Fifth Egyptian Dynasty 2494 to 2345 BCE.

The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty V) is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and VI under the group title the Old Kingdom. The Fifth Dynasty dates approximately from 2494 to 2345 BCE. Manetho writes that the Dynasty V kings ruled from Elephantine, but archaeologists have found evidence clearly showing that their palaces were still located at Ineb-hedj ("White Walls"). 

Userkaf

 As before, expeditions were sent to Wadi Maghara and Wadi Kharit in the Sinai to mine for turquoise and copper, and to quarries northwest of Abu Simbel for gneiss.


VI Dynasty  2494 to 2345 BCE.
Userkaf/Irimaat 2494  - 2487 BCE.
Sahure/Nebkhau 2487  - 2475 BCE.
Neferirkare Kakai/Neferirkare  2475  - 2455 BCE.
Shepseskare Isi/Shepseskare  2455 - 2448 BCE.
Neferefre/Neferkhau 2448 - 2445 BCE.
Niuserre Ini/Niuserre  2445 - 2421 BCE.
Menkauhor Kaiu/Menkauhor 2421 - 2414 BCE.
Djedkare Isesi/Djedkare 2414 - 2375 BCE.

Unas Wadjtawy/Unas 2375 - 2345 BCE.

Trade expeditions were sent south to Punt to obtain malachite, myrrh, and electrum, and archeological finds at Byblos attest to diplomatic expeditions sent to that Phoenician city. Finds bearing the names of a several Dynasty V kings at the site of Dorak, near the Sea of Marmara, may be evidence of trade but remain a mystery. Known rulers in the Fifth Dynasty are listed below. The pharaohs of this dynasty ruled for approximately 150 years. The Horus names and names of the Queens are taken from Dodson and Hilton.

Pharaoh Userkaf: Userkaf, traditionally the first ruler of the 5th Dynasty is, like most of the other kings of the dynasty, not well attested. We are even uncertain of his father, though he may have been a priest. His mother was probably Neferhetep, making him the grandson of Djedefre who succeeded Khufu. We believe he was married to Khentkaues I, who is buried at Giza. This marriage may have legitimised his claim to the throne. We believe that Khentkaues I was probably Menkaure's daughter and perhaps a half sister of Shepseskaf. Oddly, nowhere in her tomb is Userkaf mentioned.

There was apparently another queen (possibly), who's pyramid lies close to the pyramid of Userkaf's at Saqqara. It should be noted that resources on Userkaf are rather confusing. Some allow Neferhetep to be his wife, rather then mother, while others even ascribe to Khentkaues I being his mother, rather then his wife. However, the majority seem to suggest the relationships as first set out above.  Userkaf did not build his pyramid at Giza but at Saqqara, as Shepseskaf, last king of the Fourth Dynasty had done. Bottom left and right: Group portrait of Sahura with the local god of Coptos Fifth Dynasty 2,490 B.C.E. Sahura's pyramid is in Abusil, and his sun temple has not yet been rediscovered.

Userkaf was the kings birth name, meaning "His Soul is Powerful. He was also known as Weserkaf and may possibly be known in some literature as Ouserkaf, or Oeserkaf.

 His Horus name was Iry-maat, meaning "He who puts Maat into Practice". It is interesting to note that having chose this Horus name, he was burdening himself with the maintenance of the whole of creation. He may have come to the throne as an older man, for we are told his reign only lasted seven years, though as usual, the actual dates of his reign very from Egyptologist to Egyptologist. His seven year reign is attested to in the Turin King list and seems to be confirmed on the Palermo Stone.

Pharaoh Sahure: Sahure was the second ruler of ancient Egypt's 5th Dynasty. His birth name means "He who is Close to Re". His Horus name was Nebkhau, and we believed he ruled Egypt from around 2487 to 2475 B.C.E.

The Turin King List gives him a reign of twelve years. His pyramid complex was the first built at Abusir (though Userkaf had probably already built his solar temple there) and marks the decline of pyramid building, both in the size and quality, though many of the reliefs are very well done. It provides us most of the information we know of this king. We believer that he was the first of two sons of queen Khentkaues I to hold the throne, and that his father was probably Userkaf. It is probable that Khentkaues I was the character of Redjedet in the Papyrus Westcar, who according to the magician Djedi, was destined to give birth to the children of Ra and the first kings of the 5th Dynasty.

Neferirkare Kakai was the third Pharaoh of Egypt during the Fifth dynasty. His praenomen, Neferirkare, means "Beautiful is the Soul of Ra". His Horus name was Userkhau, his Golden Horus name Sekhemunebu and his Nebti name Khaiemnebty. It is not known who Neferirkare's parents were. Some Egyptologists see him as a son of Userkaf and Khentkaus I.

Neferirkare 

 Scenes discovered in Sahure's funerary domains may indicate however that Neferirkare may have been the son of Sahure and Queen Neferetnebty. One theory holds that Neferirkare may have been known as Prince Ranefer when he was young, and had a (twin?) brother named Netjerirenre, who may have taken the throne under the name of Shepseskare. Neferirkare married Queen Khentkaus II and had 2 sons who both became pharaoh: Ranefer - under the name Neferefre and Niuserre.

Little is known about his reign. Manetho's Kings-list assigns Neferirkare a reign of 20 years but verso 5 of the damaged Palermo Stone preserves the Year of his 5th Cattle Count (Year 9 on a biannual count). His following years were lost in the missing portion of the document. The Czech Egyptology Miroslav Verner maintains, however, that it cannot have been as long as 20 years due to the unfinished state of Neferirkare's Abusir pyramid complex.

Shepseskare Isi, also spelt Shepseskare, (in Greek known as Sisiris), was a Pharaoh of Egypt during the Fifth dynasty, who is thought to have reigned from around 2455 to 2448 BC. His throne name means "Noble is the Soul of Re." However, he is the most ephemeral ruler of this dynasty and some Egyptologists such as Miroslav Verner have strongly argued that Shepseskare's reign lasted only a few months at the most based upon the evidence of an unfinished fifth dynasty royal pyramid at Abusir, whose base was barely completed before it was abandoned as well as the very small number of objects identifying this king.

Neferefre 

 The state of the unfinished Abusir pyramid tells us that this king's reign was unexpectedly cut short. However, both the Turin King List and Manetho state that Shepseskare ruled Egypt for seven years.

Neferefre was the son of king Neferirkare Kakai by queen Khentkaus II, and the elder brother of pharaoh Nyuserre Ini. While Neferefre is given a reign of some twenty years in Manetho's Epitome, this number is a substantial overestimation of his true reign length; the current academic view is that he enjoyed a very short rule based on the completely unfinished state of his intended pyramid. A visual examination of the partly damaged data for Neferefre's reign in the Turin King List shows only a single vertical stroke for this king (each vertical stroke signifies one year).

This would give him a reign of about 1 or 2 years which agrees well with the archaeological evidence. The Czech Egyptologist, Miroslav Verner, who has been excavating at Abusir since 1976, states in a 2001 journal article that: "The shape of the tomb of Neferefra...as well as a number of other archaeological finds clearly indicate that the construction of the king's funerary monument was interrupted, owing to the unexpected early death of the king. The plan of the unfinished building had to be basically changed and a decision was taken to hastily convert the unfinished pyramid, (of which only the incomplete lowest step of the core was built), into a "square-shaped mastaba" or, more precisely, a stylized primeval hill.

At the moment of the king's death neither the burial apartment was built, nor was the foundation of the mortuary temple laid." Verner concludes that based on the position of a mason's inscribed Year 1 date from Neferefre's reign which was found "on a large corner block situated at the end of the tunnel for the pyramid's descending corridor at about two thirds of the height of the extant core of the monument", Neferefre reign lasted "not longer than about two years."

The only known date from his reign is the aforementioned mason's inscription from his first Year in the foundation of his pyramid tomb. Little else is known about Neferefre.

 While the name of Neferefre's undiscovered sun temple is known to be Hetep-Re, no such structure has yet been discovered owing perhaps to the short length of his reign. A significant cache of administrative papyri-comparable in size to the Abusir Papyri found in the temple of Neferirkare-was discovered at Abusir by a 1982 University of Prague Egyptological Institute excavation from a storeroom of his mortuary temple.

Nyuserre Ini (also spelt as Neuserre Izi or Niuserre Isi, and sometimes Nyuserra; in Greek known as Rathoris), was a Pharaoh of Egypt during the Fifth dynasty. He is frequently given a reign of 24 or 25 years and is dated from ca. 2445 BC to 2421 BC. His prenomen, Nyuserre, means "Possessed of Re's Power". Nyuserre was the younger son of pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai by Queen Khentkaus II, and the brother of the short-lived king Neferefre.

He is often thought to have succeeded his brother directly, but there is some evidence to suggest that Shepseskare reigned between the two, albeit only for a few weeks. Possibly, the latter had attempted to restore the lineage of Sahure who might have been his father, deposing the lineage of Neferirkare Kakai in the process, but was unsuccessful. Nyuserre's only known consort was Reptynub. A King's Daughter by the name of Khamerernebty (A) was the daughter of Nyuserre. The identity of her mother is not known. Khamerernebty was married to the vizier Ptahshepses.

Menkauhor Kaiu (Menkaouhor, in Greek known as Menkeris), was a Pharaoh of the Fifth dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He was the successor of King Nyuserre Ini and was succeeded by Djedkare Isesi. Menkauhor's royal name or prenomen means "Eternal are the Souls of Horus".

Menkauhor

 Menkauhor may have been a son of Nyuserre. Reliefs from the mortuary temple of Khentkaus II may point to this proposed family relationship, but it is not a certainty. Queen Meresankh IV has been suggested as the consort for Menkauhor. It is possible however that she was a wife to Djedkare Isesi instead. Queen Khuit I has also been suggested as a possible wife of Menkauhor, but this is not certain. It has been suggested that Menkauhor's successor Djedkare Isesi was his son. Other possible children include the princes Raemka and Khaemtjenent, but it is also possible they are sons of Djedkare Isesi, so they could be his grandsons instead.

Djedkare Isesi in Greek known as Tancheres from Manetho's Aegyptiaca, was a Pharaoh of Egypt during the Fifth dynasty. He is assigned a reign of twenty-eight years by the Turin King List although some Egyptologists believe this is an error and should rather be thirty-eight years. Manetho ascribes to him a reign of forty-four years while the archaeological evidence suggests that his reign is likely to have exceeded thirty-two years. Djedkare's prenomen or royal name means "The Soul of Ra Endureth." It is not known who Djedkare's parents were. Djedkare could be Menkauhor's son, or Niuserre's son. He may have been either a son, brother or cousin of his predecessor Menkauhor. Similarly the identity of his mother is unknown.

Unas was the ninth and last king of the 5th Dynasty and what some believe to be the end of the Golden Age of the Old Kingdom. The 6th Dynasty would finally be the end of Egypt's grand beginning, as the country would then slip into the troubling First intermediate Period. Unas (also Oenas, Unis, Wenis, or Ounas) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, and the last ruler of the Fifth dynasty from the Old Kingdom. His reign has been dated between 2375 BC and 2345 BC. Unas is believed to have had two queens, Nebet and Khenut, based on their burials near his tomb.