Nyuserre Ini

Nyuserre Ini was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He was the younger son of Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II, and the brother of the short-lived king Neferefre. Nyuserre was the most prolific builder of his dynasty, having built three pyramids for himself and his queens and completed a further three for his father, mother and brother, all in the necropolis of Abusir. He also completed the Nekhenre, the Sun temple of Userkaf in Abu Gorab and the valley temple of Menkaure in Giza.

About Nyuserre Ini in brief

Nyuserre Ini was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He is credited with a reign of 24 to 35 years depending on the scholar, and likely lived in the second half of the 25th century BCE. He was the younger son of Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II, and the brother of the short-lived king Neferefre. Nyuserre was the most prolific builder of his dynasty, having built three pyramids for himself and his queens and completed a further three for his father, mother and brother, all in the necropolis of Abusir. He also completed the Nekhenre, the Sun temple of Userkaf in Abu Gorab and the valley temple of Menkaure in Giza. His reign saw the growth of the administration, with provincial governors sent to live in the provinces they administered rather than at the pharaoh’s court. He benefited from a funerary cult established at his death, which seems to have continued until the New Kingdom, nearly 1000 years after his death. There is little evidence for military action during his reign; the Egyptian state continued to maintain trade relations with Byblos on the Levantine coast and to send mining and quarrying expeditions to Sinai and Lower Nubia. His prenomen occupies the 30th entry of the Abydos King List, written nearly 200 years later during the reign of Seti I.

He is also mentioned in the Saqqara Tablet, probably written in the 3rd century BCE during the Egyptian reign of Ptolemy II. Even though no copies of the text survive, it is known through later writings by Sextus Julius Extus and Eusebius in particular that the Aegyptiaca mentioned a pharaoh for forty-five years in the 40th century BC. In parallel, a spontaneous popular cult appeared, with people venerating Ny userre under his birth name “Iny”. In this cult, Nyuser re played a role similar to that of a saint, being invoked as an intercessor between the believer and the gods. In doing so, he was the first king since Shepseskaf to pay attention to the Giza necropolis, a move which may have been an attempt to legitimise his rule following the troubled times surrounding the unexpected death of his brother Nefrefre. In the Karnak king list, which was commissioned by Thutmose III to honour some of his forebears, which mentions NyuserRE in the fourth entry, which shows his birthname in a cartouche. The earliest of these is the Karnk king list which shows him as a king in the 4th year of his reign, and he is attested in the tombs of his contemporaries including Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, the high officials Khufukhaf II, Ty, Rashepses and Khabawptah.

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