Khasekhemwy was the last king of dynasty 2. He was the son of Nynetjer, the third king who reigned for 38+ years. And this is where the problems starts... Since it is known from a document found that Khasekhemwy was born in year 15 of Nynetjer, he would have been 23+ years old at his father's death. Current lists place 4 kings before his eventual rule, with a total reign span of 55 years! This would have made him 78 years old when he came to the throne. A near impossibility, considering he is thought to have reigned 28 years after that. Some scholars go so far as to give him a reign of 38. |
The 55 years given to the four kings before him are all 'low years', two being given higher reigns by 'Manetho' and 'Lepre'. Lepre says there was no king named Khasekhemwy, this being a distortion of Sekhemkhet, Djoser's son(?). He omits this name and adds two others; Huthefi Kere & Thethi Kheneri. He also identify's the statue below with Sekhemkhet. Unless all of these kings were usurpers who ruled con-currently, a drastic revision for this period is in order. Of his married life, we are left again with a void. Generally, scholars assign Nymaathep as his wife. In this dark time, none of the women had a prominent role. Currently, he is the only 2nd dynasty king assigned a possible wife. But if she was his wife and ?sister( as her titles seem to point to), why the dynastic change? It would make more sense if she was his sole surviving heir, married to the son of a secondary queen. But she could equally have been a princess of lower egypt too. |
Khasekhemwy was obviously at war for the majority of his reign. Current evidence supports wars with both Lybia and Nubia. But there is also evidence for a war with Lower Egypt. This is a cloudy period, that very temporarily get's a bit clearer, only fall into oblivion once again. How far he went towards repairing the damage left by the previous kings remains unknown at present. His unusually shaped tomb at abydos is one of the largest for this dynastic period. He remains the most famous and the greatest king of this era.  |