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The fifth dynasty of Egypt: sun temples and the first Pyramid Texts
22 October 2026
The fifth dynasty of Egypt ruled from Memphis for about 150 years, c. 2494 to 2345 BC in the chronology the site follows. Nine kings reigned, from Userkaf to Unas. They built smaller pyramids than their Giza predecessors, most of them at Abusir, and beside them sun temples to the god Ra.
In writing, its kings made "son of Ra" a regular part of the royal names. A temple archive at Abusir is the largest group of Old Kingdom papyri ever found. And Unas, the last king, covered the rooms under his pyramid with the oldest Pyramid Texts.
Nine kings ruled from Userkaf to Unas
A story in the Westcar Papyrus, written centuries later, makes the first three kings triplets fathered by Ra on the wife of one of his priests. Historians treat it as legend. The order of the kings comes from later king lists and from their own monuments, and two short reigns in the middle are still debated: Shaw's chronology puts Shepseskare before Neferefre, and the Czech excavators of Abusir argue for the reverse.
- Userkaf, founder: pyramid at Saqqara, the first sun temple
- Sahure: the first royal pyramid at Abusir
- Neferirkare Kakai: the largest Abusir pyramid, left unfinished
- Neferefre and Shepseskare: two brief reigns
- Niuserre: a long reign, the sun temple at Abu Ghurab
- Menkauhor: the last king known to build a sun temple
- Djedkare Isesi: a long reign, buried at South Saqqara
- Unas, c. 2375–2345 BC: the first Pyramid Texts
Ra moved into the royal titles
Djedefre of the 4th Dynasty was the first king to call himself sꜣ rꜥ, said sa-ra, "son of Ra". His successors used the title only now and then. Under Neferirkare it became fixed: from his reign every king carried two names in cartouches, a throne name after the title nswt-bjtj, "King of Upper and Lower Egypt", and a birth name after "son of Ra". Kings kept that pattern until the Roman emperors.
The title is written with two signs. The pintail duck (G39) stands for sꜣ, "son", and the sun disc (N5) for rꜥ, Ra. Look for the pair just before the second cartouche.
Ra also filled the names themselves. Sahure, sꜣḥw-rꜥ, is usually rendered "He who is close to Ra", Neferirkare "Beautiful is the ka of Ra". Userkaf's name has no sun in it: wsr-kꜣ.f, "His ka is strong", the jackal head and neck (F12) for wsr, "strong", the raised arms (D28) for kꜣ, the vital force, and the horned viper (I9) for .f, "his".
Sun temples stood near Abusir
Kings from Userkaf to Menkauhor each built a temple to Ra in the desert at or near Abusir. Texts name about six. Archaeologists have dug two: Userkaf's, called Nekhenre, and Niuserre's at Abu Ghurab, about 650 metres to the north-west. Neferirkare's Setibre, described in the papyri as the largest, has never been located.
A sun temple had no roofed sanctuary. In the open courtyard of Niuserre's temple stood a massive squat obelisk of limestone on a granite base, perhaps 35 to 50 metres tall. A passage beside it, now called the Room of the Seasons, was carved with scenes of the inundation and the harvest season: fishermen netting fish, men trapping birds. Ludwig Borchardt and Friedrich von Bissing dug it for Berlin in 1898 to 1901, and its reliefs are in Berlin today.
Papyri ran the temples at Abusir
In 1893 illegal diggers found papyri in Neferirkare's mortuary temple at Abusir. Ludwig Borchardt traced them to the spot and found more there in 1903. In the mid-1970s a Czech mission led by Miroslav Verner found about 2,000 more pieces in the storerooms of Neferefre's temple.
They are written in hieratic, the joined-up hand scribes used on papyrus. Duty rosters list which priests served each month, inventories check the temple's vessels and furniture item by item, and lists set out the daily offerings for the sun temples. One describes a niche in Neferirkare's temple that held five statues of the king.
Most Old Kingdom writing comes from tombs. Here a working temple's bookkeeping survives, though the first finds were sold off piece by piece.
Sahure covered his temple in carved scenes
Sahure's valley temple, causeway and mortuary temple carried an estimated 10,000 square metres of painted relief. Fragments show a fleet of seagoing ships coming home from the Levant with cedar, foreigners on board hailing the king, Libyan chiefs struck down before him, and the king hunting wild bulls and hippopotamuses in the marsh.
The Palermo Stone records an expedition to Punt in his last year that brought back myrrh, malachite and electrum, the earliest documented voyage there. A relief from his mortuary temple shows Sahure tending a myrrh tree in his palace garden, the only scene in Egyptian art of a king at gardening.
His officials copied the style. In their mastabas at Saqqara, such as those of Ti and of Ptahhotep and Akhethotep, the same scenes of farming, crafts, boats and fishing fill the walls, each figure labelled with a few signs saying what it does.
Unas wrote spells under his pyramid
Unas reigned last, for around thirty years by the Turin king list. His pyramid at Saqqara is small, but its burial chamber, antechamber and part of the corridor are carved with spells in columns of signs filled with blue. Counts of the spells differ by editor, from about 228 to 283. They are the oldest Pyramid Texts, and the kings of the next dynasty copied and added to them.
His name is short. The hare (E34) writes wn, the ripple of water (N35) n, the flowering reed (M17) i and the folded cloth (S29) s: wnis, Unas. The meaning of the name is uncertain. Unlike most kings of the dynasty, Unas used the same name inside both cartouches.
Ptahhotep's advice was set under Djedkare
Later Egyptians remembered the dynasty for wisdom too. The Maxims of Ptahhotep present themselves as the advice of an aged vizier of Djedkare Isesi to his son, on listening, speaking well and keeping one's temper. The only complete copy, the Prisse Papyrus in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, dates from the Middle Kingdom, and most scholars think the text was composed then and set in the 5th Dynasty. In Miriam Lichtheim's translation one line reads: "Good speech is more hidden than greenstone, yet may be found among maids at the grindstones."
Questions
Who was the first pharaoh of the fifth dynasty?
Userkaf. His reign was short, seven or eight years by the Palermo Stone and the Turin king list, and he built his pyramid at Saqqara beside Djoser's complex.
What is a sun temple?
A temple to Ra built by a king of the 5th Dynasty, with an open court and a large obelisk-like monument at its centre. The Abusir papyri list the daily offerings made there.
Where can you see the 5th Dynasty today?
At Saqqara, the pyramid of Unas and the mastabas of Ti and Ptahhotep. The pyramids of Sahure, Neferirkare and Niuserre stand at Abusir, and the sun temple of Niuserre at Abu Ghurab nearby.
Who came after the 5th Dynasty?
Teti, founder of the 6th Dynasty, around 2345 BC. He built his pyramid at Saqqara too, and his queens and officials were buried around it.
Glossary
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- Lower Egypt
- The north of Egypt, the flat Nile Delta from around Memphis to the sea. It is called lower because it is downstream.
- obelisk
- A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
- Old Kingdom
- The age of the pyramid builders, about 2686 to 2181 BC, from the 3rd to the 6th Dynasty.
- papyrus
- A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
- priest
- A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
- pyramid
- A royal tomb with four sloping sides meeting at a point, built in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza is the largest.
- Pyramid Texts
- The oldest religious spells of Egypt, carved in the burial rooms of pyramids from the reign of Unas, around 2350 BC, on.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Saqqara site
- Pyramid of Unas monument
- Mastaba of Ti monument
- Mastaba of Ptahhotep and Akhethotep monument
- Pyramid of Teti monument
Sources
More to read
- Pharaohs of Egypt in order: the best-known kings, dynasty by dynasty Pharaohs of Egypt in order: the best-known kings from Narmer to Cleopatra VII, period by period, with dates and what each one is remembered for.
- Champollion and the day hieroglyphs were read again Champollion and hieroglyphics: how he read the script in 1822, from Ptolemy's cartouche to the name of Ramesses, and what his letter to Dacier showed.
- How to read a stela, line by line How to read an Egyptian stela in hieroglyphics: the rounded top, the scene, the offering formula, the owner's name and family, read from the right end.