Djedefra

The Egyptian pharaoh Djedefra (or Radjedef) was the successor and son of Khufu. The mother of Djedefra is unknown. His name means "Enduring like Re.

He married his (half-) sister Hetepheres II, which may have been necessary to legitimise his claims to the throne if his mother was one of Khufu’s lesser wives.

He also had another wife, Khentet-en-ka with whom he had (at least) three sons, Setka, Baka and Hernet, and one daughter, Neferhetepes. These children are attested to by statuary fragments found in the ruined mortuary temple adjoining the pyramid. Excavations by the French team under Michel Valloggia have recently added another potential daughter, Hetepheres, as well as a son, Nikaudjedefre, to this list.

The Turin King List credits him with a rule of eight years, but the highest known year referred to during this reign was the year of the 11th cattle count. This would mean that Djedefra ruled for at least eleven years, if the cattle counts were annual, or 21 years if the cattle counts were biennial.

He was the first king to use the title Son of Ra as part of his royal titulary, which is seen as an indication of the growing popularity of the cult of the solar god Ra.

Pyramid complex

He continued the move north by building his (now ruined) pyramid at Abu Rawash, some 8 km to the North of Giza. It is the northernmost part of the Memphite necropolis.

Some believe that the sphinx of his wife, Hetepheres II, was the first sphinx created. It was part of Djedefra's pyramid complex at Abu Rawash. In 2004, evidence that Djedefra may have been responsible for the building of the Sphinx at Giza in the image of his father was reported by French Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev.

While Egyptologists previously assumed that his pyramid at the heavily denuded site of Abu Roash--some 5 kilometres north of Giza--was unfinished upon his death, more recent excavations from 1995 to 2005 have established that it was indeed completed. The most recent evidence rather indicates that his pyramid complex was extensively plundered in later periods while "the king's statues [were] smashed as late as the 2nd century AD.

Due to the poor condition of Abu Rowash, only small traces of his mortuary complex have been found; his pyramid causeway proved to run from north to south rather than the more conventional east to west while no valley temple has been found. Only the rough ground plan of his mud-brick mortuary temple was traced--with some difficulty--"in the usual place on the east face of the pyramid.

References

External Links

• Newsweek's Interactive Graphic on Djedefre's pyramid with Interactive Timeline of the major pyramids of ancient Egypt

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