page_title: Sahure
section_title: Religious activities
hierarchical_section_title: Sahure / Reign / Activities in Egypt / Religious activities
context_page_description: Sahure was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh and second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty. He reigned for about 12 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old Kingdom Period. Sahure's reign is considered to mark the political and cultural high point of the Fifth Dynasty. He was probably the son of his predecessor Userkaf with Queen Neferhetepes II, and was in turn succeeded by his son Neferirkare Kakai.
  During Sahure's rule, Egypt had important trade relations with the Levantine coast. Sahure launched several naval expeditions to modern-day Lebanon to procure cedar trees, slaves and exotic items. His reign may have witnessed the flourishing of the Egyptian navy, which included a high-seas fleet as well as specialized racing boats. Relying on this, Sahure ordered the earliest attested expedition to the land of Punt, which brought back large quantities of myrrh, malachite and electrum. Sahure is shown celebrating the success of this venture in a relief from his mortuary temple which shows him tending a myrrh tree in the garden of his palace named "Sahure's splendor soars up to heaven". This relief is the only one in Egyptian art depicting a king gardening.
context_section_description: The majority of Sahure's activities in Egypt recorded on the Palermo stone are religious in nature. This royal annal records that in the "year of the first time of traveling around", Sahure journeyed to the Elephantine fortress, where he may have received the submission of the Nubian chiefs in a ceremonial act connected with the commencement of his reign. The fashioning of six statues of the king as well as the subsequent opening of the mouth ceremonies are also reported.
  During Sahure's fifth year on the throne, the Palermo stone mentions the making of a divine barge, possibly in Heliopolis,  the appointment of 200 priests and the exact quantity of daily offerings of bread and beer to Ra (138, 40 and 74 measures in three temples), Hathor (4 measures), Nekhbet (800 measures) and Wadjet (4800 measures) fixed by the king. Also reported are gifts of lands to temples of between 1 and 204 arouras (0.7 to nearly 140 acres). Concerning Lower Egypt, the stone register corresponding to this reign gives the earliest known mention of the city of Athribis in the Delta region.
  Further indication of religious activities lies in that Sahure is the earliest known king to have used the Egyptian title of Nb írt-ḫt. This title, possibly meaning "Lord of doing effective things", indicates that he personally performed physical cultic activities to ensure the existence and persistence of the Maat, the Egyptian concept of order and justice. This title remained in use until the time of Herihor, some 1500 years later. Sahure's reign is also the earliest during which the ceremony of the "driving of the calves" is known to have taken place. This is significant in the context of the progressive emergence of the cult of Osiris throughout the Fifth Dynasty, as this ceremony subsequently became an integral part of the Osiris myth. In subsequent times, the ceremony corresponded to Seth's threshing of Osiris by driving calves trampling fields of barley.
  Sahure reorganized the cult of his mother Nepherhetepes II, whose mortuary complex had been built by Userkaf in Saqqara. He added an entrance portico with four columns to her temple, so that the entrance was not facing Userkaf's pyramid anymore.
caption: Sahure might have visited Elephantine early in his reign.
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