Djedefra

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Djedefra in hieroglyphs

The Egyptian pharaoh Djedefra was the successor and son of Khufu. The mother of Djedefra is unknown.

He married his (half-) sister Hetepheres II, which may have been necessary to legitimise his claims to the throne if his mother was one of Khufu’s lesser wives. He also had another wife, Khentet-en-ka with whom he had (at least) three sons, Setka, Baka and Hernet and one daughter, Neferhetepes.

The Turin King List credits him with a rule of eight years, but the highest known year referenced to during this reign was the year of the 11th cattle count. This would mean that Djedefra ruled for at least eleven years, if the cattle counts were annual, or 21 years if the cattle counts were biennial.

He was the first king to use the title Son of Ra as part of his royal titulary, which is seen as an indication of the growing popularity of the cult of the solar god Ra.

He continued the move north by building his (now ruined) pyramid at Abu Rawash, some 8 km to the North of Giza. It is the northernmost part of the Memphite necropolis. In 2004, evidence that Djedefra may have been responsible for the building of the Sphinx in the image of his father was reported by French Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev.