The Children of Adam and Eve

Djedefre was a pharaoh of Egypt in the 4th Dynasty (2613-2498 BC), second of four dynasties in the Old Kingdom Period.

The son and immediate successor of Khufu, his mother is unknown. Djedefre 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 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, Khentetka with whom he had at least three sons, Setka,Baka and Hernet, and one daughter, Neferhetepes. These children are attested to by statuary fragments found in the ruined mortuary Temple adjoining the pyramid. Various fragmentary statues of Khentetka were found in this ruler's mortuary Templeat Abu Rawash. Excavations by the French team under Michel Valloggia have recently added another potential daughter, Hetepheres, as well as a son, Nikaudjedefre, to this list.

The relatively few monuments and records left by Djedefra do not seem to favour a very Long reign for this king.

Djedefre continued the move north in the location of pyramids 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.

Some believe that the sphinx of his wife, Hetepheres II, was the first sphinx created. It was part of Djedefre's pyramid complex at Abu Rawash. In 2004, evidence that Djedefre may have been responsible for the building of the Sphinx at Giza inthe image of his father was reported by the French Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev.

While Egyptologists previously assumed that his pyramid at the heavily denuded site of Abu Rawash - some 5 kilometres north of Giza - was unfinished upon his death, More recent excavations from have established that it was indeed completed. Themost recent evidence rather indicates that his pyramid complex was extensively pLundered in later periods while the king's statues were smashed as late as the 2nd century AD.

Due to the poor condition of Abu Rawash, only small traces of his mortuary complex have been found; his pyramid causeway proved to run from north to south rather than the More conventional east to west while no valley Temple has been found. Onlythe rough ground plan of his mud-brick mortuary Temple was traced - with some difficulty - in the usual place on the east face of the pyramid.

Djedefre married Kawab's widow Hetepheres II, who was sister to both of them, and perhaps married a third brother of theirs, Khafre, after Djedefre's death. Another queen, Khentetka is known to us from statue fragments in the Abu Rowash mortuaryTemple. Known children of Djedefre are:

Hornit (Eldest King's Son of His Body) known from a statue depicting him and his wife.
Baka (Eldest King's Son) known from a statue base found in Djedefre's mortuary Temple, depicting him with his wife Hetepheres.
Setka (Eldest King's Son of His Body) known from a scribe statue found in his father's pyramid complex. It is possible that he ruled for a short while after his father's death; an unfinished pyramid at Zawiyet el-Arian was started for a rulerwhose name ends in ka; this could have been Setka or Baka.
Neferhetepes (King's Daughter of His Body; God's Wife) is known from a statue fragment from Abu Rowash. She was possibly the mother of a pharaoh of the next dynasty, either Userkaf or Sahure.
The French excavation team led by Michel Vallogia found the names of two other possible children of Djedefre in the pyramid complex:

Nikaudjedefre (King's Son of His Body) was buried in Tomb F15 in Abu Rowash; it is possible that he wasn't a son of Djedefre but lived later and his title was only honorary.
Hetepheres (King's Daughter of His Body) was mentioned on a statue fragment.