page_title: Sahure
section_title: Building and mining activities
hierarchical_section_title: Sahure / Reign / Activities in Egypt / Building and mining activities
caption_attribution_description: English: El Kab - Necheb The city walls of mud bricks from the Nile Deutsch: El kab Die erhaltene Lehmziegelmauer der antiken Stadt Necheb Vom Nil aus gesehen
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: Archeological evidences suggest that Sahure's building activities were mostly concentrated in Abusir and its immediate vicinity, where he constructed his pyramid and where his sun temple is probably located. Also nearby was the palace of Sahure, called Uetjes Neferu Sahure, "Sahure's splendor soars up to heaven". The palace is known from an inscription on beef tallow containers discovered in February 2011 in Neferefre's mortuary temple. A second palace, "The Crown of Sahure appears", is known from an inscription in the tomb of his chief physician.
  Both palaces, if they were different buildings, were likely on the shores of the Abusir lake.
  The stones for Sahure's buildings and statues were quarried throughout Egypt. For example, the limestone cladding of the pyramid comes from Tura, while the black basalt used for the flooring of Sahure's mortuary temple comes from Gebel Qatrani, near the Faiyum in Middle Egypt. South of Egypt, a stele bearing Sahure's name was discovered in the diorite quarries located in the desert north-west of Abu Simbel in Lower Nubia.
  Further mining and quarrying expeditions may be inferred from indirect evidence. An inscription of Sahure in the Wadi Abu Geridah in the Eastern desert as well as other Old Kingdom inscriptions there suggest that iron ore was mined in the vicinity since the times of the Fourth Dynasty. The lower half of a statue with the name of the king was discovered in 2015 in Elkab, a location possibly connected with expeditions to the Eastern desert and south of Egypt to Nubia. Sahure's cartouche has been found in graffiti in Tumas and on seal impressions from Buhen at the second cataract of the Nile in Lower Nubia.
caption: A statue of Sahure was uncovered in Elkab, which may have been the starting point of mining expeditions during his reign.
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