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Titulary
The serekh of this king is surmounted by both the Horus Falcon and the Seth Jackal, and he is the only king to have used this. This is usually considered a sign that the king unified Egypt into a single entity again He is well documented as a military leader --after wining the struggle against the North that had started during the reign of Peribsen, he refused to "choose sides" amongst the gods and instead used both atop his serekh to avoid favoring either camp. His name was also changed by adding -wy, making "The Two Powers Come Forward", not just the one power.
He also moved the capitol to the far south in Heirakonpolis and it was the first and last time that a united Egypt was ruled from that city. Other military campaigns took him all the way up to Byblos in Syria, and in fact his is the first pharaohs name to be inscribed there. His tomb in Abydos is unique. It is set apart form the others and is a mixture between the northern style mastaba tombs and the traditional square buildings from the south -- some say, a very "diplomatic" melding of the two styles. There is an enclosure, probably for the rituals of his cult. The tomb itself is far larger than his predecessors and the grave chamber is built in stone, the first of its kind. The first hard stone statues appear to be from Khasekhemwy, and have survived in Hierakonpolis -- it is not sure if these are portraits or stylized representations of the king. The most remarkable monuments, though, is a huge mud-brick building called "the Fortress" on the western side of the nile near Hierakonpolis. The walls, while crumbled, are up to 5 meters thick and even in their collapsed state tower over 11 meters high in some places. The entire enclosure is 67 x 57 meters. Its purpose is unknown. In west Saqqara stands a large rectangular enclosure called Gisr el-Mudir. The enclosure (excavated in the 1990s) contains a stone cut wall with a height of 4.5 meters in some places. The width of the base of the walls -- some 15 m -- shows that it as much higher when it was completed. The entire enclosure measures about 600 x 340 meters with an entrance on the south side. There are no traces of buildings inside. The filler stone inside the wall dates to the early second dynasty. Finally, the Storehouse of the Dates stands about 1000 yards from his tomb. It is a huge mud brick rectangle with an articulated palace facade, much like that of the later Djoser's complex. It is 123m x 64m and fragments of the 20m high wall still exist. It may have been a mortuary temple and, more interesting still, has a mound in the middle that may have been the start of a step pyramid. There are a number of connections to the king of the next Dynasty, Djoser, who may have been his son. Many seals with Djoser's name were found at Khasekhemwy's tomb and that he was responsible for the funerary rites for the dead king.
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LinkspharaohsHetepsekhemwy monumentsTomb V, Abydos |
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