Khui () was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian king and/or nomarch during the early

First Intermediate Period The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. It comprises the seventh Dynasty, Seventh (altho ...

. Khui may have belonged to the

Eighth Dynasty of Egypt The Eighth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty VIII) was a little-known and short-lived dynasty of pharaohs who ruled in quick succession during the early 22nd century BC, likely based in Memphis. The Eighth Dynasty held sway at a time referred to ...

, as Jürgen Beckerath has proposed, or he may instead have been a provincial nomarch who proclaimed himself king.

Attestation

Khui is not known from historical sources and the only certain attestation of his existence is a fragmentary relief on a stone block showing his

cartouche upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the bottom., Birth and throne cartouches of Pharaoh KV17.html" ;"title="Seti I, from KV17">Seti I, from KV17 at the ...

which was published in 1912 by the

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

Ahmed Bey Kamal and later republished by

Raymond Weill Raymond Weill (28 January 1874 – 13 July 1950), whose full name was Raymond Charles Isaac Weill, was a French archaeologist specialized in Egyptology. Biography Born on 28 January 1874 in Elbeuf, 28 January 1874 in Elbeuf began his career in ...

. The block was excavated from a

mastaba A mastaba ( , or ), also mastabah or mastabat) is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks or limestone. These edifices marked the burial sites ...

tomb of the

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

of Dara near

Manfalut Manfalut ( ', ; ) is a city in Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile, in the Asyut Governorate. The city is at 350 km (230 miles) south of Cairo. In 2006, it had a population of 82,585 people. Local agriculture includes cotton pr ...

. This necropolis is dominated by a massive funerary structure which was hastily attributed to this obscure king (the so-called Pyramid of Khui), assuming that the block came from its almost disappeared

mortuary temple Mortuary temples (or funerary temples) were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh under whom they were constructed, as well as f ...

.Mark Lehner, ''The Complete Pyramids'', Thames & Hudson, , p. 164Egyptian History Dyn. 6-11
/ref>

King or nomarch

Based on the cartouche surrounding Khui's name on the relief from Dara, Egyptologists including Jürgen Beckerath have proposed that he was a king of the early First Intermediate Period, belonging to the Eighth Dynasty. On the other hand, Egyptologists Barry Kemp and

Toby Wilkinson Toby Alexander Howard Wilkinson, (born 1969) is an English Egyptologist and academic. After studying Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, he was Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow in Egyptology at Christ's College, Cambridge (1993 to 199 ...

believe it more likely that Khui was a

nomarch A nomarch (, Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called Nome (Egypt), nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsible for a nome. Etymology The te ...

, that is a provincial governor, who took advantage of the

power vacuum In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum to the political condition "when someone in a place of power, has lost control of something and no one has replac ...

following the collapse of the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...

and proclaimed himself king, in the same way as the coeval and neighboring Heracleopolite founders of the

9th Dynasty The Ninth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty IX) is often combined with the 7th, 8th, 10th and early 11th Dynasties under the group title First Intermediate Period. The dynasty that seems to have supplanted the Eighth Dynasty is extremely obsc ...

, ''The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt'', New York, Random House, 2010, p. 123.

References

Bibliography

*Jürgen von Beckerath, ''Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägypten'', Zabern Verlag Mainz, 1994, p. 151. . * Thomas Schneider, ''Lexikon der Pharaonen'', Düsseldorf, Albatros Verlag, 2002, p. 104. . 22nd-century BC pharaohs Pharaohs of the Eighth Dynasty of Egypt Nomarchs {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub 3rd-millennium BC births 22nd-century BC deaths