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| Statue of Sneferu |
Sneferu, the first pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty, likely was the son of his precursor Huni and Meresankh I, one of Hunis secondary married women. His marriage to his half-sister, Hetepheres I, comes out to have legitimised his exact to the throne. Although the kings of the 4th Dynasty are thus descendents of the kings of the 3rd Dynasty, Manetho justifies his placing them in a separate dynasty because Sneferu come from a different line in the royal family. Next to Hetepheres, Sneferu was tied to at least two other but unknown queens, with whom he had different children. A first queen bore him 4 youngsters: one whose discover isanonymous, Nefermaat, Rahotep and Ranofer. Hetepheres only seems to have born him one child, Kheops. With his third wife, Sneferu may have had one or two children: Kanefer and perhaps Ankh-haf. Nefermaat and Rahotep were forgot at the cemetery of Meidum, near the pyramid often incorrectly credited Huni. This looks to suggest that they were an older genesis of Sneferu's young, from before he moved to the newer inhumation grounds of Dashur, some 45 kilometers to the North. According to Manetho, the first king of the 4th Dynasty ruled for 29 years, but Turin King-list column 3, line 9 only notes 24 years. The Palermo Stone mentions a 6th to 8th cattle count, but is unfortunately half at this point. It does point, however, that the cattle counts during Sneferu's rule were not always held at 2-year intervals, making it difficult to cans how long this king very ruled.
According to the said Palermo Stone, Sneferu closed an expedition to Lebanon to hold the high quality true cedar wood needed for the constructing of ships, holy barks and doors of palaces. He besides ordered one or more military expeditions into Nubia, bringing back a large quantity of people and cattle and is believed to be the founder of the fortress Buhen, near the 2nd cataract in Nubia. Although his bearing in the Sinai is no more different as that of his predecessors, he would later be precious as a god in this region. His private policy seems to have been aimed at maintaining royalty and the grand family. Most, but not all, of the high-placed officials and nobles at his court were members of his family. He was also responsible for rearranging the land ownership among his nobles, probably to forbid them from proper too powerful but also to stimulate the cultivation of marshes. It is generally believed that Sneferu was true for the completion of his precursors pyramid at Meidum, although there is no evidence of Huni's engagement in the building of that pyramid. It is therefor possible that Sneferu constructed the pyramid at Meidum, as well two pyramids at Dashur. It is unknown why Sneferu moved the location of the inhumation reasons to Dashur and not back to the more traditional Sakkara. The angle of the sides of the south pyramid at Dashur, believed by some to be the oldest of the two, was changed from 5431 to 4321 somewhere halfway the establishing, leading in the special shape of this so-called "Bent Pyramid". It has been argued that the angle was decreased in order to decrease the mass of the pyramid, fearing it would crumble otherwise, or in order to decrease the workload. The northern pyramid is the first "true" pyramid, with angles of 4336. It is called the "Red Pyramid" because of the colour its stones shine at sunset. The fact that it has nearly the same angle as the top of the Bent Pyramid, has constant the belief that the Bent Pyramid was the latest of the two.
Sneferu besides became somewhat of a popular form after his death. His monuments are observed in the Middle Kingdom story of Sinuhe and he himself is identified as a wise and kind ruler in the story on the Westcar Papyrus. The first king of the 4th Dynasty was an open military leader. His campaigns against the Nubians and the Libyans are qualified on the Palermo Stone. He began trade with the Mediterranean nations and initiated a series of building projects throughout Egypt. To supply Egypt with timber, he sent a fleet of forty ships to Lebanon. While there, he put up monuments to commemorate the event. He developed his mortuary complex at Dashur, taking on the Maidum Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid, and the Red Pyramid. The bent pyramid is thought to be an architectural link between the Step Pyramid and the true pyramids. Sneferu was deify by the kings of the 12th Dynasty. Many of the swayer of that time improved their hold mortuary complexes beside his. Sneferu was the break of the 4th dynasty and Nearly likely the son of his herald king Huni and one of his secondary wives - Meresankh I. By marrying one of his half-sister Hetepheres I, Sneferu became the pharaoh over the two countries. His queen appears to have given him but one lasting child - Khufu, but with two secondary checks he had: Nefermaat, Rahotep, Ranofer, Kanofer and Ankh-haf plus one whose name is stranger. The first two were swallowed at Meidum.
His internal policy seems to have been focused on keeping centralised power and keep it to spread among high-placed officials and noblesses. He therefore rearranged the land- ownership nation wide, belike to prevent these families from becoming too powerful. Sneferu completed the big pyramid at Meidum, a monument presumed to have been built by his father Huni. Then he for some strange reason, moved the position of the royal inhumation grounds from the remote southern Meidum to Dashur a trip of 90 km to the north just 10 km south of the old royal burying ground of the capital at Sakkara. At his new founded cemetery he erected two great pyramids.
