Kha'sekhemui

King c.2703-2686 BC.

    The similarity of the names Kha'sekhemui and *Kha'sekhem and their close association in the King Lists has led to the suggestion that they may have represented the same person and that *Kha'sekhem, having united the followers of the rival gods Horus and Seth, took the new name of Kha'sekhemui. However, it is more probable that Kha'sekhemui succeeded Kha'sekhem as a ruler of the Second Dynasty.

    During his reign, there were apparently great advances made in technology and references occur both to a copper statue of the king and to a temple carved of stone. His reign undoubtedly laid the foundations for the innovations of the Third Dynasty when *Djoser (who may have been either the son or grandson of Kha'sekhemui) built the first stone pyramid. *Djoser's mother, Nymaathap, was either the queen or daughter of Kha'sekhemui.

BIBL. Petrie, W.M.F. The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, 1901, Part 2. London: 1901; Quibell, J.E. Hierakonpolis. London: 1900-2; Emery, W.B. Archaic Egypt. Harmondsworth: 1972; Newberry, P.E. The Set Rebellion of the Second Dynasty. Ancient Egypt. (1922) pp. 40-6; Griffith, J.G. The Conflict of Horus and Seth. Liverpool: 1960.

Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David