Figure
Harkhuf
Governor of Elephantine and expedition leader, Sixth Dynasty
c. 2280 BCE
Served under Merenre and Pepi II.
Biography
He led four journeys to the land of Yam, south of Egypt, and recorded them in an autobiography on the façade of his tomb at Qubbet el-Hawa, Aswan. In it he copied a letter from the young King Pepi II asking him to take great care of a dancing dwarf he was bringing back.
Key facts
Certainty: Established
Harkhuf’s inscribed autobiography includes the text of a letter from Pepi II expressing his eagerness to see the dancing dwarf.
- Miriam Lichtheim (1973) “Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms” University of California Press, Berkeley
Certainty: Uncertain
The exact location of Yam is uncertain; it probably lay in present-day Sudan.
Scholarly note: Scholars have proposed different locations based on the journey times and routes described.
- Miriam Lichtheim (1973) “Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms” University of California Press, Berkeley
- Ian Shaw (ed.) (2000) “The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt” Oxford University Press