| Djedefre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Djedefra, Radjedef, Ratoises,[1] Rhampsinit, Rhauosis[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Quartzite head of a sphinx of Djedefre fromAbu Rawash,Musée du Louvre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 10 to 14 years c. 2566 –c. 2558 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Khufu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Khafre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consort | Hetepheres II,Khentetka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | Hornit,Setka, andNeferhetepes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Father | Khufu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | c. 2558 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | Pyramid of Djedefre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monuments | Pyramid of Djedefre,Great Sphinx of Giza ?[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | 4th Dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Djedefre (also known asDjedefra andRadjedef; diedc. 2558 BC) was anancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the4th Dynasty during theOld Kingdom. He is well known by theHellenized form of his nameRhatoisēs (Ῥατοίσης) byManetho. Djedefre was the son and immediate throne successor ofKhufu, the builder of theGreat Pyramid of Giza; his mother is not known for certain. He is the king who introduced the royal titleSa-Rê (meaning “Son of Ra”) and the first to connect his cartouche name with the sun godRa.
Djedefre married his brotherKawab's widow,Hetepheres II. She was a sister to both of them, and who perhaps married a third brother of theirs,Khafre, after Djedefre's death.[4] Another queen,Khentetenka is known from statue fragments in the Abu Rowash mortuary temple.[5]
The French excavation team led byMichel Valloggia [fr] found the names of two other possible children of Djedefre in the pyramid complex:
TheTurin King List credits him with a rule of eight years, but the highest known year referred to during this reign appears to be the year of his 11thcattle count. The anonymous year of the 11th count date presumably of Djedefre was found written on the underside of one of the massive roofing-block beams which covered Khufu's southern boat-pits by Egyptian work crews.[8]Miroslav Verner notes that in the work crew's mason marks and inscriptions, "either Djedefra's throne name or his Golden Horus name occur exclusively."[9] Verner writes that the current academic opinion regarding the attribution of this date to Djedefre is disputed among Egyptologists:Rainer Stadelmann,Vassil Dobrev [fr],Peter Jánosi [de] favour dating it to Djedefre whereasWolfgang Helck,Anthony Spalinger [de],Jean Vercoutter andW.S. Smith attribute this date to Khufu instead on the assumption "that the ceiling block with the date had been brought to the building site of the boat pit already in Khufu's time and placed in position [only] as late as during the burial of the funerary boat in Djedefre's time."[9]
The German scholarDieter Arnold, in a 1981 MDAIK paper noted that the marks and inscriptions of the blocks from Khufu's boat pit seem to form a coherent collection relating to the different stages of the same building project realised by Djedefre's crews.[10]Verner stresses that such marks and inscriptions usually pertained to the breaking of the blocks in the quarry, their transportation, their storage and manipulation in the building site itself:[11] "In this context, the attribution of just a single inscription—and what is more, the only one with a date—on all the blocks from the boat pit to somebody other than Djedefra does not seem very plausible."[12]
Verner also notes that the French-Swiss team excavating Djedefre's pyramid have discovered that this king's pyramid was really finished in his reign. According to Michel Vallogia, Djedefre's pyramid largely made use of a natural rock promontory which represented around 45% of its core; the side of the pyramid was 200 cubits long and its height was 125 cubits.[13] The original volume of the monument of Djedefre, hence, approximately equalled that ofMenkaura's own pyramid.[14] Therefore, the argument that Djedefre enjoyed a short reign because his pyramid was unfinished is somewhat discredited.[15] This means that Djedefre likely ruled Egypt for a minimum of 11 years if thecattle count was annual, or 22 years if it was biennial; Verner, himself, supports the shorter, 11-year figure and notes that "the relatively few monuments and records left by Djedefra do not seem to favour a very long reign" for this king.[15]
Djedefre continued the move north in the location of pyramids by buildinghis (now ruined) pyramid atAbu Rawash, some 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to the north ofGiza. It is the northernmost part of theMemphitenecropolis.
While Egyptologists previously assumed that his pyramid at this heavily denuded site was unfinished upon his death, more recent excavations from 1995 to 2005 have established that it was indeed completed.[16] The most recent evidence indicates that its current state is the result of extensive plundering in later periods. The destruction started at the end of theNew Kingdom at the latest, and was particularly intense during the Roman and early Christian eras (c. 2,000 years ago) whena Coptic monastery was built in nearbyWadi Karin, while "the king's statues [were] smashed as late as the 2nd century AD."[16] As a result of Djedefre's pyramid being quarried for its stone, as such, there is little left standing today. It has been proven, moreover, that at the end of the nineteenth century, stone was still being hauled away at the rate of three hundred camel loads a day.[17] The 20th century has also not been kind to this monument – during the last century, it was used as a military camp and its proximity toCairo exposed it to modern development.[18]
Some believe that the sphinx of his wife, Hetepheres II, which was part of Djedefre's pyramid complex, was the first sphinx created. In 2004, evidence that Djedefre was responsible for the building of theSphinx at Giza in the image of his father was reported by the FrenchEgyptologist Vassil Dobrev.[3]
Due to the poor condition of Abu Rawash, only small traces of his mortuary complex have been found. Only the rough ground plan of his mud brick mortuary temple was able to be traced—with some difficulty—"in the usual place on the east face of the pyramid."[19] 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.[19]
Media related toDjedefra at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
