Khui was an ancient Egyptian kinglet during the early First Intermediate Period. Khui may have belonged to the

Eighth Dynasty of Egypt The Eighth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty VIII) is a poorly known and short-lived line of pharaohs reigning in rapid succession in the early 22nd century BC, likely with their seat of power in Memphis. The Eighth Dynasty held sway at a time re ...

, as

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920, Hanover – 26 June 2016, Schlehdorf) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '' Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), '' Journal of ...

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 In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

which was published in 1912 by the

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

Ahmed Bey Kamal and later republished by

Raymond Weill Raymond Weill (28 January 1874 – 13 July 1950) 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 military before starting a career with Gaston ...

. The block was excavated from a mastaba tomb of the necropolis of Dara near Manfalut. This necropolis is dominated by a massive funerary structure which was hastily attributed to this obscure king (the so-called

Pyramid of Khui The pyramid of Khui is an ancient Egyptian funerary structure datable to the early First Intermediate Period (2181 BC – 2055 BC) and located in the royal necropolis of Dara, near Manfalut in Middle Egypt and close to the entrance of the Dakhl ...

), 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 ...

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

Pharaoh or nomarch

Based on the cartouche surrounding Khui's name on the relief from Dara, Egyptologists including Jürgen von 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 ( grc, νομάρχης, egy, ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsib ...

, 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 repla ...

following the collapse of the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 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 ...

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 obs ...

, ''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