46 Facts About Nyuserre Ini

Nyuserre Ini was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period.

Nyuserre Ini is credited with a reign of 24 to 35 years depending on the scholar, and likely lived in the second half of the 25th century BCE.

Nyuserre Ini was in turn succeeded by Menkauhor Kaiu, who could have been his nephew and a son of Neferefre.

Nyuserre Ini was the most prolific builder of his dynasty, having built three pyramids for himself and his queens and completed a further three for his father, mother and brother, all in the necropolis of Abusir.

Nyuserre Ini built the largest surviving temple to the sun god Ra constructed during the Old Kingdom, named Shesepibre or "Joy of the heart of Ra".

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Nyuserre Ini completed the Nekhenre, the Sun temple of Userkaf in Abu Gorab, and the valley temple of Menkaure in Giza.

Nyuserre Ini is well attested in sources contemporaneous with his reign, for example in the tombs of some of his contemporaries including Nyuserre's manicurists Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, the high officials Khufukhaf II, Ty, Rashepses, Neferefre-ankh and Khabawptah, and the priests of his funerary cult Nimaatsed and Kaemnefert.

Nyuserre Ini is attested in three ancient Egyptian king lists, all dating to the New Kingdom.

Nyuserre Ini is the only Fifth Dynasty king absent from the Saqqara Tablet.

In support of this hypothesis is Verner's observation that Neferefre and Nyuserre Ini were very likely full brothers, both sons of Neferirkare Kakai, There is evidence that Neferefre was Neferirkare's eldest son and in his early twenties at the death of his father, and thus would have been likely to inherit the throne.

Nyuserre Ini was then still a child and, in this hypothesis, his claim to the throne faced a serious challenge in the person of his possible uncle Shepseskare who might have been a son of Sahure.

Nyuserre Ini ultimately prevailed however, either because of Shepseskare's own premature death or because he was backed by powerful high officials and members of the royal family, foremost among whom were his mother Khentkaus II and Ptahshepses.

Manetho's Aegyptiaca related that Nyuserre Ini reigned for 44 years, a figure which is rejected by Egyptologists, who rather credit him with about three decades of reign owing to the paucity of secure dates for his rule.

The entry of the Turin canon pertaining to Nyuserre is damaged and the duration of his rule is difficult to read with certainty.

View that Nyuserre Ini reigned in excess of twenty years is furthermore supported by archaeological evidence, which points to a fairly long reign for him.

Hypothesis of a reign more than three decades long for Nyuserre Ini is supported, albeit indirectly, by reliefs discovered in his solar temple showing him participating in a Sed festival.

Reign of Nyuserre Ini witnessed the unabated growth of the priesthood and state bureaucracy, a phenomenon which had started in the early Fifth Dynasty in particular under Neferirkare Kakai.

East of Egypt, Nyuserre Ini commissioned at least one expedition to the Wadi Maghareh in Sinai, where mines of copper and turquoise were exploited during much of the Old Kingdom.

At the right of Nyuserre Ini is a dedication to "Thoth, lord of the foreign lands, who has made pure libations".

The valley temple of Nyuserre was thus built on the foundations laid by his father for his own unfinished valley temple.

South of the pyramid of his mother Khentkaus II, Nyuserre Ini built a pyramid for a queen, either a consort of himself or of his brother Neferefre.

Nyuserre Ini was the penultimate Egyptian pharaoh to build a sun temple.

Neferefre had begun covering the pyramid surface with limestone and had built the foundation of a stone temple on the pyramid eastern side; Nyuserre Ini completed their father's pyramid complex, though he did so more parsimoniously than his brother.

Nyuserre Ini abandoned the task of covering the pyramid altogether and finished the mortuary temple with cheaper materials than were normally used for such buildings.

Nyuserre Ini hastily completed the pyramid by transforming it into a stylised primeval mound resembling a mastaba: the walls of the core layer already in place were covered with limestone and the top was filled with clay and stones drawn from the local desert.

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Nyuserre Ini built storage rooms to the north of the hall and, east of it, the "Sanctuary of the Knife" where animals were ritually slaughtered.

Nyuserre Ini first added an inner enclosure of limestone in the pre-existing court, extended the outside enclosure and either completed or built entirely the valley temple.

Identity of the mother of Nyuserre Ini is known with certainty: it was queen Khentkaus II, in whose mortuary temple a fragmentary relief showing her facing her son Nyuserre Ini and his family has been uncovered.

At least one sibling of Nyuserre Ini is known with near-certainty: Neferefre, who was a son of Neferirkare and Khentkaus II, was Nyuserre Ini's elder brother.

Since the relation between Shepseskare and Nyuserre Ini remains uncertain, it is possible that the two were brothers too, as suggested by Roth, although the dominant hypothesis is that Shepseskare was a son of Sahure and hence Nyuserre Ini's uncle.

Finally, yet another brother, possibly younger than Nyuserre Ini has been proposed: Iryenre, a prince Iry-pat whose relationship is suggested by the fact that his funerary cult was associated with that of his mother, both having taken place in the temple of Khentkaus II.

Nyuserre Ini seems to have had at least two wives, as witnessed by two small pyramids located at the southern end of the pyramid field of Abusir.

Hartwig Altenmuller goes further and hypothesises that Nyuserre Ini had two more daughters, who he believes were buried close to Nyuserre Ini's pyramid.

In 2012, the tomb of Sheretnebty, an hitherto unknown daughter of Nyuserre Ini, was excavated in Abusir south by a team under the direction of Miroslav Barta.

Nyuserre Ini was married to an important Egyptian official, whose name is lost.

Nyuserre Ini is known to have had at least one son: his first born, whose name is lost, is represented on several relief fragments from the high temple of his pyramid complex.

Precise relationship between Nyuserre Ini and Menkauhor remains uncertain but indirect evidence from the mastaba of Khentkaus III, discovered in 2015, favors the hypothesis that Menkauhor was a son of Neferefre and thus a nephew of Nyuserre Ini rather than his own son.

Since she was the mother of a king and since Nyuserre Ini was a brother to Neferefre, the son in question is most probably the future Menkauhor Kaiu, who would thus have succeeded his uncle.

In later times, the official cult of Nyuserre Ini was essentially reduced to a cult of the royal ancestor figure, a "limited version of the cult of the divine" as Jaromir Malek writes, manifested by the dedication of statues and the compilation of lists of kings to be honoured.

Several priests serving in the pyramid complex and sun temple of Nyuserre Ini are known from their tombs until the end of the Sixth Dynasty, showing that the official mortuary cult endured throughout the late Old Kingdom.

Nyuserre Ini furthermore received special attention from at least two of his successors during this period: Djedkare Isesi either restored or completed his funerary temple, and Pepi II Neferkare erected a door jamb bearing an inscription mentioning both his first Sed festival and Nyuserre Ini in the latter's valley temple, a close association meant to "evidence the pretended association of the king with his forefather".

Nyuserre Ini is one of the very few Old Kingdom kings for whom there is evidence that the funerary cult continued uninterrupted during the First Intermediate Period, when the central authority of the pharaohs had broken down and the Egyptian state was in turmoil.

The tombs of two priests HeryshefhotepI and II, who lived during this period, mention their roles and duties in the funerary establishment of Nyuserre Ini, witnessing to the continuing existence of the official mortuary cult.

Similar qualifications denoting Nyuserre Ini's status are found in tombs dating to the subsequent early Middle Kingdom, such as the mummy chest of an individual named Inhotep, on which he says he is to be "honoured before Osiris, lord of life, and Iny, lord of reverence".

Later, during the Ramesside period, statues of Old Kingdom pharaohs including one of Nyuserre Ini were placed in a cachette in the temple of Ptah in Memphis, suggesting their continued use for cultic purposes until that point.

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The sun temple of Nyuserre Ini was among the monuments benefiting from these works.