Djedkare

Djedkare ("the soul of Re endureth") may have been related to Menkauhor, but there is no evidence of a family relationship. According to the Turin Kings list he ruled for 28 years (although this is sometimes read as 38 years). Manetho records 44 years for this Pharaoh. However, the mummy currently thought to be Djedkare´s suggests he was about 50 when he died. His queen, Meresankh was buried in the main necropolis in Saqqara, but another unnamed queen was interred alongside him in the southern necropolis. Sadly his son and heir, Prince Remkuy, died before he could assume the throne.

Djedkare recorded two expeditions to the Sinai, and his name was found in the quarries in Aswan, Abydos and Nubia. Grafitti in Nubia refers to an expedition to Punt and he seems to have had good diplomatic and trading relations with Byblos.

During his reign, the importance of the solar cult waned. Central government was cut back and local administration improved.The Pharaoh returned to the traditional burial ground at Saqqara, but continued to maintain the funerary temples in Abusir. His pyramid is now little more than rubble, but an inscription found inside it proved that he was the original owner (the tomb had been reused in the Eighteenth Dynasty).