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Radjedef (also known as Djedefre) was the son and successor of Khufu and the first king to assume the title “Son of Ra”, as reflected in his name, meaning, "Enduring like Re” (Ra and Re being the same god). The conventional belief is that Radjedef’s adoption of ‘Re’ was due to the ever-increasing influence of the cult of the solar god, Re. And sure enough, Radjedef was succeeded on the throne by Khafre and Menkaure; kings and builders of the 2nd and 3rd pyramids at Giza, each of which reflected the god Re in their name. Unlike Khafre and Menkaure, Radjedef / Djedefre had no pyramid of his own at Giza. This is curious, as is the fact that Khufu contains no reference to ‘Ra’, even though his ‘solar boat pit’ appears to be an extension of the solar cult.
An interesting aside with respect to the influence and/or origins of the solar cult of Ra, is the notion proposed by John Ivimy in his 1974 book, ‘The Sphinx and the Megaliths’: ‘In the ancient Egyptian myth, RA the sun god himself was born anew every morning from an egg.” Ivimy argues that the hundreds of egg-shaped stone circles in the United Kingdom, which appear to date from the same period as the cult of Ra, may represent the spread - or origin - of the god known as Ra; a god synonymous with Khnum. What makes the theory intriguing is the fact that Khnum is frequently portrayed with an egg; fitting imagery for a creator god, indeed.
Radjedef’s mother is unknown, but suspected to be one of Khufu’s minor wives, as it is believed he was required to marry his half-sister, Hetepheres II, in order to lay claim to the throne. Radjedef is said to have ruled 8 years, according to the Turin Kings List, and 11, according to a cattle count inscribed on a masonry block that covered Khufu's southern boat pits. This is an extremely important discovery, and one that those responsible for framing our understanding of Egyptian history were not privy to, for Khufu’s solar boat pit was not discovered until 1954, and, by this time, Khufu had been irrefutably linked with the pyramid, without the insight that this new evidence provides.
Miroslav Verner, a Czech Egyptologist and author of the respected book, ‘The Pyramids’, comments on the significance of the solar boat discovery: “In this context, the attribution of just a single inscription and what is more, the only one with a date on all the blocks from the boat pit to somebody other than Djedefra does not seem very plausible.” So what does this tell us? The 43-metre long cedar wood ship was found dismantled in 650 parts in a huge pit, and nowhere did it reference Khufu; only Radjedef. Again we ask, how would this information have shaped the thinking of the formative researchers of the day - Petrie, Vyse, Resiner, Budge and others - if it had been uncovered before the quarry marks were discovered in the obscure reaches of the Great Pyramid and before Petrie found the headless statue in Abydos?
Khufu’s reconstructed Solar Boat - Giza
Radjedef is not attributed with a pyramid at Giza, although he is credited with building one at Abu Roash, five miles to the north. Interestingly, the pyramid is now thought to have risen higher than all others (although its size was comparable to the third pyramid at Giza), due to the elevated location where it was constructed. Today, the pyramid lies in ruins, and until recently was believed to have been abandoned - unfinished, as it were. However, recent work by a Franco-Swiss team of Egyptologists, as cited by Verner, confirms that the pyramid was, in fact, fully finished, albeit severely plundered in antiquity. Its association with Radjedef, however, is every bit as tenuous as Khufu’s link with the Great Pyramid.
The remains of what some believe to be Radjedef’s burial chamber at Abu Roash
Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, studied Radjedef’s pyramid at Abu Roash in his book, ‘The Complete Pyramids’, and concluded that pyramids of the older ‘Djoser’ style (i.e. the Third Dynasty King who built what is now regarded as the prototype to all subsequent Egyptian pyramids; the step pyramid at Sakarra) were orientated north-south, and, from the time of the later Meidum Pyramid onward (which is attributed to Radjedef’s grandfather, Sneferu), were aligned east-west. Lehner and others believe that Radjedef departed from the style of the day and returned to an earlier blueprint when he constructed his pyramid at Abu Roash, for it clearly has a north-south alignment.
The layout of Radjedef’s Pyramid at Abu Roash
© www.norrispeery.com
Further, Lehner states: “From Sneferu to Khufu we have seen a continual striving to build chambers higher in the pyramid body. Djeddfre returned to the earlier concept and began his substructure as a colossal pit in the ground.” Why would a king, whose adoption of Re was a departure in religious philosophy and one which was embraced by his successors, each of whom adopted the pyramid conventions of the day, return to an earlier blueprint of pyramid design?
I believe that the answer to this question has to do with the fact that there is no real proof that any Fourth Dynasty pharaoh built anything more than mastabas or small satellite pyramids that served as adjuncts to existing pyramids. In my opinion, the Fourth Dynasty pharaohs were simply restoring them. How else could Sneferu, for instance, have constructed three gargantuan pyramids in his lifetime? Why would Khufu refer to the Great Pyramid as the “House of Isis”, if it was really his pyramid, and why, in the Westcar Papyrus, does he continually ask for help in locating various treasures buried at Giza if, in fact, its monuments were founded in the Fourth Dynasty – his era?
One has to also ask why Shepseskaf, the last pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, would be buried in a mastaba and not a pyramid like other pharaohs, or at least according to Egyptologists. And then there is the brother of Radjedef, Prince Chufu Chaf, the heir to the throne, who built a mastaba while his brother was king. After Radjedef’s death, the Prince changed his name to Khafra, and the second pyramid at Giza is attributed to him. So, why was he building a mastaba for himself if he knew, or even suspected, that he could ascend to the throne and build such an enormous pyramid?
The reality is that mastaba building was at its peak in the Fourth Dynasty, and the highest concentration was found in and around Giza, as if the royals and dignitaries buried in them were seeking eternal glory by associating themselves with the majesty that existed since before they were born; pyramids that were built by their ancestors.
Concentration of Mastabas at Giza; real tombs occupied by real royalty
Another fascinating element of Khufu’s reign is the Inventory Stela, which was found in a Giza temple dedicated to one of his daughters. The stela unequivocally states that Khufu was aware that the nemes (head) of the sphinx had been badly damaged by lightning in the past, as well as the fact that he was building his own temple near to the ‘house of the sphinx’, thus reinforcing the fact that the sphinx was already there, and that the head of the sphinx had been damaged, and, by all indications, was in need of restoration.
This brings up an interesting question; might the repaired head of the sphinx be that of Radjedef? The resemblance has been noted by many, including a New York detective who specializes in identification techniques and who, in 1966, reported that the head did not resemble Khufu (not that he had much to go on), but did, in fact, bear a striking resemblance to Radjedef. The head of Radjedef may or may not resemble the face of the sphinx. What we do know is that Radjedef was ambitious, as indicated by the belief that he murdered his own brother and stole his wife, in order to gain ascension to the throne, and then broke from tradition and solidified the emergent solar cult of Ra. Might he also have re-carved the damaged sphinx in his image?
The head of Radjedef (discovered at Abu Roash) and the head of the sphinx
I believe the evidence for Khufu and his association with the Great Pyramid is inconclusive and would not stand up in a modern court of law. So, what conclusions can we draw? There are several alluring possibilities, in addition to those already stated. For instance, Khufu’s reign varies from 23 years (Turin Kings List) to 63 years (Manetho), while his successor, Radjedef, reigned for only 8 years (Turin Kings List), or 11, according to the cattle count discovered in Khufu’s solar boat pit. Could the two men have been one and the same person? What if Khufu / Khnum-Khufu were merely an oath of protection granted to Sneferu’s son and his real name was misconstrued by later generations? What if that child was Radjedef, the overseer of the Fourth Dynasty pyramid restoration (not construction) at Giza and at nearby Abu Roash? And what if he, at or around the time of his 30-year Sed Festival - or the symbolic death of the existing king and celebration of his continued reign - confirmed the veneration of Re by having the sphinx re-carved in his image and by stepping out of the title of Khufu?
Khufu is the Fourth Dynasty king who has generated the strongest legacy over time - not Radjedef - even if he is remembered as a tyrant. Why might this be? If we consider for a moment that Khufu is a variant of Khnum-Khufu, and that Khnum was the god of the River Nile, responsible for the yearly inundation and the well-being of children, then would ‘Khufu’ not be remembered as a tyrant if, as a god (i.e. Khnum), he had forsaken his people with drought and plague? Might such confusion have arisen over hundreds – and in the case of Herodotus, thousands - of years, especially since Giza was once governed by a Dynasty that introduced the veneration of the god, Khnum? Serendipitously, the name of the Great Pyramid, when written in a cartouche, is Aakhu-t Khufu, meaning ‘The Horizon of Khufu’, and what could be a more appropriate name for a pyramid that looks out over the River Nile and the domain of the god, Khnum / Khufu.
There is another candidate for the historical Khufu; a woman. As incredible as it sounds, the Cairo museum contains a statue, which unambiguously depicts Khufu as a young girl, yet nobody seems to take notice of this peculiar detail. The image in question is that of the dwarf, Seneb, and his wife, the Princess Sentyotes: an influential office-holder of established royal blood; an esteemed lady of the court and priestess. Dwarfs were revered in Dynastic Egypt, as they were believed to have been the result of inbreeding performed to propagate a royal bloodline; a condition known as achondroplasia dwarfism.
Few dwarfs were as revered as much as Seneb, an official who, by convention, dates from the Sixth, or even the Fifth Dynasty, although his exact date is uncertain, and, I will argue, possibly earlier. Seneb’s tomb was discovered near the western cemetery at Giza - not far from the Great Pyramid - by German Egyptologist, Herman Junker, who noted Seneb’s many titles, including prophet of Khufu, overseer of the palace dwarfs, chief of the royal wardrobe and priest of Khufu and Radjedef’s funerary cults. In other words, he was the death priest of two Fourth Dynasty pharaohs: Khufu and his successor, Radjedef. Seneb’s importance is also reflected in a relief from his tomb that depicts him being carried in a palanquin, a carried chair that is reserved for important officials. Additionally, we also learn that he owned 10,105 oxen, 10,000 cows, 12,017 jackasses, 10,200 she-asses, 10,205 rams and 10,013 sheep; another indication of his exalted status in Egyptian society.
Seneb, his wife and children – Cairo Museum
The exquisitely carved statue depicts Seneb sitting cross-legged next to his wife, with two children positioned where his adult-size legs would be, had he not been a dwarf. The children are identified by vertical, not horizontal, cartouches, a convention used to indicate that the individuals named in the cartouche were alive, not deceased, at the time. In this instance, the cartouches reveal that the children are none other than Khufu and his son and successor, Radjedef. However, what is curious, and I believe largely unaccounted for, is that as young children, Radjedef is clearly depicted with a penis, while Khufu is shown with a vagina. This is frequently explained by the theory that Seneb was honouring the two Fourth Dynasty pharaohs by naming his children after them. Although the statue was inscribed with “One known by the King”, and depicts Seneb in the ‘great palace’, what precedent would have enabled the offspring of a dwarf - no matter how revered - to be depicted in a cartouche, for this was a privilege reserved for royalty?
A close-up of the sculpted genitalia of Radjedef (left) and Khufu (right)
Intriguingly, on Seneb’s right leg is the inscription, “He who pleases his majesty everyday”. Might Seneb have lived in the Fourth Dynasty, as his titles suggest, and not two Dynasties later, as a high official of the Sixth Dynasty King, Pepi II; a king who ruled for 94 years, longer than any known monarch in history? References to Pepi II in Seneb’s tomb have led to speculation that Seneb was of his court. Might Pepi II have been venerating Khufu, as part of the popular Cult of Khufu that had formed, and might his interest in Seneb have come from his own fascination with dwarfs? Might the ‘majesty’ referred to on Seneb’s inscription have been Khufu?
This possibility is reinforced by a letter that the young Pepi II wrote to one of his court, an explorer called Harkhuf, who had discovered a dwarf in a land called Lyam. The letter clearly reflects Pepi II’s enthusiasm for dwarfs:
“Come north to the Palace at once! Drop everything - hurry and bring that pygmy you have brought, alive, happy and well, for the divine dances, to gladden the heart, to delight the heart of the king who lives for ever! When he goes down with you onto the boat, get trusty men to stand around him on the gangplank - don't let him fall in the water! When he goes to bed at night, get trusty men to lie all round him in his hammock. Inspect him ten times a night! My Majesty longs to see this pygmy more than all the treasures of Sinai and Punt!”
Might Pepi II’s curiosity with dwarfs stem from the cult of Khufu and the important role that Seneb had in Khufu’s court?
What conclusions can we draw from the fact that the alleged builder of the Great Pyramid is depicted with a vagina and not a penis? Returning to Occam’s Razor, would we not conclude that Khufu may have been a woman? Further evidence of this hypothesis is suggested by Khnum’s most celebrated scene at the temple of Egypt’s famed king, the female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt from 1479 to 1458 BCE. A 2009 National Geographic article by historian, Chip Brown, comments:
“In reliefs at Hatshepsut's mortuary temple, she spun a fable of her accession as the fulfilment of a divine plan and declared that her father, Thutmose I, not only intended her to be king but also was able to attend her coronation. In the panels the great god Amun is shown appearing before Hatshepsut's mother disguised as Thutmose I. He commands Khnum, the ram-headed god of creation, who models the clay of mankind on his potter's wheel: "Go, to fashion her better than all gods; shape for me, this my daughter, whom I have begotten." Unlike most contractors, Khnum gets right to work, replying: "Her form shall be more exalted than the gods, in her great dignity of King.” On Khnum's potter's wheel, little Hatshepsut is depicted unmistakably as a boy.”
So, here we have a king, proven by archaeology to be a woman, yet portrayed in temple reliefs as a boy, and a male king in Khufu, who is depicted as a young girl. Interestingly, Khnum appears to represent a form of male / female dualism, for the source of the River Nile that he represents is feminine by nature. Could Khnum have represented a form of inverse dualism? A more likely explanation is that Hatshepsut was projecting a male effigy to her people out of respect for the dynastic heritage that preceded her, but what about Khufu?
Linguistically, there are some interesting occurrences of the name Khufu, as well as words beginning with the letters ‘Kh’. For instance, ‘Khu’ refers to the name of the Egyptian peacock and is the symbol for a heron. Additionally, in the journey of Osiris in the sixth section of the Duat, the letters refer to ‘spirit souls’. The hieroglyphic ‘Khu’ is also the symbol of a spirit and refers to the four supports of heaven. Furthermore, William Cooper informs us in his 1991 book, ‘Behold a Pale Horse’, that: “The ancient Egyptian word for pyramid was KHUTI”, meaning ‘glorious light’.
We find several occurrences of the letters ‘Kh’ around the time of the Fourth Dynasty. Take, for instance, Khufu-Ankh, chief of the singers and flutists in the royal court, who was buried in his lavishly adorned mastaba at Giza. There was also Khentkawes, a royal lady who dates to the same period as Radjedef. Like Khufu, her name starts with ‘Kh’, which stands for ‘Sieve’, according to Egyptologist, Wallis Budge, who published the hieroglyphic symbols and their meanings in his 1910 book,; ‘Egyptian Language’. The symbol, which resembles a circle enclosed with horizontal lines, is often mistaken for the symbol ‘RA’, a circle solidly shaded, creating confusion and mistranslation in more faded inscriptions. Her peculiar stone-cut tomb is located in a place of honour near the sphinx, and a pyramid was built in her honour at Abu Sir. Khentkawes was an important lady and believed to be the mother of two kings, although their identity remains uncertain.
At the end of the day, our understanding of individuals and their complex relationships nearly 5 millennia ago, must be subject to a large dose of caution, and humility, especially in Egypt, where two-thirds of the country remains covered in sand and completely unexcavated, and where ninety nine percent of what we believe to be true comes from one percent of the population, royalty. And, even then, what we think we know is based on what this privileged few, mostly men, wanted us to believe, as portrayed on the walls of their temples and tombs.
Many disciplines, such as science, mathematics and physics, have developed, revised, and, in some instances, completely reinvented themselves over a span of thousands of years. Egyptology, on the other hand, is in its infancy, having existed for only two centuries. Why, then, can we not continue to evolve our understanding of its most iconic figures or, at the very least, question them; such as Khufu, the would-be author of the world’s most famous signature – the Great Pyramid?
- Andrew Gough
Acknowledgements
To Ingrid, my amazing seer and teacher, Mark Foster, for his invaluable guidance, expertise and reason, Philip Gardiner, for being so generous and providing opportunity, Kathleen McGowan, for her trust, friendship and relentless encouragement, Filip Coppens, for his valuable perspective and advice, Lynn Picknett, for her special friendship, boundless insight and humor, Beth Johnson, for all of her assistance and her watchful eye, Patrice Chaplin for letting me bore her to tears about Khufu on a regular basis, and Lori Paras, for her continued support and vision. Thank you!
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