Neferirkare Kakai (also known as Raneferirka Kakai and in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
as Nefercherês, Νεφερχέρης; died 2460 BC) was an
ancient Egyptian
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 ...
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...
, the third king of the
Fifth Dynasty.
Neferirkare, the eldest son of
Sahure
Sahure (also Sahura, meaning "He who is close to Ra, Re"; died 2477 BC) was a pharaoh, king of ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty ( – BC). He reigned for around 13 years in the early 25th&nbs ...
with his consort
Meretnebty
Meretnebty () was a queen consort of Egypt as a wife of king Sahure. She lived during the 5th Dynasty and was named after Two Ladies, a pair of Egyptian goddesses who protected the king.
Biography
Meretnebty's parents are not known. She is dep ...
, was known as Ranefer A before he came to the throne. He acceded the day after his father's death and reigned for around 17 years, sometime in the early to mid-25th century BCE. He was himself very likely succeeded by his eldest son, born of his queen
Khentkaus II, the prince Ranefer B who would take the throne as king
Neferefre. Neferirkare fathered another pharaoh,
Nyuserre Ini
Nyuserre Ini (also Niuserre Ini or Neuserre Ini; in Greek language, Greek known as Rathurês, ''Ῥαθούρης''; died 2422 BC) was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, king, the sixth ruler of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty during the Ol ...
, who took the throne after Neferefre's short reign and the brief rule of the poorly known
Shepseskare.
Neferirkare was acknowledged by his contemporaries as a kind and benevolent ruler, intervening in favour of his
courtier
A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the officia ...
s after a mishap. His rule witnessed a growth in the number of administration and priesthood officials, who used their expanded wealth to build architecturally more sophisticated
mastabas
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 ...
, where they recorded their biographies for the first time. Neferirkare was the last pharaoh to significantly modify the standard
royal titulary, separating the
nomen or birth name, from the
prenomen
The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...
or throne name. From his reign onwards, the former was written in a cartouche preceded by the "Son of Ra" epithet. His rule witnessed continuing trade relations with
Nubia
Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...
to the south and possibly with
Byblos
Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...
on the
Levantine coast to the north.
Neferirkare started
a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of
Abusir
Abusir ( ; Egyptian ''pr wsjr'' ' "the resting place of Osiris"; ) is the name given to an ancient Egyptian archaeological pyramid complex comprising the ruins of 4 kings' pyramids dating to the Old Kingdom period, and is part of the ...
, called ''Ba-Neferirkare'' meaning "Neferirkare is a
Ba". It was initially planned to be a
step pyramid
A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids – typically large and made of several la ...
, a form which had not been employed since the days of the
Third Dynasty around 120 years earlier. This plan was modified to transform the monument into a true pyramid, the largest in Abusir, which was never completed owing to the death of the king. In addition, Neferirkare built a
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
to the sun god
Ra called ''Setibre'', that is "Site of the heart of Ra".
Ancient sources state that it was the largest one built during the Fifth Dynasty but as of the early 21st century it has not yet been located.
After his death, Neferirkare benefited from a
funerary cult taking place in his mortuary temple, which had been completed by his son Nyuserre Ini. This cult seems to have disappeared at the end of the Old Kingdom period, although it might have been revived during the
Twelfth Dynasty
The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is a series of rulers reigning from 1991–1802 BC (190 years), at what is often considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI–XIV). The dynasty periodically expanded its terr ...
of the
Middle Kingdom, albeit in a very limited form. In all probability, it was also around this time that the story of the
Papyrus Westcar was first written, a tale where
Userkaf
Userkaf (known in Ancient Greek as , ; died 2491 BC) was a pharaoh, king of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty. He reigned for around seven years in the early 25th century BC, during the Old Kingdom of Egy ...
, Sahure and Neferirkare are said to be brothers, the sons of Ra with a woman
Rededjet.
Sources
Contemporaneous sources
Neferirkare is well attested in sources contemporaneous with his reign. Beyond his pyramid complex, he is mentioned in the tomb of many of his contemporaries such as his vizier
Washptah, the courtier Rawer and the priest
Akhethetep. Neferirkare also appears in the nearly contemporaneous
Giza writing board, a short list grouping six kings from different dynasties dating to the later Fifth or early
Sixth Dynasty
The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third Dynasty of Egypt, Third, Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egyp ...
. The writing board was uncovered in the tomb of a high official named Mesdjerw, who may have composed it for his use in the
afterlife
The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...
.
Historical sources
Neferirkare is attested in two ancient Egyptian king lists, both dating to the
New Kingdom
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
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* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995
* "New" (Daya song), 2017
* "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
. The earliest of these is the
Abydos King List
The Abydos King List, also known as the Abydos Table or the Abydos Tablet, is a list of the names of 76 kings of ancient Egypt, found on a wall of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. It consists of three rows of 38 cartouches (borders enclos ...
written during the reign of
Seti I
Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek language, Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom period, ruling or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and th ...
(fl. 1290–1279 BCE). There, Neferirkare's
nomen "Kakai" occupies the 28th entry, in between those of Sahure and Neferefre. During the subsequent reign of
Ramesses II
Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...
(fl. 1279–1213 BCE), Neferirkare's
prenomen
The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...
was recorded on the 27th entry of the
Saqqara Tablet, but this time as a successor of Sahure and predecessor of Shepseskare.
Neferirkare was also given an entry in the
Turin canon, a document dating to the reign of Ramesses II as well. Neferirkare's entry is commonly believed to be in the third column-19th row; unfortunately this line has been lost in a large lacuna affecting the papyrus, and neither his reign length nor his successor can be ascertained from the surviving fragments. The Egyptologist
Miroslav Verner has furthermore proposed that the Turin canon makes a new dynasty start with this entry and thus that Neferirkare would be its founder. The division of the Turin canon list of kings into dynasties is a currently debated topic. The Egyptologist Jaromír Málek, for example, sees the divisions between groups of kings occurring in the canon as marking transfers of royal residence rather than the rise and fall of royal dynasties, as this term is currently understood. That usage only began in the Egyptian context with the 3rd-century BCE work of the priest
Manetho
Manetho (; ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος, ''fl''. 290–260 BCE) was an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who lived in the early third century BCE, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. Little is certain about his ...
. Similarly, the Egyptologist Stephan Seidlmeyer, considers the break in the Turin Canon at the end of the Eighth Dynasty to represent the relocation of the royal residence from Memphis to Herakleopolis. The Egyptologist John Baines holds views that are closer to Verner's, believing that the canon was divided into dynasties, with totals for the time elapsed given at the end of each, though only a few such divisions have survived. Similarly, Professor John Van Seters views the breaks in the canon as divisions between dynasties, but in contrast, states that the criterion for these divisions remains unknown. He speculates that the pattern of dynasties may have been taken from the nine divine kings of the
Greater and Lesser Enneads. The Egyptologist
Ian Shaw believes that the Turin Canon gives some credibility to Manetho's division of dynasties, but considers the king lists to be a form of ancestor worship and not a historical record. This whole problem could be mooted by another of Verner's speculations, where he proposes that Neferirkare's entry may have been located on the 20th line rather than the 19th, as is usually believed. This would credit Neferirkare with a seven-year reign, and would make Sahure the dynasty founder, according to the hypothesis that the canon records such events. Archaeological evidence has established that the transitions from Userkaf to Sahure and from Sahure to Neferirkare were father–son transitions, so that neither Sahure nor Neferirkare can be dynasty founders in the modern sense of the term.
Neferirkare was mentioned in the ''
Aegyptiaca'', a history of Egypt written in the 3rd century BCE during the reign of
Ptolemy II
Ptolemy II Philadelphus (, ''Ptolemaîos Philádelphos'', "Ptolemy, sibling-lover"; 309 – 28 January 246 BC) was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I, the Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the G ...
(283–246 BCE) by Manetho. No copies of the Aegyptiaca have survived to this day and it is now known only through later writings by
Sextus Julius Africanus
Sextus Julius Africanus ( 160 – c. 240; ) was a Christian traveler and historian of the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries. He influenced fellow historian Eusebius, later writers of Church history among the Church Fathers, and the Greek sch ...
and
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...
. The
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
scholar
George Syncellus
George Syncellus (, ''Georgios Synkellos''; died after 810) was a Byzantine chronicler and ecclesiastical official. He lived many years in Palestine (probably in the Old Lavra of Saint Chariton or Souka, near Tekoa) as a monk, before coming to Cons ...
reports that Africanus relates that the ''Aegyptiaca'' mentioned the succession "Sephrês → Nefercherês → Sisirês" for the early Fifth Dynasty. Sephrês, Nefercherês and Sisirês are believed to be the
hellenized
Hellenization or Hellenification is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language, and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonisation often led to the Hellenisation of indigenous people in the Hellenistic period, many of the te ...
forms for Sahure, Neferirkare and Shepseskare, respectively. Thus, Manetho's reconstruction of the Fifth Dynasty is in agreement with the Saqqara tablet. In Africanus'
epitome
An epitome (; , from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "to the degree of." A ...
of the ''Aegyptiaca'', Nefercherês is reported to have reigned for 20 years.
Family
Parents and siblings

Until 2005, the identity of Neferirkare's parents was uncertain. Some
Egyptologists
This is a partial list of Egyptologists. An Egyptologist is any archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specializes in Egyptology, the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and its antiquities. Demotists are Egyptologists who speciali ...
, including
Nicolas Grimal,
William Hayes, Hartwig Altenmüller, Aidan Dodson, and Dyan Hilton, viewed him as a son of
Userkaf
Userkaf (known in Ancient Greek as , ; died 2491 BC) was a pharaoh, king of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty. He reigned for around seven years in the early 25th century BC, during the Old Kingdom of Egy ...
and
Khentkaus I, and a brother to his predecessor Sahure. The main impetus behind this theory was the
Westcar Papyrus
The Westcar Papyrus (inventory-designation: ''P. Berlin 3033'') is an ancient Egyptian text containing five stories about miracles performed by priests and magicians. In the papyrus text, each of these tales are told at the royal court of King ...
, an Ancient Egyptian story narrating the rise of the Fifth Dynasty. In it, a magician prophesizes to
Khufu
Khufu or Cheops (died 2566 BC) was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his ...
that the future demise of his lineage will be in the form of three brothers – the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty, born of the god
Ra and a woman named
Rededjet. Egyptologists such as Verner have sought to discern a historical truth in this account, proposing that Sahure and Neferirkare were siblings born of queen
Khentkaus I.
In 2005, excavations of the causeway leading up to Sahure's pyramid yielded new relief fragments which showed indisputably that king Sahure was Neferirkare's father. Indeed, these reliefs—discovered by Verner and Tarek El Awady—depict Sahure and
Meretnebty
Meretnebty () was a queen consort of Egypt as a wife of king Sahure. She lived during the 5th Dynasty and was named after Two Ladies, a pair of Egyptian goddesses who protected the king.
Biography
Meretnebty's parents are not known. She is dep ...
together with his two sons, Ranefer and Netjerirenre. While both sons are given the title of "king's eldest son", possibly indicating that they were twins, Ranefer is shown closer to Sahure and also given the title of "chief lector-priest", which may reflect that he was born first and thus given higher positions. Since Ranefer is known to have been the name of Neferirkare before he took the throne, as indicated by reliefs from the mortuary temple of Sahure (see below), no doubt remains as to Neferirkare's
filiation
Filiation is the legal term for the recognized legal status of the relationship between family members, or more specifically the legal relationship between parent and child. As described by the Government of Quebec:
Filiation is the relationship ...
. Nothing more is known about Netjerirenre, an observation which has led Verner and El-Awady to speculate that he could have attempted to seize the throne upon the unexpected death of Neferirkare's son and successor Neferefre, who died in his early twenties after two years on the throne. In this conjectural hypothesis, he would be the ephemeral
Shepseskare. Finally, the same relief, as well as an additional one, record a further four sons of Sahure – Khakare, Horemsaf, Raemsaf, and Nebankhre. The identity of their mother(s) is unknown, so they are, at minimum, half-brothers to Neferirkare.
Consort and children
As of the early 21st century, the only known queen of Neferirkare is
Khentkaus II. This is due to the position of her pyramid next to that of Neferirkare as was normal for the consort of a king, as well as her title of "king's wife" and several reliefs representing both of them together. Neferirkare could possibly have had at least one other spouse, as suggested by the presence of a small pyramid next to that of Khentkaus, but this remains conjectural.
Children with Khentkaus II
*
Isi (
c. 2480 BC -
c. 2458 BC): This relationship is confirmed by a relief on a limestone slab discovered in a house in the village near Abusir depicting Neferirkare Isi and his wife
Khentkaus with "the king's eldest son Ranefer", a name identical with some variants of Neferefre's own. This indicates that, just as for Neferirkare, Ranefer was Neferefre's name when he was still only a
crown prince
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent.
''Crown prince ...
, that is, before his accession to the throne.
*
Ini (died
c. 2422 BC): This relationship is confirmed since excavations of her mortuary temple yielded a fragmentary relief showing her facing Nyuserre and his family. Remarkably, on this relief, both Khentkaus and Nyuserre appear on the same scale, an observation which may be connected with Khentkaus' enhanced status during Nyuserre's reign, as he sought to legitimise his rule following the premature death of Neferefre and the possible challenge by Shepseskare. Further evidence for the filiation of Nyuserre are the location of his pyramid next to that of Neferirkare, as well as his reuse for his own valley temple of materials from Neferikare's unfinished constructions.
Possible children with Khentkaus II
* Iryenre: Yet another son of Neferirkare and Khentkhaus has been proposed, probably younger than both Neferefre and Nyuserre. A prince ''
iry-pat
Iry-pat ( "member of the elite") was an ancient Egyptian ranking title, that is a title announcing a high position in the hierarchy of the country. Iry-pat was indeed the highest ranking title at the royal court, and only the most important offic ...
'' whose relationship is suggested by the fact that his
funerary cult was associated with that of his mother, both having taken place in the temple of Khentkaus II.
*
Khentkaus III: Neferirkare and Khentkaus II may also be the parents of the queen consort whose tomb was discovered in Abusir in 2015. Indeed, based on the location and general date for her tomb, as well as her titles of "king's wife" and "king's mother", Khentkaus III was almost certainly Neferefre's consort and the mother of either
Menkauhor Kaiu
Menkauhor Kaiu (also known as Ikauhor and in Ancient Greek, Greek as Mencherês, Μεγχερῆς; died 2414 BC) was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, king of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom period. He was the seventh ruler of the Fifth Dynas ...
or
Shepseskare.
Reign
Duration
Manetho's ''Aegyptiaca'' assigns Neferirkare a reign of 20 years, but the archaeological evidence now suggests that this is an overestimate. First, the damaged
Palermo Stone
The Palermo Stone is one of seven surviving fragments of a stele known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The stele contained a list of the kings of Egypt from the First Dynasty (c.3150–2890 BCE) through to the early par ...
preserves ''the year of the 5th
cattle count'' for Neferirkare's time on the throne. The cattle count was an important event aimed at evaluating the amount of taxes to be levied on the population. By the reign of Neferirkare, this involved counting cattle, oxen and small livestock. This event is believed to have been biennial during the Old Kingdom period, that is occurring once every two years, meaning that Neferirkare reigned at least ten years. Given the shape of the Palermo stone, this record must correspond to his final year or be close to it, so that he ruled no more than eleven years. This is further substantiated by two cursive inscriptions left by masons on stone blocks from the pyramids of Khentkaus II and Neferirkare, both of which also date to Neferirkare's fifth cattle count, its highest known regnal year. Finally, Verner has pointed out that a 20-year-long reign would be difficult to reconcile with the unfinished state of his pyramid in Abusir.
Activities in Egypt

Beyond his construction of a pyramid and sun temple, little is known of Neferirkare's activities during his time on the throne. Some events dating to his first and final years of reign are recorded on the surviving fragments of the Palermo stone, a royal
annal
Annals (, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record.
Scope
The nature of the distinction between annals and histo ...
covering the period from the start of the reign of
Menes
Menes ( ; ; , probably pronounced *; and Μήν) was a pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, credited by classical tradition with having united Upper and Lower Egypt, and as the founder of the First Dynasty.
The identity of M ...
of the
First Dynasty until around the time of Neferirkare's rule. According to the Palermo stone, the future pharaoh Neferirkare, then called prince Ranefer,
ascended the throne the day after his father Sahure's death, which occurred on the 28th day of
the ninth month.
The annal then records that in his first year as king, Neferirkare granted land to the agricultural estates serving the cults of the Ennead, the
Souls of Pe and Nekhen and the gods of Keraha. To Ra and
Hathor
Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god R ...
, he dedicated an offering table provided with 210 daily offerings, and ordered the construction of two store rooms and the employment of new dependents in the host temple.
Neferirkare also commanded "the fashioning and
opening of the mouth of an
electrum
Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially and is ...
statue of
he god Ihy, escorting
tto the ''mrt''-chapel of
Snefru of the ''nht''-shrine of Hathor". Later in his reign, in the year of the fifth cattle count, Neferirkare had a bronze statue of himself erected and set up four
barques
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-masted barques) is rigged fore and aft. Som ...
for Ra and Horus in and around his sun temple, two of which were of copper. The Souls of Pe and Nekhen and
Wadjet
Wadjet (; "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient Egyptian Tutelary deity, local goddess of the city of Dep or Buto in Lower Egypt, ...
received electrum endowments, while
Ptah
Ptah ( ; , ; ; ; ) is an ancient Egyptian deity, a creator god, and a patron deity of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertem. He was also regarded as the father of the ...
was given lands.
The fact that the
Palermo stone
The Palermo Stone is one of seven surviving fragments of a stele known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The stele contained a list of the kings of Egypt from the First Dynasty (c.3150–2890 BCE) through to the early par ...
terminates around Neferirkare's rule led some scholars, such as Grimal, to propose that they might have been compiled during his reign.
Administration
Few specific administrative actions taken by Neferirkare are known. One decree of his inscribed on a limestone slab was excavated in 1903 in
Abydos and is now in the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. The decree exempts personnel belonging to a temple of
Khenti-Amentiu from undertaking compulsory labour in perpetuity, under penalty of forfeiture of all property and freedom and be forced to work the fields or in a stone quarry. This decree indirectly suggests that taxation and compulsory labour was imposed on everybody as a general rule.
More generally, Neferirkare's reign saw the growth of the Egyptian administration and priesthood, which amassed more power than in earlier reigns, although the king remained a living god. In particular the positions of viziers and overseer of the expedition, that is the highest offices, were opened to people from outside the royal family.
In conjunction with this trend, the
mastabas
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 ...
of high officials started to become more elaborate, with, for example, chapels including multiple rooms, and from the mid to late Fifth Dynasty, wide entrance porticoes with columns and family tomb complexes. It is also at this time that these officials started to record
autobiographies
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This Literary genre, genre allows individua ...
on the walls of their tombs.
Modification of the royal titulary
The reign of Neferirkare Kakai saw the last important modification to the
titulary of pharaohs. He was the earliest pharaoh to separate the ''nswt-bjtj'' ("King of Upper and Lower Egypt") and ''Z3-Rˁ'' ("Son of Ra") epithets of the royal titulary. He associated these two epithets with two different, independent names: the
prenomen
The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...
and
nomen, respectively. The prenomen or throne name, taken by the new king as he ascended the throne, was written in a cartouche immediately after the bee and sedge signs for ''nswt-bjtj''. From Neferirkare's time onwards, the nomen, or birth name, was also written in a cartouche systematically preceded by the glyphs for "Son of Ra", an epithet which had seen little use in preceding times.
Trade and military activities
There is little evidence for military action during Neferirkare's reign.
William C. Hayes proposed that a few fragmentary limestone statues of kneeling and bound prisoners of war discovered in his mortuary temple possibly attest to punitive raids in Libya to the west or the
Sinai and
Canaan
CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...
to the east during his reign. The art historian William Stevenson Smith commented that such statues were customary elements of the decoration of royal temples and mastabas, suggesting that they may not be immediately related to actual military campaigns. Similar statues and small wooden figures of kneeling captives were discovered in the mortuary complexes of Neferefre,
Djedkare Isesi
Djedkare Isesi (known in Greek as Tancheres; died 2375 BC) was a king, the eighth and penultimate ruler of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt in the late 25th century to mid-24th century BC, during the Old Kingdom. Djedkare succeeded Menkauhor Kaiu ...
,
Unas
Unas or Wenis, also spelled Unis (, Hellenization, hellenized form Oenas or Onnos; died 2345), was a pharaoh, king, the ninth and last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Unas reigned for 15 to 3 ...
,
Teti
Teti, less commonly known as Othoes, sometimes also Tata, Atat, or Athath in outdated sources (died 2333 BC), was the first pharaoh, king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. He was buried at Saqqara. The exact length of his reign has been destroye ...
,
Pepi I
Pepi I Meryre (also Pepy I; died 2283 BC) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, king, third king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled for over 40 years from the 24th to the 23rd century BC, toward the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Ki ...
and
Pepi II as well as in the tomb of vizier
Senedjemib Mehi.
Trade relations with
Nubia
Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...
are the only ones attested to during Neferirkare's reign. The archaeological evidence for this are seal impressions and
ostracon
An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...
bearing his name uncovered in the fortress of
Buhen
Buhen, alternatively known as Βοὥν (Bohón) in Ancient Greek, stands as a significant ancient Egyptian settlement on the western bank of the Nile, just below the Second Cataract in present-day Northern State, Sudan. Its origins trace back t ...
, on the
second cataract of the Nile. Contacts with
Byblos
Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...
on the
Levantine coast might also have happened during Neferirkare's rule, as suggested by a single alabaster bowl inscribed with his name unearthed there.
Personality

Neferirkare's reign was unusual for the significant number of surviving contemporary records which describe him as a kind and gentle ruler. When
Rawer, an elderly nobleman and royal courtier, was accidentally touched by the king's mace during a religious ceremony—a dangerous situation which could have caused this official to be put immediately to death or banished from court since the pharaoh was viewed as a living god in
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 ...
mythology—Neferirkare quickly pardoned Rawer and commanded that no harm should occur to the latter for the incident. As Rawer gratefully states in an inscription from his
Giza
Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...
tomb:
Similarly, Neferirkare gave the Priest of Ptah
Ptahshepses the unprecedented honour of kissing his feet rather than the ground in front of him. Finally, when the vizier
Washptah suffered a stroke while attending court, the king quickly summoned the palace's chief doctors to treat his dying vizier. When Washptah died, Neferirkare was reportedly inconsolable and retired to his personal quarters to mourn the loss of his friend. The king then ordered the purification of Washptah's body in his presence and ordered an ebony coffin made for the deceased vizier. Washptah was buried with special endowments and rituals courtesy of Neferirkare. The records of the king's actions are inscribed in Washptah's tomb itself and emphasize Neferirkare's humanity towards his subjects.
Building activities
Pyramid complex
Pyramid

The
Pyramid of Neferirkare Kakai, known to the Ancient Egyptians as ''Ba-Neferirkare'' and variously translated as "Neferirkare is a
Ba" or "Neferirkare takes form", is located in the royal necropolis of Abusir. It is the largest one built during the Fifth Dynasty, equalling roughly the size of the
Pyramid of Menkaure
The pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three main pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex, located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. It is thought to have been built to serve as the tomb of the Menkaure , Four ...
. Workers and artisans who built the pyramid and its surrounding complex lived in pyramid town "Neferirkare-is-the-soul" or "Kakai-is-the-soul", located in Abusir.
The pyramid construction comprised three stages: first built were six steps of rubble, their retaining walls made of locally quarried limestone indicating that the monument was originally planned to be a
step pyramid
A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids – typically large and made of several la ...
, an unusual design for the time which had not been used since the
Third Dynasty, some 120 years earlier. At this point the pyramid, had it been completed, would have reached . This plan was then altered by a second construction stage with the addition of filling between the steps meant to transform the monument into a true pyramid. At a later stage, the workers enlarged the pyramid further, adding a girdle of masonry and smooth casing stones of red granite. This work was never finished, even after the works implemented by Nyuserre.
With a square base of sides, the pyramid would have reached high had it been completed. Today it is in ruins owing to extensive stone robbing. The entrance to the pyramid's substructures was located on its north side. There, a descending corridor with a
gable roof made of limestone beams led into a burial chamber. No pieces of the sarcophagus of the king were found there.
The pyramid of Neferirkare is surrounded by smaller pyramids and tombs which seem to form an architectural unit, the cemetery of his close family. This ensemble was meant to be reached from the Nile via a causeway and a valley temple near the river. At the death of Neferirkare, only the foundations of both had been laid and Nyuserre later diverted the unfinished causeway to his
own pyramid.
Mortuary temple
The mortuary temple was far from finished at the death of Neferirkare but it was completed later, by his sons Neferefre and Nyuserre Ini using cheap
mudbrick
Mudbrick or mud-brick, also known as unfired brick, is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of mud (containing loam, clay, sand and water) mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE.
From ...
s and wood rather than stone. A significant cache of administrative papyri, known as the
Abusir papyri
The Abusir Papyri are the largest papyrus findings to date from the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt. The first papyri were discovered in 1893 at Abu Gorab near Abusir in northern Egypt. Their origins are dated to around the 24th century BC during ...
, was uncovered there by illegal diggers in 1893 and subsequently by Borchardt in 1903. Further papyri were also uncovered in the mid-seventies during a
University of Prague Egyptological Institute excavation. The presence of this cache is due to the peculiar historical circumstances of the mid-Fifth Dynasty.
As both Neferirkare and his heir Neferefre died before their pyramid complexes could be finished, Nyuserre altered their planned layout, diverting the causeway leading to Neferirkare's pyramid to his own. This meant that Neferefre's and Neferirkare's mortuary complexes became somewhat isolated on the Abusir plateau, their priests therefore had to live next to the temple premises in makeshift dwellings, and they stored the administrative records onsite. In contrast, the records of other temples were kept in the pyramid town close to Sahure's or Nyuserre's pyramid, where the current level of ground water means any papyrus has long since disappeared.
The Abusir papyri record some details pertaining to Neferirkare's mortuary temple. Its central chapel housed a niche with five statues of the king. The central one is described in the papyri as being a representation of the king as
Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
, while the first and last ones depicted him as the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, respectively. The temple also comprised store-rooms for the offerings, where numerous
stone vessels—now broken—had been deposited. Finally the papyri indicate that of the four boats included in the mortuary complex, two were buried to the north and south of the pyramid, one of which was unearthed by Verner.
During the
Late Period of ancient Egypt
The Late Period of ancient Egypt refers to the last flowering of native Egyptian rulers after the Third Intermediate Period in the 26th Saite Dynasty founded by Psamtik I, but includes the time of Achaemenid Persian rule over Egypt after the ...
(664–332 BCE) the mortuary temple of Neferirkare was used as a secondary cemetery. A gravestone made of yellow
calcite
Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
was discovered by Borchardt bearing an
Aramaic
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
inscription reading "Belonging to Nesneu, son of Tapakhnum". Another inscription in Aramaic found on a limestone block and dating to the fifth century BCE reads "Mannukinaan son of Sewa".
Sun temple
Neferirkare is known from ancient sources to have built a temple to the sun god Ra, which is yet to be identified archaeologically. It was called ''Setibre'', meaning "Site of the heart of Ra", and was, according to contemporary sources, the largest one built during the Fifth Dynasty. It is possible that the temple was only built out of mudbricks, with a planned completion in stone which had not started when Neferirkare died. In this case, it would rapidly have turned into ruins that would be very difficult to locate for archaeologists. Alternatively, the Egyptologist
Rainer Stadelmann
Rainer Stadelmann (24 October 1933 – 14 January 2019) was a German Egyptology, Egyptologist. He was considered an expert on the archaeology of the Giza Plateau.
Biography
After studying in Neuburg an der Donau in 1953, he studied Egyptology, ...
has proposed that the ''Setibre'' as well as the sun temples of Sahure and Userkaf were one and the same known building,
that attributed to Userkaf in Abusir. This hypothesis has been dispelled in late 2018 thanks to advanced analyses of the verso of the Palermo stone by the Czech Institute of Archeology, which enabled the reading of inscriptions mentioning precisely the architecture of the temple as well as lists of donations it received.
Of all the sun temples built during the Fifth Dynasty, the ''Setibre'' is the one most commonly cited in ancient sources. Due to this, some details of its layout are known: it had a large central obelisk, an altar and store-rooms, a sealed barque room housing two boats and a "hall of the '
Sed festival
The Sed festival (''ḥb-sd'', Egyptian language#Egyptological pronunciation, conventional pronunciation ; also known as Heb Sed or Feast of the Tail) was an ancient Egyptian ceremony that celebrated the continued rule of a pharaoh. The name is ...
. Religious festivals did certainly take place in sun temples, as is attested to by the Abusir papyri. In the case of the ''Setibre'', the festival of the "Night of Ra" is specifically said to have taken place there. This was a festival concerned with Ra's journey during the night and connected with the ideas of renewal and rebirth that were central to sun temples.
The temple played an important role in the distribution of food offerings which were brought everyday from there to the mortuary temple of the king. This journey was made by boat, indicating that the ''Setibre'' was not adjacent to Neferirkare's pyramid. This also underscores the dependent position of the king with respect to Ra, as offerings were made to the sun god and then to the deceased king.
Sun temple of Userkaf
The Egyptologist Werner Kaiser proposed, based on a study of the evolution of the hieroglyph determinative for "sun temple", that Neferirkare completed the sun temple of Userkaf—known in Ancient Egyptian as ''Nekhenre''—sometime around the fifth cattle count of his reign. This opinion is shared by the Egyptologists and archaeologists Ogden Goelet,
Mark Lehner
Mark Lehner (born 1950 in Dakota) is an American archaeology, archaeologist with more than 30 years of experience excavating in Egypt. He is the director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) and has appeared in numerous television documenta ...
and
Herbert Ricke. In this hypothesis, Neferirkare would have provided the ''Nekhenre'' with its monumental obelisk of limestone and red granite.
Verner and the Egyptologist
Paule Posener-Kriéger
Paule Violette Posener-Kriéger (18 April 1925 - 11 May 1996) was a French Egyptologist who was director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Institut français d'archéologie orientale from 1981 to 1989. While in Abusir, she excavat ...
have pointed out two difficulties with the hypothesis. Firstly, it would imply a long interlude between the two phases of construction of Userkaf's temple: nearly 25 years between the erection of the temple and that of its obelisk. Secondly, they observe that both the pyramid and sun temple of Neferirkare were unfinished at his death, raising the question as to why the king would have devoted exceptional effort on a monument of Userkaf when his own still required substantial works to be completed. Instead, Verner proposes that it was Sahure who finished the ''Nekhenre''.
Funerary cult

As with the other pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty, Neferirkare was the object of a funerary cult after his death. Cylinder seals belonging to priests and priestesses serving in this cult attest his existence during the
Old Kingdom period.
For example, a black steatite seal, now in the
Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...
bears the inscription "
Votary of
Hathor
Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god R ...
and priestess of the good god Neferirkare, beloved of the gods". Some of these officials had roles in the cults of several kings, as well as in their sun temples.
Offerings for the funerary cult of deceased rulers were provided by dedicated agricultural estates set up during the king's reign. A few of these are known for Neferirkare, including "The estate of Kakai (named) the ''i3gt'' of Kakai", "Strong is the power of Kakai", "The plantations of Kakai", "
Nekhbet
Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebet) is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb (her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron ...
desires that Kakai lives", "Neferirkare is beloved of the ennead" and "The mansion of the Ba of Neferirkare".
Traces of the continued existence of the funerary cult of Neferirkare beyond the Old Kingdom period are scant. A pair of statues belonging to a certain Sekhemhotep were uncovered in Giza, one of which is inscribed with the standard
Ancient Egyptian offering formula followed by "of the temple of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neferirkare,
true of voice". The statues, which date to the early 12th Dynasty of the
Middle Kingdom period are the only archaeological evidence that Neferirkare's funerary cult still existed or had been revived around Abusir at the time, albeit in a very limited form.
Notes, references and sources
Notes
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neferirkare Kakai
25th-century BC pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt
3rd-millennium BC births
25th-century BC deaths