Khufu


Khufu or Cheops was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, reigning during the 26th century BC in the early Old Kingdom period. Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but many other aspects of his reign are poorly documented. Khufu is also the main character noted in the Westcar Papyrus from the 13th dynasty.
The only completely preserved portrait of the king is a small ivory figurine found in a temple ruin of a later period at Abydos in 1903. All other reliefs and statues were found in fragments, and many buildings of Khufu are lost. Khufu has a conflicting legacy: while the king enjoyed a long-lasting cultural heritage preservation during the period of the Old Kingdom and the New Kingdom, the ancient historians Manetho, Diodorus and Herodotus hand down a very negative depiction of Khufu's character. As a result, an obscure and critical picture of Khufu's personality persists.

Khufu's name

Khufu's name was dedicated to the god Khnum, which might point to an increase of Khnum's popularity and religious importance. In fact, several royal and religious titles introduced at this time may point out that Egyptian pharaohs sought to accentuate their divine origin and status by dedicating their cartouche names to certain deities. Khufu may have viewed himself as a divine creator, a role that was already given to Khnum, the god of creation and growth. As a consequence, the king connected Khnum's name with his own. Khufu's full name means "Khnum protects me". While modern Egyptological pronunciation renders his name as Khufu, at the time of his reign his name was probably pronounced as Khayafwi, and during the Hellenized era, Khewaf.
The pharaoh officially used two versions of his birth name: Khnum-khufu and Khufu. The first version clearly exhibits Khufu's religious loyalty to Khnum, the second version does not. It is unknown as to why the king would use a shortened name version since it hides the name of Khnum and the king's name connection to this god. It might be possible though, that the short name was not meant to be connected to any god at all.
Khufu is well known under his Hellenized name Χέοψ, Khéops or Cheops and less well known under another Hellenized name, Σοῦφις, Súphis. A rare version of the name of Khufu, used by Josephus, is Σόφε, Sofe. Arab historians, who wrote mystic stories about Khufu and the Giza pyramids, called him Saurid or Salhuk.

Family

Khufu's origin

The royal family of Khufu was quite large. It is uncertain if Khufu was actually the biological son of Sneferu. Egyptologists believe Sneferu was Khufu's father, but only because it was handed down by later historians that the eldest son or a selected descendant would inherit the throne. In 1925, the tomb of queen Hetepheres I was found east of Khufu's pyramid. It contained many precious grave goods, and several inscriptions give her the title Mut-nesut, together with the name of king Sneferu. Therefore, it seemed clear at first that Hetepheres was the wife of Sneferu, and that they were Khufu's parents. More recently, however, some have doubted this theory, because Hetepheres is not known to have borne the title Hemet-nesut, a title indispensable to confirm a queen's royal status.
Instead of the spouse's title, Hetepheres bore only the title Sat-netjer-khetef, a title mentioned for the first time. As a result, researchers now think Khufu may not have been Sneferu's biological son, but that Sneferu legitimised Khufu's rank and familial position by marriage. By apotheosizing his mother as the daughter of a living god, Khufu's new rank was secured. This theory may be supported by the circumstance that Khufu's mother was buried close to her son and not in the necropolis of her husband, as it was to be expected.

Family tree

The following list presents family members, which can be assigned to Khufu with certainty.
Spouses:
  • Meritites I: First wife of Khufu
  • Henutsen: Second wife of Khufu. She is mentioned on the famous Inventory Stela.
Brothers and sisters:
  • Hetepheres: Wife of Ankhhaf
  • Ankhhaf: The eldest brother. His nephew would later become pharaoh Khafra.
  • Nefermaat: Half-brother; buried at Meidum and owner of the famous "mastaba of the geese"
  • Rahotep: Elder brother or half-brother. Owner of a life-size double statue portraying him and his wife Nofret, displayed in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo.
Sons:
  • Kawab : Most likely the eldest son and crown prince, he died before Khufu's own end of reign and thus did not follow Khufu on the throne.
  • Wepemnofret
  • Djedefre : Also known as Radjedef and Ratoises. Became the first throne successor.
  • Khafre : Most possibly second throne successor
  • Djedefhor : Also known as Hordjedef. Mentioned in the Papyrus Westcar.
  • Babaef I: Also known as Khnum-baef I
  • Khufukhaf I: Also known as Kaefkhufu I
  • Minkhaf I
  • Horbaef
Daughter:
  • Hetepheres II: Wife of prince Kawab, later married to king Djedefre
Grandchildren:
Nephews and nieces:
  • Hemiunu: Director of the building of Khufu's great pyramid
  • Djedi: Son of Rahotep and Nofret
  • Itu: Son of Rahotep and Nofret
  • Neferkau: Son of Rahotep and Nofret
  • Mereret: Daughter of Rahotep and Nofret
  • Nedjemib: Daughter of Rahotep and Nofret
  • Sethtet: Daughter of Rahotep and Nofret

    Unconfirmed

The following list presents unconfirmed family members, which may be related to Khufu.
Parents:
  • Sneferu: Most likely his father, maybe just his stepfather. Famous pharaoh and builder of three pyramids.
  • Hetepheres I: Most likely his mother. Wife of king Sneferu and well known for her precious grave goods found at Giza
Sons:
  • Baufra: Possibly a son of Khufu, but neither archaeologically nor contemporarily attested. Only known from two much later documents.
Daughters:
  • Meresankh II: Assumed to be his daughter, but never explicitly called his daughter.
  • Nefertiabet: Known for her beautiful slab stelae
  • Meritites II: Married to Akhethotep
  • Khamerernebty I: Wife of king Khafre and mother of Menkaura
Grandchildren:
  • Duaenhor: Thought by some to be a son of Kawab and possibly eldest grandchild
  • Kaemsekhem: Probably a second son of Kawab
  • Djaty: Possibly a son of Horbaef
  • Iunmin I: Possibly a son of Khafre
  • Nefertkau III: Possibly a daughter of Meresankh II and Horbaef

    Reign

Length of reign

It is still unclear how long exactly Khufu ruled over Egypt. Dates from Khufu's final years suggest that he was approaching his 30-year jubilee, but may have just missed it.
One of them was found at the Dakhla Oasis in the Libyan Desert. Khufu's serekh name is carved in a rock inscription reporting the "Mefat-travelling in the year after the 13th cattle count under Hor-Medjedu", reignal year 27.
Several papyrus fragments, known as the Diary of Merer, were found at Khufu's harbor at Wadi al-Jarf. They log the transport of limestone blocks from Tura to the Great Pyramid of Giza in the "year after the 13th cattle count under Hor-Medjedw".
The highest known date from Khufu's reign is related to his funeral. Four instances of graffiti from the western of two rock-cut pits along the south side of the Great Pyramid attest to a date from the 28th or 29th reignal year of Khufu: the 14th census, month 1 of the season Shemu.
The Royal Canon of Turin from the 19th Dynasty gives 23 years of rulership for Khufu. The ancient historian Herodotus gives 50 years, and the ancient historian Manetho even credits him 63 years of reign. These figures are now considered an exaggeration or a misinterpretation of antiquated sources. Judging by his enormous building activity, Khufu must have reigned for more than 23 years, but its virtually impossible to determine the exact length, as cattle counts were irregular during his reign and not necessarily anual or biannual.

Political activities

There are only a few hints about Khufu's political activities within and outside Egypt. Within Egypt, Khufu is documented in several building inscriptions and statues. Khufu's name appears in inscriptions at Elkab and Elephantine and in local quarries at Hatnub and Wadi Hammamat. At Saqqara two terracotta figures of the goddess Bastet were found, on which, at their bases, the horus name of Khufu is incised. They were deposited at Saqqara during the Middle Kingdom, but their creation can be dated back to Khufu's reign.

Wadi Maghareh

At Wadi Maghareh in the Sinai a rock inscription depicts Khufu with the double crown. Khufu sent several expeditions in an attempt to find turquoise and copper mines. Like other kings, such as Sekhemkhet, Sneferu and Sahure, who are also depicted in impressive reliefs there, he was looking for those two precious materials. Khufu also entertained contacts with Byblos. He sent several expeditions to Byblos in an attempt to trade copper tools and weapons for precious Lebanon cedar wood. This kind of wood was essential for building large and stable funerary boats and indeed the boats discovered at the Great Pyramid were made of it.

Wadi al-Jarf

New evidence regarding political activities under Khufu's reign has recently been found at the site of the ancient port of Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea coast in the east of Egypt. The first traces of such a harbour were excavated in 1823 by John Gardner Wilkinson and James Burton, but the site was quickly abandoned and then forgotten over time. In 1954, French scholars François Bissey and René Chabot-Morisseau re-excavated the harbour, but their works were brought to an end by the Suez Crisis in 1956. In June 2011, an archaeological team led by French Egyptologists Pierre Tallet and Gregory Marouard, organized by the French Institute of Oriental Archeology, restarted work at the site. Among other material, a collection of hundreds of papyrus fragments were found in 2013 dating back 4,500 years. The papyrus is currently exhibited at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass called this ancient papyrus “the greatest discovery in Egypt in the 21st century.”
Ten of these papyri are very well preserved. The majority of these documents date to the 27th year of Khufu's reign and describe how the central administration sent food and supplies to the sailors and wharf workers. The dating of these important documents is secured by phrases typical for the Old Kingdom period, as well as the fact that the letters are addressed to the king himself, using his Horus name. This was typical when the king in question was still alive; when the ruler was dead he was addressed by his cartouche name or birth name. One document is of special interest: the diary of Merer, an official involved in the building of the Great Pyramid. Using the diary, researchers were able to reconstruct three months of his life, providing new insight into the everyday lives of people of the Fourth Dynasty. These papyri are the earliest examples of imprinted papyri ever found in Egypt. Another inscription, found on the limestone walls of the harbor, mentions the head of the royal scribes controlling the exchange of goods: Idu.
Khufu's cartouche name is also inscribed on some of the heavy limestone blocks at the site. The harbor was of strategic and economic importance to Khufu because ships brought precious materials, such as turquoise, copper and ore from the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula. The papyri fragments show several storage lists naming the delivered goods. The papyri also mention a certain harbour at the opposite coast of Wadi al-Jarf, on the western shore of the Sinai Peninsula, where the ancient fortress Tell Ras Budran was excavated in 1960 by Gregory Mumford. The papyri and the fortress together reveal an explicit sailing route across the Red Sea for the very first time in history. It is the oldest archaeologically detected sailing route of Ancient Egypt. According to Tallet, the harbor could also have been one of the legendary high sea harbours of Ancient Egypt, from where expeditions to the famous gold land Punt had started.