Sneferu

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He is always referred to as the 'Successor of Huni' . His mother Meresankh was not royal-blooded , thus she was one of Huni's concubines . However , there is no definite proof for this , but if she was , her son would have married one of his half-sisters , Hetepheres I , (the mother of Cheops and another daughter of Huni) , in order to confirm by blood the legitimacy of his rule .
Like his predecessors , Sneferu soon became a legendary figure and he even became an ideal king in the Middle Kingdom whom later Egyptian rulers sought to emulate . He ruled for 24 years . There is not a literary reference to his reign , which appears to have been both glorious and long-lasting .
The Palermo Stone suggests that Sneferu was a warlike king , he was said to have led an expedition into Nubia to put down a revolt , and to have captured 7000 prisoners in the campaign . The campaign account also mentions the high number of 200 , 000 cattle heads as well as 13 , 100 cattle . According to the same source obtained in a campaign against the Libyans , 11 , 000 of them were to have been taken prisoners .
As for Nubia , from the beginning of the Archaic Period it provided Egypt with a source of manpower both for major building works and for the maintenance of order . Nubia played a great role also in guarding the trade routes for the African products such as ebony , ivory , incense , exotic animals , ostrich eggs , and panther skins . Nubia also enabled to control the sources of certain raw materials , such as gold mines located throughout the desert in Nubia from Wadi Allaqi to the Nile and the diorite quarries to the west of Abu Simbel . It was this willingness to obtain raw materials that led to the campaigns into Sinai which were sent by the Old Kingdom rulers from Sa-nakhet onwards . Their aim was not only to contend with the possible invaders from Syria-Palestine , but to use copper , turquoise and malachite mines in the western part of Sinai . Sneferu led an expedition against the Bedouins of Sinai . He must certainly have done much to establish Egyptian mines in the region , judging from the popularity of his cult among Middle Kingdom miners in Sinai .
Throughout his reign , Egypt had commercial links with Lebanon and Syria via the Phoenician Seaboard . He sent a fleet consisting of 40 ships for getting some timbers , which were always in short supply in Egypt , to be used as blocks of stones inside his pyramids .
Sneferu was the only ruler to whom three pyramids are ascribed . Initially he built a tomb at Meidum , some distance to the south of his predecessors' pyramids at Saqqara . The first tomb , modeled closely on Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara , was barely finished when he abandoned it . In the 13th year of his reign , he undertook two new buildings at Dahshur , both of which were intended to be perfect pyramids . It is difficult to understand why the royal necropolis was moved from south to Meidum then back north again .
The choice of Meidum must have been a deliberate attempt to break with the previous dynasty , therefore clearly belonged to the first half of Sneferu's reign . The royal family seems to have developed links with the Meidum area , since members of the elder branch of the family were buried there , notable Nefermaat , who was Sneferu's vizier and the architect of King Huni's tomb . Nefermaat's son , Hemiunu , became Cheops's vizier and was also the builder of Cheops's Great Pyramid at Giza . Hemiunu was rewarded by allowing him to place his own tomb nearby , at Giza .
Sneferu was a great man of achievements , and was a kind king . In the 12th Dynasty , when he was deified , the kings of that dynasty chose Dahshur , near Snefru's pyramids to build theirs . Also , they considered this area as sacred . Sneferu was mentioned in the Westcar Papyrus in a way showing him very decent and kind with graceful manners . The reliefs of his temple and his tomb are evidence that art flourished during Sneferu Reign , either at Dahshur or at Meidum .