Baufra

colspan="2" valign="top" style="background:;" | Baufra in hieroglyphs

Bauefre
Ra is his glory[1]

Baufra (Baufre, Bauefre, Ra-bauw-f) was a son of King Khufu from the 4th dynasty of ancient Egypt. He is known from a story in the Papyrus Westcar and an inscription in Wadi Hammamat. He may have been buried in the double mastaba G 7310 - 7320 in Giza.

Contents

Biography

Baufra is listed as a son of Pharaoh Khufu in the Papyrus Westcar and in an inscription in Wadi Hammamat. His name is written in a cartouche in the Wadi Hammamat. Baufre's name appears as the last name in a list: Khufu, Djedefre, Khafre, Hordjedef and Baufra. It is possible that Baufra is identical to either Horbaef or Babaef.[2]

Story from the Westcar Papyrus

Baufra appeared in the ancient story, Khufu and the Magicians. In the story, the sons of Khufu are amusing their father with telling him stories about magicians and pharaohs.

Baufra tells the tale about his grandfather Sneferu, Khufu's father. In the story it is revealed that Sneferu was bored one day, and his priest Djadjaemankh tells him that he should call lovely girls, and Sneferu, women and Djadjaemankh spent beautiful day at the lake. Sneferu rewarded the priest Djadjaemankh with every good thing.

On hearing the completion of this tale, Khufu gave offerings to the kas of Sneferu and Djadjaemankh, and he was pleased with his son Baufra.[3][4]

Tomb

The double mastaba G 7310 - 7320 in the east field which is part of the Giza Necropolis has been attributed to Baufra.[5] But others have tentatively assigned the tomb to Babaef (Khnumbaf).[6]

Sources

  1. ^ Hermann Ranke: Die ägyptischen Persönennamen, p.89
  2. ^ Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004. pp 50-61, ISBN 0-500-05128-3
  3. ^ The Tales from the Westcar Papyrus
  4. ^ Westcar Papyrus
  5. ^ Smith, William Stevenson. "The Origin of Some Unidentified Old Kingdom Reliefs." American Journal of Archaeology 46 (1942), pp. 523-524
  6. ^ Bárta, Miroslav. "The Title Inspector of the Palace during the Egyptian Old Kingdom." Archiv Orientální 67, No. 1 (February, 1999), pp. 4, 10, 12-13 (discussion of "Anonymous" title holder).