Userkaf in Wikipedia

Userkaf was the founder of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt and the first pharaoh to start the tradition of building sun temples at Abusir.[2]. Userkaf's name means "his Ka (or soul) is powerful."[3] He ruled from 2494-2487 BC[1] and constructed the Pyramid of Userkaf complex at Saqqara. Userkaf's mother was thought by some to have been queen Neferhetepes. Recent discoveries at Sahure's causeway in Abusir show however that Neferhetepes was the mother of Sahure and hence a wife of Userkaf.[4]. It is possible that queen Khentkaues I was Userkaf's mother.[5] His father is unknown, although Userkaf was a grandson of Djedefra, the immediate successor of Khufu.[6] A bust of Userkaf is displayed in the Egyptian Museum. The head was found in the first (of five) sun temples at Abu Ghurob built by the rulers of the fifth dynasty. The head of Userkaf is 45 cm high and carved from greywacke stone. The sculpture is considered particularly important as it is among the very few sculptures in the round from the Old Kingdom that show the monarch wearing the Deshret (Red Crown) of Lower Egypt. The head was uncovered in 1957 during the joint excavation expedition of the German and Swiss Institutes of Cairo. It is believed that he was father of two pharaohs: Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai. Another less common view, in concordance with a story of the Westcar Papyrus, is that the first three rulers of the fifth dynasty were all brothers- the sons of queen Khentkaus I. He is given a reign of 7 years by both the Turin Royal Canon and Manetho's Epitome. Contemporary adaptions Egyptian Nobel Prize for Literature-winner Naguib Mahfouz published a short story in 1938 about Userkaf entitled Afw al-malik Usirkaf: uqsusa misriya. This short story was translated by Raymond Stock as King Userkaf's Forgiveness in the collection of short stories Voices From the Other World

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