Pepi II Neferkare in Wikipedia

Pepi II (reigned c. 2278 BC – c. 2184 BC)[3] was a pharaoh of the Sixth dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom. His throne name, Neferkare (Nefer-ka-Re), means "Beautiful is the Ka of Re". He succeeded to the throne at age six, after the death of Merenre I, and is generally credited with having the longest reign of any monarch in history at 94 years (c. 2278 BC – c. 2184 BC) although this figure has been disputed by some Egyptologists who favour a shorter reign of not much more than 64 years.[4][5] This is based on the complete absence of higher attested dates for Pepi beyond his Year after the 31st Count (Year 62 on a biannual cattle count). He was traditionally thought to be the son of Pepi I and Queen Ankhesenpepi II but the South Saqqara Stone annals record that Merenre had a minimum reign of 11 years. Now that 6th dynasty royal seals have been discovered which demonstrate that Queen Ankhesenpepi II, Pepi II's mother, also married Merenre after Pepi I's death and became this king's chief wife, many Egyptologists believe that Pepi II was actually Merenre's own son. Pepi II would, therefore, be Pepi I's grandson. His reign marked a sharp decline of the Old Kingdom. As the power of the nomarchs grew, the power of the pharaoh declined. With no dominant central power, local nobles began raiding each other's territories and the Old Kingdom came to an end within mere decades after the close of Pepi II's reign. Early years of Pepi II's reign His mother Ankhesenpepi II (Ankhesenmeryre II) most likely ruled as regent in the early years of his reign. An alabaster statuette in the Brooklyn Museum depicts a young Pepi II, in full kingly regalia, sitting on the lap of his mother. Despite his long reign, this piece is one of only three known 3D representations (i.e. statuary) in existence of this particular king. She may have been helped in turn by her brother Djau, who was a vizier under the previous pharaoh. Some scholars have taken the relative paucity of royal statuary to suggest that the royal court was losing the ability to retain skilled artisans. A glimpse of the personality of the pharaoh while he was still a child can be found in a letter he wrote to Harkhuf, a governor of Aswan and the head of one of the expeditions he sent into Nubia. Sent to trade and collect ivory, ebony, and other precious items, he captured a pygmy. News of this reached the royal court, and an excited young king sent word back to Harkhuf that he would be greatly rewarded if the pygmy were brought back alive, where he would have likely served as an entertainer for the court. This letter was preserved [6] as a lengthy inscription on Harkhuf's tomb, and has been called the first travelogue [7] Personal relationships Over his long life Pepi II had several wives, thought to include Neith, Iput II, Ankhesenpepi III, Ankhesenpepi IV, and Udjebten. Following a long tradition of royal incestuous marriage, Neith was Pepi II's cousin and half-sister (daughter of Ankhesenpepi I) and Iput was his niece (a daughter of his half-brother Merenre). Of these queens, Neith, Iput, and Udjebten each had their own minor pyramids and mortuary templates as part of the king's own pyramid complex in Saqqara. Three fragments of a papyrus, dating from the Middle Kingdom, about a thousand years after Pepi II's reign, report his clandestine nocturnal meetings with one of his military commanders, a General Sisene, suggestive of a homosexual relationship.[8]...