neferkare Nebi. Possibl survived Pepi II and married agaon, peradventure to Prince Iuu.

Pyramid of Queen Neith

Pyramid of Pepy II (smaller pyramid of queen Neith)

Queen Neith was King Pepy II's half sister, she was a daugher of Pepy I an Ankhenesmerire I. Probably oldeer than Pepy II. This pyramid located in the nother west corner of Pepy II's complex. Pyramid of Queen Neith was the oldest of the queens pyramids, has its individual enclosure surround.

Incoming to the mortuary temple in the south east corner, had 2 limestone obelisks. The Inside and outer sectionsof the mortuary temple. A foyer anticipated the Lioins. Room nine because of the lettering sof lions) is wrong. The chapel controls only three niches for statues, rather of the five ordinarily seen for a king. It has a false door leading to the pyramid. Three step core, although very small. Localized limestone for the center, white limestone for the overlayer. Entrance based in the middle of the north side, with a small chapel. At That Place are two barriers in the passages, blockgin approach to the sepulture chamber, which has a flat roof and stars..

Pyramid texts report the three of the 4 walls. The fourth wall has a representative palace faade. No mummy seen, but fragments of alabaster and diorite vessels and an clean red granite sarcophagus continue, and a granite canopic chest. A small serdab to the east. Has a cult pyramid, about 18 ft square, but with a miniature passage lead to a small chamber which was full of pottery when got. In the south corner of the pyramid, archeologists got a numbe rof model sends made of wood in a shallow pit.

Pyramid of Pepy II

After Pharaoh Menkaure, pyramids were developed often shoddily on a much smaller scale and often of inferior materials. And the focus of pyramid establishing moved from Giza to Saqqara, site of the first Egyptian pyramid, and Abusir. This trend remained under the close of the great ancient Egyptian pyramid constructors. At six years old, Pepi II gone the 2nd rule of the 6th dynasty. By the time of his rising to the throne, the Old Kingdom, pharaonic power, and tax receipts were on the wane. And by the last of his 94- or 64-year reign (scholars disagree on the number), the kingdom was plagued by foreign and interior conflicts as well as by famine and fermentation got by drought. Pepi II's long reign is juxtaposed by his short pyramid, which was belike finished in the 30th year of his reign mayhap 60 years before he died. Within the pyramid, Pepi II's burial chamber protects a black color granite sarcophagus under a cap foaming with painted stars. Pyramid Texts a cold Old Kingdom developmentare inscribed into the walls. As conjurations to check the ascending of a pharaoh's soul, these texts would have been one more attempt to perpetuate the aura of Egypt.

Alabaster Statue of Pepy II with his mother

This fair statue, made of Egyptian alabaster (in reality calcite), is tell-tale of the starting of the long reign of Pepy II. The king, identified by the inscription on the support below his feet, is invested on the lap of his mother, queen Ankhenesmerire I. He is importantly smaller than the queen, as one would expect from a child, but nevertheless, he is heavy the royal head-cloth noted as nemes, with a uraeus on his brow. His right-hand is hard closed, while his left-hand eases on his mother's hand. The queen, herself wears a long, narrow dress. The hole in the forehead of the queen's statue indicates that an object of new material was once inclosed here. Her head is continued by the vulture head-dress, which is typically linked with goddesses and queens who are mothers. The lost object on the queen's forehead may therefore have been the head of a vulture. This statue hence supports that Pepy II came to power as a young boy, settled under the protection of his mother, who worked as queen-regent. There may maybe also have been a divine intension to this statue: it is strongly resonant, although still slightly different, from statues and amulets showing the goddess Isis with the young Horus on her lap. The main remainder, nevertheless, is that in the Isis-statues, the goddess commonly holds one hand to her breast, an reading that she is breast-feeding her kid.

Alabaster statuette of Pepy II

The Alabaster statuette of Pepy II, an alabaster statuette of 16 cm high too represents Pepy II as a child, in a pose that is unusual in both royal and interior statuary. The king is squatting on the ground with his legs folded and slightly apart. His left hand was lying on his knee and, although it is missing, his right hand is taken to have been made to the mouth. He is completely naked, a signed of his young age. This statue was observed in the funerary temple of Pepy II at Saqqara South and is start of the appeal of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

King Pepy II (2278-2184)

Cartouche of King Pepy II

King Pepy II, the secondary son of Pepy I, came to the throne as a new child, following the untimely death of his brother, Merenre. He is accorded the easiest prevail in Egypt's history and was the last ruler of importance in the Old Kingdom; Manetho told that he submitted to the throne when he was only 6 years old and lived into his second year. His mother acted as his regent in the early years of the reign. In a wall lettering in the Aswan tomb of the official Harkhuf, the text of a good letter is kept. Harkhuf had processed the kings Merenre and Pepy II and, as Regulator of Upper Egypt, he had led 4 expeditions to Nubia on behalf of the king. Pepy II had evidently written this letter to Harkhuf at the time of one of these expeditions, when he was working a dancing pygmy back from the southeastern for the young pharaoh. The royal child, hot to see the pygmy, exhorts Harkhuf to take great care and to bring him safely to the palace come northwest to the Residence at once! Hurry and bring with you this pygmy!.

This inscription also puts up the most significant source for noesis of Egypt's kinships with Nubia at this time. Broken alabaster vases having the names of Pepy II, Pepy I and Merenre have been learned at Kerma in the Sudan, mayhap arguing that the Egyptians may have already established a trading middle far to the south. Vase fragmentise written with the names of *Pepy I and Pepy II have besides been observed at Byblos in Syria, and swapping ventures to this city were in all probability regular issues during this period. There were besides expeditions to the mines in Sinai, and it is noted that foreign contacts were widely established.

By the time that Pepy II's long prevail came to an end, the royal power had cut as the cumulative result of assorted political, economic and religious factors. The rustic nobility no longer felt a strong allegiance to the king, for they today held their governorships on a transmitted basis; other ingredients included the widening circle of hereditary pattern of some Crown land and the loss of revenue on the land that the king widespread to the nobility. In addition, the royal funerary memorials and the solar temples had placed an raising burden on the kings special resources. Pepy II was perhaps senior in the later years of his reign and incapable of vigorous rulership; he may well be the old king who is observed in the literary text known as the Admonitions of Ipuwer who, isolated in his palace, is unaware of the destruction of his kingdom.

There is too evidence in Pepy IIs prevail that the frames of Egypt were being harrassed. Hekaib (another Governor of Aswan) showed how he was sent to deal with inter-tribal troubles in Nubia, and soon after the death of the king, the *Asiatics plausibly enhanced their penetrations on Egypts north-east frontier. Eventually the society of the Old Kingdom gave and was substituted by the chaotic terms of the First Intermediate Period.

King Pepy II was the last king of the Old Kingdom to build a classic pyramid complex; it is settled south of Saqqara and was excavated by Jequier between AD 1929 and 1936. It is a full example of the most won form of such a complex and shows the same standard of excellence as the pyramids of the 5th Dynasty. In the pyramid mortuary temple, food and other necessities are depicted in the wall substitutes so that these could be magically burned for the king in his next life. Wrong the enclosure wall of the complex there were three small pyramids, each with its own set of edifices; these were meant for three important queens, Neith, Iput and Udjebten.

Pyramid Complex Merenre I

Not practically remains, although there was in all probability a valley temple, as Perring (1830s) observed a causeway near 250 ms long that went some the pyarmid of Djedkare. He besides noted a permieter wall of mudbrick. The mortuary temple is completely ruined, but belike the same as pepi II's. It is potential that the pyramid texts were put in the like place as in Pepi II's pyramid.

Entered from the north side through a dropping corridor. A second cooridor is frozen with 3 granite blocks, lead to an antechamber. A hole here leads to the inhumation chamber. Sarcophagus on the west wall, cap had an astromonical base with white stars on a black downplay

Merenre I (Nemtyemzaf) (2283-2278)

Cartouche of Merenre I (Nemtyemzaf)

King Merenre I dominated from 2255 B.C.E. until his death. Merenr was the son of King Pepi I and Ankhnesmery-Re. His wife was Queen Neith or Nit, who married King Pepi II, and his daughter was Ipwet. Merenr I dominated only nine years, and he built a pyramid in Saqqara but never gone the site. Merenre I also employed the mines of Sinai, the quarries of Nubia (modern The state of Sudan), and the mines of Aswan and Hatnub, and he visited Elephantine Island at Aswan, appointing a governor for the area. He protected as well the serves of General Weni, who had been an official in the dominate of Pepi I.

The Egyptians found the River Nile set to the third cataract during Merenr Is reign. He cut 5 canals at the cataracts of the River Nile and accredited the local Nubians (modern Sudanese) to progress ships for him out of lumbers. A copper statue of Merenr I and Pepi I was discovered in Hierakonpolis. A dried up body was discovered at Saqqara, but it was belike not his remains but evidence of a later sepulture. He was brought home the bacon by his half brother, Pepi II.

Pyramid of Queen Nebwenet

Eastside of the six pyramids, she was likely a consort of Pepi I. There may be new pyramid farther east. There is small left of this pyramid, but it does contain a gentle mortuary temple Mortuary temple on the east wall, the incoming based in a snall antechamber to the north. The offering hall contained a false door. It was constructed of limestone.

Incoming is in the north courtyard under a mudbrick chapel contining alone a fragment of an altar. The incoming lead to a small descending cooridor which expanded to a chamber, blocked by a simple barrier Burying chamber is jut south of the veritcal axis of rotation of the pyramid, oriented east-west. No dedications on the walls. No mummy, but a gold granite sarcophagus was found. A serdab to the east contains wooden winding weights, wooden ostrich plumages and other funerary items