SAHURE

The Afrikan ancestral tradition of pyramid building continued with Sahure Nebkau, of the Fifth Dynastic Period. He built his limestone "Pyramid of the Shining Spirits" at the royal cemetery at Abusir. The pyramid was located in an oblong court on the plateau at the desert's edge. It was much smaller thanthose at Giza, and stood 163 feet high with each side measuring 257.feet at the 'base. ~ A Valley Building and a Mortuary Temple- were situated the pyramid complex. Twentieth century excavators estimated that the wall surface covered-by the reliefs in Sahure's magnificent complex amounted to almost 32,808 feet. Reliefs in the Mortuary Temple gave accounts of Sahures life. It showedhis.triumphs over his enemies, the Asiatics and the Libyans. The carvings pn the wall also demonstrated that the King sent a fleet of twelve ships against the Phoenician coast. This earliest surviving representation _of sea-going ships made -Keniet (Egypt)- the :,earliest recorded naval power in history; Sahure sent another fleet to Pwenet (Punt -- assumed the Somali coast by many Egyptologists). He called this area "God's Land" and became the first King whose records show direct communication with Pwenet (Punt) for trade. The Kemetian (Egyptian) fleet brought back myrrh, electrum and precious wood. Sahure, the son of King Userkaf and Queen Khentkaues, was one of the most productive rulers of the Fifth Dynastic Period. He engraved his victory over the Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula on a Wady Magarah stele; _ Kemet (Egypt) .maintained the copper mines in that area. It is also possible that he built-a town called Pa-Sahura. Esna's religious calendar mentioned the nearby town. We can assume that-the tradition of artistic express-ion, prevalent in theFourth Dynastic Period, also existed in the Fifth -Dynasty. A statue in the ~Metropolitan Museum shows Sahure in the company ofa nome neter or-divine entity (god). It indicated that Sahure was the neter or divine entity's (god's) companion,
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Sahure's reign _':Vas-one of prosperity, agriculture and trade. monarch ruled 14 years and was worshipped after his death;

ThIS energetic