Shepseskaf

Shepseskaf came to the throne after the short reign of Menkaure. Most Egyptologists see him as Menkaure's son, although no text says so directly, and his mother is unknown. His name, "his ka is noble", is the first royal name in some time without the name of the sun god Ra. He ruled only about four years, and with him ended the family that had built the great pyramids of Dahshur and Giza.

Menkaure had died before his pyramid temples at Giza were complete. Shepseskaf finished them quickly, using mud brick instead of stone. In the mortuary temple archaeologists found his decree, the oldest royal decree preserved from the Old Kingdom. It set up regular offerings for the dead pharaoh and freed the estate and staff of the pyramid from taxes, so that the cult of Menkaure could go on for ever.

The royal annals of the Palermo Stone describe the year of his accession. The new pharaoh made the ritual "circuit of the Two Lands", celebrated a festival of the crown and had two images of the jackal god Wepwawet made. In the same year the site of his tomb was chosen, and he ordered daily offerings for a shrine of the gods. These short lines are among the few direct records of his reign.

Shepseskaf left Giza and built his tomb at South Saqqara, not far from the pyramids of Sneferu at Dahshur. It is a long rectangular block about 99.6 by 74.4 metres and about 18 metres high, with raised ends that make it look like a huge stone sarcophagus or a shrine. It was cased in white limestone from Tura, with red granite in the lowest course, and the burial chamber was lined with granite. Inside, a corridor leads to the burial chamber and storerooms, much as in a pyramid. A small temple and a double wall of mud brick surrounded it.

Nobody knows for sure why Shepseskaf gave up the pyramid. One old theory sees a quarrel with the powerful priests of Ra at Heliopolis, because the pyramid was linked with the sun cult and his name lacks Ra. Others think the tomb was only meant to be temporary or the first stage of a larger building, left unfinished because of his short reign. Still others point to practical reasons, such as lack of space at Giza or the nearness of good stone. The burial chamber seems never to have been used.

Two women at Giza are linked with Shepseskaf. Bunefer served as a priestess in his funerary cult and may have been his wife or daughter. Queen Khentkaus I built at Giza a large tomb that looks much like his own, and her titles may call her the mother of two pharaohs. Some Egyptologists see her as Shepseskaf's wife and a link between the Fourth and the Fifth Dynasties, but her family ties are still debated. Manetho places a pharaoh Thamphthis after Shepseskaf, but no monument of such a pharaoh is known.

Shepseskaf closed the age of the great pyramid builders of Giza. He honoured his father by completing his temple and protecting his cult, but for himself he chose a different kind of tomb. After him the pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty returned to the pyramid, smaller than before, and built temples to the sun beside it.