Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs of 5th Dyansty

 We will not write about Ancient Egyptian Dynasty 5 except :

• Sahure : 2491-2477
• Neferirkare ( Kakai ) : 2477-2467
• Shepseskare : 2467-2460
• Neferefre : 2460-2453
• Niuserre (Ini) : 2453-2422
• Menkauhor (Kaiu) : 2422-2414
• Djedkare ( Isesi ) :  2414-2375

Slightly further south lie the pyramid complexes of Neferirkare, Niuserre and Sahure, of which the last is the largest and the best preserved. Like the other 5th Dynasty pyramids, the pyramid of Sahure - the second ruler of the dynasty - is itself a rough rubble mound, but its mortuary temple on the east face is still discernible and preserves stairs that led to the roof or a second storey. A feature of the temple architecture is the splendidly carved red granite date-palm columns and the bold and deeply incised hieroglyphs of the king's name and titulary on huge granite blocks. The walls were highly decorated with finely carved scenes of conquest, hunting and expeditions, all now sadly wrecked and largely disappeared except for odd fragments preserved in museums. Reconstructions of the pyramids produced by the German team who excavated here under Ludwig Borchardt give a good impression of the area's former grandeur, with long causeways stretching down to the valley temples at the edge of the cultivation.
The reliefs in the Abusir mortuary temples offer some of the earliest pictorial evidence of trade beyond the Nile Valley. In Sahure's complex, great ships are illustrated with Egyptians and Asiatics on board. These are thought to be part of a trading fleet returning from the port of Byblos in the Lebanon with the great cedar trees that were to become a major feature in later temple building. There is certainly evidence from the Lebanon of the presence there of 5th Dynasty kings, including fragments of stone vessels bearing their cartouches and the name of Sahure on a piece of thin gold furniture fitting from the Dorak Treasure' in Turkey. Widespread trading and expeditions to the south and further into the Near East appear to increase during the next dynasty, but this may simply reflect the better-preserved records and accounts of the later period.

An innovation in this dynasty under the third king, Neferirkare, was the use of a second cartouche. This contained his name Kakai, which may have been his birth name. Thereafter most kings seem to have had a second cartouche, but not all are known. It is from the mortuary temple of Neferirkare at Abusir that the earliest extant hieratic script written on papyrus survives - a series of temple accounts, daily work rosters and equipment lists.

The return to Saqqara
The last kings of the dynasty moved back to Saqqara for their burial place. A small 80-ft (24-m) heap of rubble marks the pyramid of the penultimate ruler, Djedkare-Isesi, on the edge of the plateau; his mortuary temple, largely destroyed in the Second Intermediate Period and then used as a burial ground in the 18th Dynasty, lies nearby. It was only during excavations at the temple in 1946 that it became possible to identify the owner of the associated pyramid as Djedkare-Isesi; hitherto there had been no indication of his name within the pyramid since all the blocks lining the walls of the antechamber and burial chamber had been removed and the black basalt sarcophagus smashed. Fragments of fine reliefs were found in the mortuary temple, and also pieces of statues of foreign prisoners and various animals. The queen's pyramid and attached mortuary temple were found to have similar fine decoration when they were discovered in the early 1950s.

Posted in: Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs,Dyansty 5