Djedefre

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Egyptian Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty

title: "Djedefre" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["djedefre", "26th-century-bc-pharaohs", "pharaohs-of-the-fourth-dynasty-of-egypt", "children-of-khufu", "year-of-birth-unknown", "place-of-birth-unknown", "3rd-millennium-bc-births", "26th-century-bc-deaths", "year-of-death-unknown"] description: "Egyptian Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty" topic_path: "geography/egypt" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djedefre" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Egyptian Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox pharaoh"]

Field	Value
name	Djedefre
alt_name	Djedefra, Radjedef, Ratoises, Rhampsinit, Rhauosis
image	Djedefre sphinx head-E 12626-IMG 4294-gradient.jpg
caption	Quartzite head of a sphinx of Djedefre from Abu Rawash, Musée du Louvre
reign	10 to 14 years
2566 – 2558 BC
dynasty	4th Dynasty
predecessor	Khufu
successor	Khafre
nomen	Djedefre
*Sȝ Rˁ ḏd.f Rˁ
The son of Ra, he endures like Ra*
nomen_hiero	N5-R11-f
prenomen	Abydos King List
Djedefre
Ḏd.f Rˁ
He endures like Ra

|name = Djedefre |alt_name = Djedefra, Radjedef, Ratoises, Rhampsinit, Rhauosis |image = Djedefre sphinx head-E 12626-IMG 4294-gradient.jpg |caption = Quartzite head of a sphinx of Djedefre from Abu Rawash, Musée du Louvre |reign = 10 to 14 years 2566 – 2558 BC |dynasty = 4th Dynasty |predecessor = Khufu |successor = Khafre |nomen = Djedefre Sȝ Rˁ ḏd.f Rˁ The son of Ra, he endures like Ra |nomen_hiero=N5-R11-f |prenomen =Abydos King List Djedefre Ḏd.f Rˁ He endures like Ra

Saqqara Tablet Djedefre Ḏḏ.f Rˁ He endures like Ra

|horus = Hor-Kheper Ḥr-ḫpr Embodiment of Horus |horus_hiero = L1 |nebty = Kheper-im-nebti Ḫpr-m-nb.tj Embodied in the Two Ladies |nebty_hiero = L1-G17 |golden = Bikju-nebu Bjk.jw-nb.w The most golden falcon G5*G5:G5-S12 |spouse = Hetepheres II, Khentetka |children = Hornit, Setka, and Neferhetepes |father = Khufu |death_date = 2558 BC |burial = Pyramid of Djedefre |monuments = Pyramid of Djedefre, Great Sphinx of Giza ? ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/MountainDjedefraMainInscription.jpg" caption="Inscription IV-C: Personal name of Djedefre in a mountain hieroglyph, Water Mountain of Djedefre, New Valley, Western Desert, Egypt"] ::

Djedefre (also known as Djedefra and Radjedef; died 2558 BC) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He is well known by the Hellenized form of his name Rhatoisēs (Ῥατοίσης) by Manetho. Djedefre was the son and immediate throne successor of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza; his mother is not known for certain. He is the king who introduced the royal title Sa-Rê (meaning “Son of Ra”) and the first to connect his cartouche name with the sun god Ra.

Family

Djedefre married his brother Kawab's widow, Hetepheres II. She was a sister to both of them, and who perhaps married a third brother of theirs, Khafre, after Djedefre's death. Another queen, Khentetenka is known from statue fragments in the Abu Rowash mortuary temple. A possible son is Itysen known from a statue found at Abu Roash.

Children with Hetepheres II or Khentetka

Hornit (“Eldest King's Son of His Body”) known from a statue depicting him and his wife.
Setka (“Eldest King's Son of His Body; Unique Servant of the King”) known from a scribe statue found in his father's pyramid complex. It is possible that he ruled for a short while after his father's death; an unfinished pyramid at Zawiyet el-Arian was started for a ruler whose name ends in ka; this could have been Setka or Baka.

Children with Hetepheres II

Neferhetepes (“King's Daughter of His Body; God's Wife”) is known from a statue fragment from Abu Rowash. Until recently, she was believed to be the mother of a pharaoh of the next dynasty, either Userkaf or Sahure.

Possible children with Hetepheres II or Khentetka

Itysen
Baka (“Eldest King's Son”) known from a statue base found in Djedefre's mortuary temple, depicting him with his wife Hetepheres. May be the same person as Bikheris.

The French excavation team led by found the names of two other possible children of Djedefre in the pyramid complex:

Nikaudjedefre (“King's Son of His Body”) was buried in Tomb F15 in Abu Rowash; it is possible that he wasn't a son of Djedefre but lived later and his title was only honorary.
Hetepheres (“King's Daughter of His Body”) was mentioned on a statue fragment. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Prince_Setka_as_scribe-E_12629-E_12631-IMG_9671-gradient.jpg" caption="Statue of Setka inscribed with his name and titles, in the [[Louvre"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Block_inscribed_with_the_cartouche_of_king_Djedefre_-_Nubian_Museum.jpg" caption="Block inscribed with the cartouche of king Djedefre - Nubian Museum"] ::

Reign

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Abydos_KL_04-03_n22.jpg" caption="Cartouche name of Djedefre in the Abydos-List - name shows honorific transposition, being written in the order ''Ra-Djed-Ef''"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Djedefra_wearing_the_crown_of_Lower_Egypt-E_11167-IMG_9702-gradient.jpg" caption="Red Quartzite head of Djedefre, likely a part of a [[Ka statue]], in the [[Louvre"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Feet_of_a_statue_of_Didufri-E_12627-IMG_9696-gradient.jpg" caption="Red Quartzite feet of a statue of Djedefre, likely a part of a [[Ka statue]], in the [[Louvre]]. The statue fragment also includes his [[Horus name]] ''Kheper'', alongside a cartouche of his name."] ::

The Turin King List credits him with a rule of eight years, but the highest known year referred to during this reign appears to be the year of his 11th cattle count. The anonymous year of the 11th count date presumably of Djedefre was found written on the underside of one of the massive roofing-block beams which covered Khufu's southern boat-pits by Egyptian work crews. Miroslav Verner notes that in the work crew's mason marks and inscriptions, "either Djedefra's throne name or his Golden Horus name occur exclusively." Verner writes that the current academic opinion regarding the attribution of this date to Djedefre is disputed among Egyptologists: Rainer Stadelmann, , favour dating it to Djedefre whereas Wolfgang Helck, , Jean Vercoutter and W.S. Smith attribute this date to Khufu instead on the assumption "that the ceiling block with the date had been brought to the building site of the boat pit already in Khufu's time and placed in position [only] as late as during the burial of the funerary boat in Djedefre's time."

The German scholar Dieter Arnold, in a 1981 MDAIK paper noted that the marks and inscriptions of the blocks from Khufu's boat pit seem to form a coherent collection relating to the different stages of the same building project realised by Djedefre's crews. Verner stresses that such marks and inscriptions usually pertained to the breaking of the blocks in the quarry, their transportation, their storage and manipulation in the building site itself: "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."

Verner also notes that the French-Swiss team excavating Djedefre's pyramid have discovered that this king's pyramid was really finished in his reign. According to Michel Vallogia, Djedefre's pyramid largely made use of a natural rock promontory which represented around 45% of its core; the side of the pyramid was 200 cubits long and its height was 125 cubits. The original volume of the monument of Djedefre, hence, approximately equalled that of Menkaura's own pyramid. Therefore, the argument that Djedefre enjoyed a short reign because his pyramid was unfinished is somewhat discredited. This means that Djedefre likely ruled Egypt for a minimum of 11 years if the cattle count was annual, or 22 years if it was biennial; Verner, himself, supports the shorter, 11-year figure and notes that "the relatively few monuments and records left by Djedefra do not seem to favour a very long reign" for this king.

Pyramid complex

thumb|The ruined pyramid of Djedefre at Abu Rawash

Djedefre continued the move north in the location of pyramids by building his (now ruined) pyramid at Abu Rawash, some 8 km to the north of Giza. It is the northernmost part of the Memphite necropolis.

While Egyptologists previously assumed that his pyramid at this heavily denuded site was unfinished upon his death, more recent excavations from 1995 to 2005 have established that it was indeed completed. The most recent evidence indicates that its current state is the result of extensive plundering in later periods. The destruction started at the end of the New Kingdom at the latest, and was particularly intense during the Roman and early Christian eras ( 2,000 years ago) when a Coptic monastery was built in nearby Wadi Karin, while "the king's statues [were] smashed as late as the 2nd century AD." As a result of Djedefre's pyramid being quarried for its stone, as such, there is little left standing today. It has been proven, moreover, that at the end of the nineteenth century, stone was still being hauled away at the rate of three hundred camel loads a day. The 20th century has also not been kind to this monument – during the last century, it was used as a military camp and its proximity to Cairo exposed it to modern development.

Some believe that the sphinx of his wife, Hetepheres II, which was part of Djedefre's pyramid complex, was the first sphinx created. In 2004, evidence that Djedefre was responsible for the building of the Sphinx at Giza in the image of his father was reported by the French Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev.

Due to the poor condition of Abu Rawash, only small traces of his mortuary complex have been found. Only the rough ground plan of his mud brick mortuary temple was able to be traced—with some difficulty—"in the usual place on the east face of the pyramid." His pyramid causeway proved to run from north to south rather than the more conventional east to west, while no valley temple has been found.

References

Kim Ryholt: ''The political Situation in Egypt during the second intermediate Period: c. 1800 - 1550 B.C.'', Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen 1997, {{ISBN. 87-7289-421-0; William Gillian Waddell: ''Manetho'' (The Loeb classical Library)
Alan B. Lloyd: ''Herodotus'', book II.
(December 23, 2009). "Riddle of the Sphinx".
Dodson & Hilton, p. 55.
Dodson & Hilton, p. 59.
Mostafa Waziry and Mohamed El-Seaidyː ''Private Old Kingdom statue of Ity-sen at Abu Rawash''. In MiroslavBárta, Zahi Hawass, and Mohamed Megahed (eds), ''Living at the wall: studies in honor of Mark Lehner'', Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts 2024, ISBN 9788076711648, pp. 405-413.
Dodson & Hilton, p. 58.
Dodson & Hilton, p. 61.
Verner, Miroslav: Archaeological Remarks on the 4th and 5th Dynasty Chronology, Archiv Orientální, Volume 69: 2001, p. 375.
Verner, p. 375.
Dieter Arnold, MDAIK 37 (1981), p. 28.
M. Verner, ''Baugraffiti der Ptahscepses-Mastaba'', Praha (1992). p. 184.
Verner, p. 376.
Michel Vallogia, Études sur l'Ancien Empire et la nécropole de Saqqara (''Fs Lauer'') (1997). p. 418.
Vallogia, op. cit., p. 418.
Verner, p. 377.
Clayton, pp. 50-51.
Verner, Miroslav. (2001). "The Pyramids". Atlantic Books.
[https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2010/05/could-djedefre-pyramid-be-solar-temple.html Could Djedefre's Pyramid Be A Solar Temple?] {{Webarchive. link. (2020-11-19 May 13, 2010, Archaeology News Network.)
Clayton, p. 50.

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