Old Kingdom
Menkauhor
5th Dynasty · 2494-2345 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Background
Menkauhor was a late Dynasty 5 king known from king lists, inscriptions and a pyramid complex at Saqqara. His sun temple, named “Horizon of Ra,” is attested in texts but has not been securely located, making it a significant missing monument in the evidence for Dynasty 5 solar cult. Compared with Sahure or Nyuserre, his reign is poorly documented; the surviving record does not support a detailed political narrative. He is nevertheless important in the continuity of Fifth Dynasty institutions and in the still-unresolved archaeological map of royal sun temples. Research: Metropolitan Museum; Old Kingdom chronology.
Chronology: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
Departure from Abusir
Menkauhor was the seventh king of the dynasty. For reasons still debated by historians, he broke with the tradition of his immediate predecessors and abandoned the royal necropolis at Abusir. He relocated his pyramid construction back to Saqqara (believed to be the ruin known as the "Headless Pyramid"). He is also recorded as the very last pharaoh to build a dedicated Sun Temple to Ra.