Sahure (also Sahura, meaning "He who is close to Re") was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2465 – c. 2325 BC). He reigned for about 13 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old Kingdom Period. Sahure's reign marks the political and cultural high point of the Fifth Dynasty. He was probably the son of his predecessor Userkaf with Queen NeferhetepesII, and was in turn succeeded by his son Neferirkare Kakai.

During Sahure's rule, Egypt had important trade relations with the Levantine coast. Sahure launched several naval expeditions to modern-day Lebanon to procure cedar trees, slaves and exotic items. His reign may have witnessed the flourishing of the Egyptian navy, which included a high-seas fleet as well as specialized racing boats. Relying on this, Sahure ordered the earliest attested expedition to the land of Punt, which brought back large quantities of myrrh, malachite and electrum. Sahure is shown celebrating the success of this venture in a relief from his mortuary temple which shows him tending a myrrh tree in the garden of his palace named "Sahure's splendor soars up to heaven". This relief is the only one in Egyptian art depicting a king gardening. Sahure sent further expeditions to the turquoise and copper mines in Sinai. He also ordered military campaigns against Libyan chieftains in the Western Desert, bringing back livestock to Egypt.

Sahure had a pyramid built for himself in Abusir, thereby abandoning the royal necropolises of Saqqara and Giza, where his predecessors had built their monuments. This decision was possibly motivated by the presence of the sun temple of Userkaf in Abusir, the first such temple of the Fifth Dynasty. The Pyramid of Sahure is much smaller than the pyramids of the preceding Fourth Dynasty but the decoration and architecture of his mortuary temple is more elaborate. The valley temple, causeway and mortuary temple of his pyramid complex were once adorned by over  of exquisite polychrome reliefs, representing the highest form reached by this art during the Old Kingdom period. The Ancient Egyptians recognized this particular artistic achievement and tried to emulate the reliefs in the tombs of subsequent kings and queens. The architects of Sahure's pyramid complex introduced the use of palmiform columns (columns whose capital has the form of palm leaves), which would soon become a hallmark of ancient Egyptian architecture. The layout of his mortuary temple was also innovative and became the architectural standard for the remainder of the Old Kingdom period. Sahure is also known to have constructed a sun temple called "The Field of Ra", and although it is yet to be located it is presumably also in Abusir.

Sahure was the object of a funerary cult, the food offerings for which were initially provided by agricultural estates set up during his reign. This official, state-sponsored cult endured until the end of the Old Kingdom. Subsequently, during the Middle Kingdom period, Sahure was venerated as a royal ancestor figure but his cult no longer had dedicated priests. During the New Kingdom, Sahure was equated with a form of the goddess Sekhmet for unknown reasons. The cult of "Sekhmet of Sahure" had priests and attracted visitors from all over Egypt to Sahure's temple. This unusual cult, which was celebrated well beyond Abusir, persisted up until the end of the Ptolemaic period nearly 2500 years after Sahure's death.

Family

Parentage

Excavations at the pyramid of Sahure in Abusir under the direction of Miroslav Verner and Tarek El-Awady in the early 2000s provide a picture of the royal family of the early Fifth Dynasty. In particular, reliefs from the causeway linking the valley and mortuary temples of the pyramid complex reveal that Sahure's mother was queen NeferhetepesII. She was the wife of pharaoh Userkaf, as indicated by the location of her pyramid immediately adjacent to that of Userkaf, and bore the title of "king's mother". This makes Userkaf the father of Sahure in all likelihood. This is further reinforced by the discovery of Sahure's cartouche in the mortuary temple of Userkaf at Saqqara, indicating that Sahure finished the structure started most probably by his father.

This contradicts older, alternative theories according to which Sahure was the son of queen Khentkaus I, believed to be the wife of the last pharaoh of the preceding Fourth Dynasty, Shepseskaf and a brother to either Userkaf or Neferirkare.

Children

Sahure is known to have been succeeded by Neferirkare Kakai, who until 2005 was believed to be his brother. That year, a relief originally adorning the causeway of Sahure's pyramid and showing Sahure seated in front of two of his sons, Ranefer and Netjerirenre, was discovered by Verner and another Egyptologist, Tarek El-Awady. Next to Ranefer's name the text "Neferirkare Kakai king of Upper and Lower Egypt" had been added, indicating that Ranefer was Sahure's son and had assumed the throne under the name "Neferirkare Kakai" at the death of his father. Since both Ranefer and Netjerirenre are given the titles of "king's eldest son", Verner and El-Awady speculate that they may have been twins with Ranefer born first. They propose that Netjerirenre may have later seized the throne for a brief reign under the name "Shepseskare", although this remains conjectural. The same relief further depicts queen Meretnebty, who was thus most likely Sahure's consort and the mother of Ranefer and Netjerirenre. Three more sons, Khakare, Horemsaf, and Nebankhre are shown on reliefs from Sahure's mortuary temple, but the identity of their mother(s) is unknown.

Netjerirenre bore several religious titles corresponding to high-ranking positions in the court and which suggest that he may have acted as a vizier for his father. This is debated, as Michel Baud points out that at the time of Sahure, the eviction of royal princes from the vizierate was ongoing if not already complete.

Reign

Chronology

Relative chronology

The relative chronology of Sahure's reign is well established by historical records, contemporary artifacts and archeological evidence, which agree that he succeeded Userkaf and was in turn succeeded by Neferirkare Kakai. An historical source supporting this order of succession is the Aegyptiaca (Αἰγυπτιακά), a history of Egypt written in the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II (283–246 BC) by Manetho. No copies of the Aegyptiaca have survived and it is now known only through later writings by Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius. According to the Byzantine scholar George Syncellus, Africanus wrote that the Aegyptiaca mentioned the succession "Usercherês → Sephrês → Nefercherês" at the start of the Fifth Dynasty. Usercherês, Sephrês (in Greek, Σϵϕρής), and Nefercherês are believed to be the Hellenized forms for Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare, respectively. Manetho's reconstruction of the early Fifth Dynasty is in agreement with those given on two more historical sources, the Abydos king list where Sahure's cartouche is on the 27th entry, and the Saqqara Tablet where Sahure's name is given on the 33rd entry. These lists of kings were written during the reigns of Seti I and RamsesII, respectively.

Reign length

The Turin canon, a king list written during the Nineteenth Dynasty in the early Ramesside era (1292–1189 BC), credits him with a reign of twelve years five months and twelve days. In contrast, the near contemporary royal annal of the Fifth Dynasty known as the Palermo Stone records his second, third, fifth and sixth years on the throne as well as his final 13th or 14th year of reign and even records the day of his death as the 28th of Shemu I, which corresponds to the end of the ninth month. Taken together these pieces of information indicate that the royal annal of the Fifth Dynasty recorded a reign of 13 years 5months and 12 days for Sahure, only one year more than given by the Turin Canon and close to the 13 years figure given in Manetho's Aegyptiaca.

Sahure appears in two further historical records: on the third entry of the Karnak king list, which was made during the reign of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC) and on the 26th entry of the Saqqara Tablet dating to the reign of Ramses II (1279–1213 BC). Neither of these sources give his reign length. The absolute dates of Sahure's reign are uncertain but most scholars date it to the first half of the 25th century BC, see note 1 for details.

Foreign activities

Trade and tribute

Historical records and surviving artifacts suggest that contacts with foreign lands were numerous during Sahure's reign. Furthermore, these contacts seem to have been mostly economic rather than military in nature. Reliefs from his pyramid complex show the return of a naval expedition to Lebanon, the boats laden with the trunks of precious cedar trees. Other ships are represented loaded with "Asiatics", both adults and children who were either slaves, or merchants, greeting Sahure:

The same relief strongly suggests that interpreters were on board the ships, tasked with translations to facilitate trade with foreign lands.
A relief, unique to Egyptian art, depicts several Syrian brown bears, presumably brought back from the Levantine coast by seagoing ships as well. These bears appear in association with 12 red-painted one-handled jars from Syria. The Egyptologists Karin Sowada and William Stevenson Smith have proposed that, taken together, the bears and jars are likely to constitute a tribute.

Trade contacts with Byblos took place during Sahure's reign. Excavations of the temple of Baalat-Gebal yielded an alabaster bowl inscribed with Sahure's name. The layout of the fourth phase of this temple might even have been influenced by the architecture of Sahure's valley temple, although this remains debated.
There is further corroborating evidence for trade with the wider Levant during the Fifth Dynasty, several stone vessels being inscribed with cartouches of pharaohs of this dynasty discovered in Lebanon. So much so that the archeologist Gregory Mumford points to the fact that "Sahure is [the] best attested [king] for international relations" and has the highest number of texts inscribed in Sinai proportionally to his reign length.

In his last year, Sahure sent the first documented expedition to the fabled land of Punt, probably along the Somalian coast. The expedition, which is conjectured to have departed Egypt from the harbor of Mersa Gawasis, is reported on the Palermo Stone where it is said to have come back with 80,000 of an unspecified measure of myrrh, along with malachite, 6000 measures of electrum and 2600 or 23,020 staves, possibly made of ebony.
In his last year Sahure sent another expedition abroad, this time to the copper and turquoise mines of Wadi Maghareh and Wadi Kharit in Sinai, which had been active since at least the beginning of the Third Dynasty. This expedition, also mentioned by the Palermo stone, brought back over 6000 units of turquoise to Egypt and produced two reliefs in Sinai, one of which shows Sahure in the traditional act of smiting Asiatics and boasting "The Great God smites the Asiatics of all countries". In parallel with these activities, diorite quarries near Abu Simbel were exploited throughout Sahure's reign.

Military campaigns

Sahure's military career is known primarily from reliefs in his mortuary complex. It apparently consisted of campaigns against Libyans from Tjemehu, a land possibly located in the northern Western desert. These campaigns are said to have yielded livestock in huge numbers and Sahure is shown smiting local chieftains. The historical veracity of these depictions remains in doubt as such representations are part of the standard iconography meant to exalt the king. The same scene of the Libyan attack was used two hundred years later in the mortuary temple of PepiII (2284–2184 BC) and in the temple of Taharqa at Kawa, built some 1800 years after Sahure's lifetime. In particular, the same names are quoted for the local chieftains. Therefore, it is possible that Sahure too was copying an even earlier representation of this scene. Nonetheless, several overseers of the Western Nile Delta region were nominated by Sahure, a significant decision as these officials occupied an administrative position that existed only irregularly during the Old Kingdom period and which likely served to provide "traffic regulation across the Egypto-Libyan border". At the same time, Sahure's mortuary temple presents the earliest known mention of pirates raiding the Nile Delta, possibly from the coast of Epirus.

Sahure's pretensions regarding the lands and riches surrounding Egypt are encapsulated in several reliefs from his mortuary temple which show the god Ash telling the king "I will give you all that is in this [Libya] land", "I give you all hostile peoples with all the provisions that there are in foreign lands" and "I grant thee all western and eastern foreign lands with all the Iunti and the Montiu bowmen who are in every land".

Activities in Egypt

Religious activities

The majority of Sahure's activities in Egypt recorded on the Palermo stone are religious in nature. This royal annal records that in the "year of the first time of traveling around", Sahure journeyed to the Elephantine fortress, where he may have received the submission of the Nubian chiefs in a ceremonial act connected with the commencement of his reign. The fashioning of six statues of the king as well as the subsequent opening of the mouth ceremonies are also reported.
During Sahure's fifth year on the throne, the Palermo stone mentions the making of a divine barge, possibly in Heliopolis, the appointment of 200 priests and the exact quantity of daily offerings of bread and beer to Ra (138, 40 and 74 measures in three temples), Hathor (4 measures), Nekhbet (800 measures) and Wadjet (4800 measures) fixed by the king. Also reported are gifts of lands to temples of between 1and 204 arouras (0.7 to nearly 140 acres). Concerning Lower Egypt, the stone register corresponding to this reign gives the earliest known mention of the city of Athribis in the Delta region.

Further indication of religious activities lies in that Sahure is the earliest known king to have used the Egyptian title of Nb írt-ḫt. This title, possibly meaning "Lord of doing effective things", indicates that he personally performed physical cultic activities to ensure the existence and persistence of the Maat, the Egyptian concept of order and justice. This title remained in use until the time of Herihor, some 1500 years later. Sahure's reign is also the earliest during which the ceremony of the "driving of the calves" is known to have taken place. This is significant in the context of the progressive emergence of the cult of Osiris throughout the Fifth Dynasty, as this ceremony subsequently became an integral part of the Osiris myth. In subsequent times, the ceremony corresponded to Seth's threshing of Osiris by driving calves trampling fields of barley.

Sahure reorganized the cult of his mother, NepherhetepesII, whose mortuary complex had been built by Userkaf in Saqqara. He added an entrance portico with four columns to her temple, so that the entrance was not facing Userkaf's pyramid any more.

Building and mining activities

Archeological evidence suggests that Sahure's building activities were mostly concentrated in Abusir and its immediate vicinity, where he constructed his pyramid and where his sun temple is probably located. Also nearby was the palace of Sahure, called Uetjes Neferu Sahure, "Sahure's splendor soars up to heaven". The palace is known from an inscription on beef tallow containers discovered in February 2011 in Neferefre's mortuary temple. A second palace, "The Crown of Sahure appears", is known from an inscription in the tomb of his chief physician.
Both palaces, if they were different buildings, were likely on the shores of the Abusir lake.

The stones for Sahure's buildings and statues were quarried throughout Egypt. For example, the limestone cladding of the pyramid comes from Tura, while the black basalt used for the flooring of Sahure's mortuary temple comes from Gebel Qatrani, near the Faiyum in Middle Egypt. South of Egypt, a stele bearing Sahure's name was discovered in the diorite quarries located in the desert north-west of Abu Simbel in Lower Nubia.

Further mining and quarrying expeditions may be inferred from indirect evidence. An inscription of Sahure in the Wadi Abu Geridah in the Eastern desert as well as other Old Kingdom inscriptions there suggest that iron ore was mined in the vicinity since the times of the Fourth Dynasty. The lower half of a statue with the name of the king was discovered in 2015 in Elkab, a location possibly connected with expeditions to the Eastern desert and south of Egypt to Nubia. Sahure's cartouche has been found in graffiti in Tumas and on seal impressions from Buhen at the second cataract of the Nile in Lower Nubia.

Development of the Egyptian Navy

Sahure's reign may have been a time of development for the Egyptian navy. His expeditions to Punt and Byblos demonstrate the existence of a high seas navy and reliefs from his mortuary complex are described by Shelley Wachsmann as the "first definite depictions of seagoing ships in Egypt", some of which must have been 100-cubits long (c. 50m, 170ft).
Because of this, Sahure has been credited by past scholars with establishing the Egyptian navy. It is recognized today that this is an overstatement: fragmentary reliefs from Userkaf's temple depict numerous boats, while a high seas navy must have existed as early as the Third Dynasty. The oldest known sea harbor, Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea was operating under Khufu. Finally, there is the distinct possibility that some of the reliefs are copied from earlier examples. Nonetheless, Sahure remains the earliest known ruler to have depicted, and thus possibly made use of, sea power for transporting troops over the Mediterranean sea, to Syria.

The extensive nautical scenes from Sahure's mortuary complex are sufficiently detailed to show that specialized racing boats for the military and perhaps for ceremonial training were built at the time. They also give the earliest depiction of specific rope uses aboard ships, such as that of a hogging-truss. They permit precise estimates regarding shipbuilding, for example indicating that the mid-ship freeboard for seagoing vessels was of ,
and that the masts employed at the time were bipodal, resembling an inverted Y.
Further rare depictions include the king standing in the stern of a sailing boat with a highly decorated sail, and one of only two reliefs from ancient Egypt showing men aboard a ship paddling in a wave pattern, possibly during a race.

Court life

Officials

Several high officials serving Sahure during his lifetime are known from their tombs as well as from the decoration of the mortuary temple of the king. Niankhsekhmet, chief physician of Sahure and first known rhinologist in history, reports that he asked the king that a false door be made for his [Niankhsekhmet's] tomb, to which the king agreed. Sahure had the false door made of fine Tura limestone, carved and painted blue in his audience-hall, and made personal daily inspections of the work. The king wished a long life to his physician, telling him:

A similar though much less detailed anecdote is reported by Khufuankh, who was overseer of the palace and singer of the king.
Other officials include Hetepka, who was keeper of the diadem and overseer of the hairdressers of the king,
Pehenewkai, priest of the cult of Userkaf during the reigns of Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai, then vizier for the latter; Persen, a mortuary priest in the funerary cult of Sahure's mother Nepherhetepes; and Washptah, a priest of Sahure, then vizier of Neferirkare Kakai. The high-official Ptahshepses, probably born during the reign of Menkaure, was high priest of Ptah and royal manicure under Sahure, later promoted to vizier by Nyuserre Ini.

Two viziers of Sahure are known: Sekhemkare, royal prince, son of Khafre and vizier under Userkaf and Sahure; and Werbauba, vizier during Sahure's reign, attested in the mortuary temple of the king.

Evolution of the high offices

Sahure pursued Userkaf's policy of appointing non-royal people to high offices. This is best exemplified by the office of vizier, which was exclusively held by princes of royal blood with the title of "King's son" since the mid-Fourth Dynasty and up until the early Fifth Dynasty. Toward the end of this period princes were progressively excluded from the highest office, an evolution undoubtedly correlated with changes in the nature of kingship. This process, possibly initiated by Menkaure because of dynastic disputes, seems to have been completed by Sahure's time as from then onwards no royal prince was promoted to vizier. Those already in post were allowed to keep their status and so in the early part of Sahure's reign vizier Sekhemkare was a "King's son" while his successor, Werbauba, seems to have been non-royal. In response to this change, the state administration began its expansion as it included more and more non-royal people.

Concurrently with these developments, architectural and artistic innovations relating to tombs of private individuals can be dated to Sahure's reign. These including torus molding and cornices for false doors, first found in Persen's tomb. This feature would subsequently become common and here demonstrates the particularly high esteem in which Persen must have been held by the king. Another innovation is the depiction of small unusual offerings such as that of seven sacred oils on false doors, first found in Niankhsekhmet's tomb. The canonical list of offerings was also developed during or shortly before Sahure's time in the tombs of the royal family, and spread to those of non-royal high-officialsthe earliest of whom was Seshemnefer Iunder Sahure.

Sun temples

Sekhetre

Sahure built or started to build a temple dedicated to the sun god Ra, the second such temple of the Fifth Dynasty. Yet to be located, it is known to have existed thanks to an inscription on the Palermo stone where it is called Sekhetre (also spelt Sekhet Re), meaning "The Field of Ra" as well as mentions of it in 24 tombs of administration officials. A few limestone blocks bearing reliefs which once adorned the temple have been found embedded in the walls of the mortuary complex of Nyuserre Ini, Sahure's fourth successor. This suggests either that these blocks were leftovers from the construction of the temple, or as Wener Kaiser has posited, that Nyuserre dismantled Sahure's temple, using it as a quarry for construction materials because it was largely unfinished. Indeed, the rather meager evidence for the Sekhetre leads Miroslav Verner to propose that it never fully functioned as a sun temple.

New analyses of the verso of the Palermo stone performed in 2018 by the Czech Institute of Archeology enabled the reading of further inscriptions mentioning precisely the architecture of the temple as well as lists of donations it received, establishing firmly that it was a distinct entity from the earlier sun temple of Userkaf, the Nekhenre but leaving its ultimate fate uncertain. Further precision as to the architecture of the temple may be inferred from the absence of the obelisk determinative in some hieroglyphic variants of the name Sekhetre and its presence in others. For Anthony Spalinger this possibly indicates that Sahure's sun temple was effectively built and acquired such an obelisk at some point after its construction, perhaps after Sahure's reign.

Nekhenre

Userkaf was the first king to build a sun temple in Abusir. Known to the ancient Egyptians as the Nekhenre, or "Fortress of Re", it was unfinished at his death. Construction works continued in at least four building phases, the first of which may have taken place under Sahure, and then under his successors Neferirkare Kakai and Nyuserre Ini.

Pyramid complex

Sahure built a pyramid complex for his tomb and funerary cult, named Khaba Sahura, which is variously translated as "The Rising of the Ba Spirit of Sahure", "The Ba of Sahure appears", "Sahure's pyramid where the royal soul rises in splendor", or "In glory comes forth the soul of Sahure". The builders and artisans who worked on Sahure's mortuary complex lived in an enclosed pyramid town located next to the causeway leading up to Sahure's pyramid and mortuary temple. The town later flourished under Nyuserre and seems to have still been in the existence during the First Intermediate Period.

In terms of the size, volume, and the cheap construction techniques employed, Sahure's pyramid exemplifies the decline of pyramid building. At the same time, the quality and variety of the stones employed in other parts of the complex increased, and the mortuary temple is considered to be the most sophisticated one built up to that time.
With its many architectural innovations, such as the use of palmiform columns, the overall layout of Sahure's complex would serve as the template for all mortuary complexes constructed from Sahure's reign until the end of the Sixth Dynasty, some 300 years later. The highly varied colored reliefs decorating the walls of the entire funerary complex display a quality of workmanship and a richness of conception that reach their highest level of the entire Old Kingdom period.

Location

Sahure chose to construct his pyramid complex in Abusir, thereby abandoning both Saqqara and Giza, which had been the royal necropolises up to that time. A possible motivation for Sahure's decision was the presence of the sun temple of Userkaf, something which supports the hypothesis that Sahure was Userkaf's son.
Following Sahure's choice, Abusir became the main necropolis of the early Fifth Dynasty, as pharaohs Neferirkare Kakai, Neferefre, Nyuserre Ini and possibly Shepseskare built their pyramids there. In their wake, many smaller tombs belonging to members of the royal family were built in Abusir, with the notable exceptions of those of the highest-ranking members, many of whom chose to be buried in Giza or Saqqarah.

Mortuary temple

Sahure's mortuary temple was extensively decorated with an estimated  of fine reliefs. This extensive decoration seems to have been completed within Sahure's lifetime.
The walls of the entire -long causeway were also covered with polychrome bas-reliefs. Miroslav Bárta describes the reliefs as "the largest collection known from the third millennium BCE".

Many surviving fragments of the reliefs which decorated the walls of the mortuary complex are of very high quality and much more elaborate than those from preceding mortuary temples.
Several of the depictions are unique in Egyptian art. These include a relief showing Sahure tending a myrrh tree (Commiphora myrrha) in his palace in front of his family; a relief depicting Syrian brown bears and another showing the bringing of the pyramidion to the main pyramid and the ceremonies following the completion of the complex. The high craftmanship of the reliefs is here manifested by the finely rounded edges of all figures, so that they simultaneously blend in with the background and stand out clearly.
Reliefs are sufficiently detailed to permit the identification of the animals shown, such as hedgehogs and jerboas, and even show personified plants such as corn represented as a man with corn-ears instead of hair.

The many reliefs of the mortuary, causeway and valley temples also depict, among other things, Sahure hunting wild bulls and hippopotamuses, Sahure being suckled by Nekhbet,
the earliest depictions of a king fishing and fowling, a counting of foreigners by or in front of the goddess Seshat, which Egyptologist Mark Lehner believes was "meant to ward off any evil or disorder", the god Sopdu "Lord of the Foreign Countries" leading bound Asiatic captives, and the return of an Egyptian fleet from Asia, perhaps Byblos. Some of the low relief-cuttings in red granite are still in place at the site. Among the seminal innovations of Sahure's temple are the earliest relief depictions of figures in adoration, either standing or squatting with both arms raised, their hands open and their palms facing down.

The mortuary temple featured the first palmiform columns of any Egyptian temple, massive granite architraves inscribed with Sahure's titulary overlaid with copper, lion-headed waterspouts, black basalt flooring and granite dados.

Pyramid

The pyramid of Sahure reached  at the time of its construction, much smaller than the pyramids of the preceding Fourth Dynasty. Its inner core is made of roughly hewn stones organized in steps and held together in many sections with a thick mortar of mud. This construction technique, much cheaper and faster to execute than the stone-based techniques hitherto employed, fared much worse over time. Owing to this, Sahure's pyramid is now largely ruined and amounts to little more than a pile of rubble showing the crude filling of debris and mortar constituting the core, which became exposed after the casing stones were stolen in antiquity.

While the core was under construction, a corridor was left open leading into the shaft where the grave chamber was built separately and later covered by leftover stone blocks and debris. This construction strategy is clearly visible in later unfinished pyramids, in particular the Pyramid of Neferefre. This technique also reflects the older style from the Third Dynasty seemingly coming back into fashion after being temporarily abandoned by the builders of the five great pyramids at Dahshur and Giza during the Fourth Dynasty.

The entrance at the north side is a short descending corridor lined with red granite followed by a passageway ending at the burial chamber with its gabled roof comprising large limestone beams of several tons each. Today all of these beams are fractured, which weakens the pyramid structure. Fragments of a basalt sarcophagus, likely Sahure's, were found here in the burial chamber when it was first entered by John Shae Perring in the mid 19th century.

The mortuary complex immediately around the pyramid also includes a second smaller cult pyramid which must have stood nearly  high, originally built for the Ka of the king.

Legacy

Artistic and architectural legacy

The painted reliefs covering the walls of Sahure's mortuary temple were recognized as an artistic achievement of the highest degree by the Ancient Egyptians. A New Kingdom inscription found in Abusir for example poetically compares the temple to the heaven lit by full moon.

Subsequent generations of artists and craftsmen tried to emulate Sahure's reliefs, using them as templates for the tombs of later kings and queens of the Old Kingdom period. The layout of Sahure's high temple was also novel and it became the standard template for all subsequent pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom. Some of its architectural elements, such as its palmiform columns, became hallmarks of Egyptian architecture.

This trend continued to hold in later times. For example, in the Middle Kingdom, Senusret I had reliefs for his temple directly copied from those of Sahure. He also chose to follow the innovative layout of Sahure's complex once again. At the time, Senusret I's decision was in stark contrast with the burial customs of the 11th Dynasty pharaohs, who were buried in saff tombs. These consisted of an open courtyard fronting a row of entrances into subterranean corridors and chambers dug in the hillsides of El-Tarif and Deir el-Bahari, near Thebes.

Cults

Old Kingdom

Sahure was the object of a funerary cult from the time of his death and which continued until the end of the Old Kingdom, some 300 years later. At least 22 agricultural estates were established to produce the goods necessary for providing the offerings to be made for this cult. Decorated reliefs from the upper part of the causeway represent the procession of over 150 personified funerary domains created by and for Sahure, demonstrating the existence of a sophisticated economic system associated with the king's funerary cult. The enormous quantities of offerings pouring into the mortuary and sun temples of Sahure benefitted other cults as well, such as that of Hathor, which had priests officiating on the temple premises.

Several priests serving the mortuary cult or in Sahure's sun temple during the later Fifth and Sixth Dynasties are known thanks to inscriptions and artifacts from their tombs in Saqqara and Abusir.
These include Tjy, overseer of the sun temples of Sahure, Neferirkare, Neferefre and Nyuserre; Neferkai priest of Sahure's funerary cult; Khabauptah priest of Sahure, Neferirkare, Neferefre, and Niuserre,
Atjema, priest of the sun temple of Sahure during the Sixth Dynasty; Khuyemsnewy, who served as priest of the mortuary cult of Sahure during the reigns of Neferirkare and Nyuserre; Nikare, priest of the cult of Sahure and overseer of the scribes of the granary during the Fifth Dynasty. Further priests are known, such as Senewankh, serving in the cults of Userkaf and Sahure and buried in a mastaba in Saqqara;
Sedaug, a priest of the cult of Sahure, priest of Ra in the sun-temple of Userkaf and holder of the title of royal acquaintance; Tepemankh, priest of the cults of kings of the Fourth to early Fifth Dynasty including Userkaf and Sahure, buried in a mastaba at Abusir.

Middle Kingdom

No priest serving in the funerary cult of Sahure is known from the Middle Kingdom period. Evidence from this period rather come from works undertaken in the Karnak temple by 12th Dynasty pharaoh Senusret I (fl. 20th century BC), who dedicated statues of Old Kingdom kings including one of Sahure. The statue and the accompanying group of portraits of deceased kings indicates the existence of a generic cult of royal ancestor figures, a "limited version of the cult of the divine" as Jaromir Málek writes.
The statue of Sahure, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (catalog number CG 42004), is made of black granite and is  tall. Sahure is shown enthroned, wearing a pleated skirt and a round curly wig. Both sides of the throne bear inscriptions identifying the work as a portrait of Sahure made on the orders of Senusret I.

Sahure's legacy had endured sufficiently by the Middle Kingdom period that he is mentioned in a story of the Westcar Papyrus, probably written during the 12th Dynasty although the earliest extent copy dates to the Seventeenth Dynasty. The papyrus tells the mythical story of the origins of the Fifth Dynasty, presenting kings Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai as three brothers, sons of Ra and a woman named Rededjet destined to supplant Khufu's line.

New Kingdom: emergence of Sekhmet of Sahure

As a deceased king, Sahure continued to receive religious offerings during the New Kingdom as part of the standard cult of the royal ancestors. For example, Sahure is present on the Karnak king list, a list of kings inscribed on the walls of the Akhmenu, the Karnak temple of ThutmoseIII. Unlike other ancient Egyptian king lists, the kings there are not listed in chronological order. Rather, the purpose of the list was purely religious, its aim being to name the deceased kings to be honored in the Karnak temple.

In the second part of the Eighteenth Dynasty and during the Nineteenth Dynasty numerous visitors left inscriptions, stelae and statues in the temple.
These activities were related to a cult then taking place in the mortuary temple of Sahure since the time of ThutmoseIII. This cult was devoted to the deified king in a form associated with the goddess Sekhmet named "Sekhmet of Sahure".
For example, the scribe Ptahemuia and fellow scribes visited Sahure's temple in the 30th year of RamsesII's reign (c. 1249 BC) to ask Sekhmet to grant them a long life of 110 years. The reason for the appearance of this cult during the New Kingdom is unknown. In any case, the cult of Sekhmet of Sahure was not a purely local phenomenon as traces of it were found in the Upper Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina, where it was celebrated during two festivals taking place every year, on the 16th day of the first month of Peret and on the 11th day of the fourth month of that season.

During the same period, prince Khaemwaset, a son of RamsesII, undertook works throughout Egypt on pyramids and temples which had fallen into ruin, possibly to appropriate stones for his father's construction projects while ensuring a minimal restoration for cultic purposes. Inscriptions on the stone cladding of the pyramid of Sahure show that it was the object of such works at this time. This renewed attention had negative consequences as the first wave of dismantlement of the Abusir monuments, particularly for the acquisition of valuable Tura limestone, arrived with it. Sahure's mortuary temple may have been spared at this time due to the presence of the cult of Sekhmet. The cult's influence likely waned after the end of RamsesII's reign, becoming a site of local worship only.

Third intermediate, late and Ptolemaic periods

During the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (744–656 BC) at the end of the Third Intermediate Period, some of Sahure's temple reliefs were copied by Taharqa, including images of the king crushing his enemies as a sphinx.
Shortly after, under the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525 BC) of the Late Period, a statue of Sahure was among a group of statues of Old Kingdom kings hidden in a cachette of the Karnak temple, testifying to some form of cultic interest up to that time.
In parallel, a new period of dismantlement of the pyramids of Abusir took place, yet Sahure's was once again spared. This might be because of the cult of Sekhmet of Sahure the temple hosted well into the Ptolemaic period (332–30 BC), albeit with a very reduced influence. Several graffiti dating from the reigns of Amasis II (570–526 BC), Darius II (423–404 BC) and up until the Ptolemaic period attest to continued cultic activities on the site. For example, a certain Horib was "Priest of Sekhmet of the temple of Sekhmet of Sahure" under the Ptolemaic dynasty.

The dismantlement of Sahure's pyramid started in earnest in the Roman period, as shown by the abundant production of mill-stones, presence of lime production facilities and worker shelters in the vicinity.

Notes

References

Bibliography

25th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt
Pharaohs

Sahure


La catedral de San Nicolás de los Marinos (en idioma ruso Никольский морской собор, Nikolski morskoi Sobor), es una gran iglesia de estilo barroco isabelino situada en el centro de San Petersburgo (Rusia), en la plaza de San Nicolás.

Pertenece a la Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa y está dedicada a san Nicolás de Bari, patrón de la gente de mar.

Historia
La catedral fue construida en los años 1753-1762 según el proyecto de Savva Txevakinski, uno de los grandes arquitectos rusos del , sustituyendo una antigua iglesia de madera. Fue fundada por los marineros y los empleados del Almirantazgo, que vivían en esa zona, por lo que se puso bajo la advocación de su patrón San Nicolás, por lo que se conoce como la iglesia del Mar, o de los Marineros. Entre 1755 y 1758 se construyó el campanario, exento, de cuatro pisos, rematado con una aguja dorada, que se sitúa junto al canal de Kriúkov, a una distancia sensible de la Catedral.

La inferior, para el uso diario, está dedicada a San Nicolás, se encuentra medio en penumbra y está iluminada con luces, velas y candelabros, los iconos son obra de los hermanos Fedot y Mina Klokólnikov (1755-1757). La pieza más venerada de la catedral, un icono griego de San Nicolás hecho en el  con una porción de sus reliquias, se encuentra en la iglesia inferior. Contrasta claramente con la iglesia superior, dedicada a la Epifanía, utilizada los domingos y los festivos, más amplia y brillante y con una exuberante decoración barroca de ornamentación dorada, estucos y pinturas italianizantes. Tiene un magnífico iconostasio realizado entre el 1755 y el 1760 y el altar fue consagrado en presencia de la emperatriz Catalina II de Rusia, que nombró catedral a la iglesia de nueva construcción.

En 1908, en el jardín de delante de la catedral se erigió el obelisco de Tsushima en memoria de los caídos en la batalla de Tsushima de la guerra Ruso-japonesa.

Durante la época soviética, la catedral fue una de las pocas iglesias de San Petersburgo que no fue clausurada. En 1967, se celebró la misa de difuntos para el entierro de la poetisa Anna Ajmátova. La iglesia está dedicada a los perdidos en el mar y se encuentran placas conmemorativas con los nombres de los marineros desaparecidos.

Arquitectura
La catedral de San Nicolás pertenece al estilo arquitectónico barroco isabelino. Tiene planta de cruz griega, la fachada, pintada de blanco y azul, está sostenida con columnas corintias y arquitrabes de estuco, con un gran entablamento. La coronan cinco cúpulas doradas, la más alta mide 52 metros. La iglesia tiene capacidad para 5.000 personas.

Pasado reciente
En el año 2000 se consagró una capilla en el nivel inferior de la torre del campanario.

En la iglesia superior, se encuentran las placas conmemorativas de la tripulación del submarino nuclear K-278 Komsomolets y de las de otros submarinos soviéticos hundidos. Desde el año 2000, se celebran en la catedral actos conmemorativos por los marineros del submarino K-141 Kursk.

Referencias

Enlaces externos

 Página oficial
 www.encspb.ru Собор свт. НИКОЛАЯ ЧУДОТВОРЦА (Морской Николо-Богоявленский) en la Enciclopedia de San Petersburgo
 Catedral de San Nicolás de los Marinos
 Vista panorámica en 360º

San Nicolas
San Nicolas
San Nicolas
Arquitectura de 1762
Catedrales barrocas
Arquitectura barroca en Rusia
Marinos
Iglesias con cúpula de Rusia
Bienes individuales inscritos Patrimonio de la Humanidad en Rusia (Centro histórico de San Petersburgo y conjuntos monumentales anexos)

Catedral de San Nicolás de los Marinos


Le terme « trav » peut faire référence à :
 un trav, diminutif de travesti ;
  (né en 1987), rappeur, chanteur, auteur-compositeur, réalisateur artistique et acteur américain ;
  (né en 1988), chanteur, auteur-compositeur et rappeur américain ;
  ;
 le , colline cambodgienne ;
 , album norvégien de 1991.

Voir aussi

Trav


O Campeonato Paulista de Futebol de 1956 teve o Santos FC como campeão, se tornando bicampeão consecutivo, seu primeiro na história.

Zezinho, do São Paulo, foi o artilheiro, com 16 gols.

Participantes
Foram participantes desta edição: Portuguesa, Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Portuguesa e Nacional (todas de São Paulo); Santos, Jabaquara e Portuguesa Santista (todas de Santos); Guarani e Ponte Preta (ambas de Campinas); XV de Novembro de Piracicaba (de Piracicaba); XV de Novembro de Jaú (de Jaú); Noroeste (de Bauru); São Bento (de São Caetano do Sul); EC Taubaté (de Taubaté); Ferroviária (de Araraquara, campeã da divisão de Acesso); e Linense (de Lins).

Regulamento
O Torneio de Classificação era formado por 18 times e todos os clubes se enfrentavam. Nesta fase, o Santos ficou em primeiro lugar com 30 pontos, tendo 13 vitórias e 4 empates, sem derrotas, conquistando o Troféu Dr. Jorge dos Santos Caldeira.

Após o Torneio de Classificação, disputado pelas 18 equipes, 10 equipes se classificaram para a Série Azul, e as demais equipes, disputaram a Série Branca, para lutar contra o rebaixamento:

 Série Azul: Santos (1º), Corinthians (2º), São Paulo (3º), Portuguesa (4º), Palmeiras (5º), São Bento (SCS) (6º), XV de Piracicaba (7º), XV de Jaú (8º), Taubaté (9º) e Juventus (10º);

 Série Branca: Ferroviária, Guarani, Jabaquara, Linense, Nacional, Noroeste, Ponte Preta e Portuguesa Santista

Dados do campeão

Artilheiros do Santos

 Tite: 17 gols;
 Vasconcelo e Del Vecchio: 13 gols;
 Pagão: 12 gols;
 Pepe: 10 gols;
 Álvaro: 8 gols;
 Jair Rosa Pinto e Alfredinho: 7 gols;
 Zito: 4 gols;
 Urubatão e Feijó: 2 gols;
 Ramiro: 1 gol;
 Julião e Ney: 2 gols contra

Partidas disputadas pelo Santos

Torneio de Classificação
17/06/1956 – Santos 1 x 0 Ponte Preta (Vila Belmiro)

21/06/1956 – Santos 3 x 1 Guarani (Vila Belmiro)

11/07/1956 – Portuguesa 0 x 1 Santos (Estádio do Pacaembu)

18/07/1956 – Santos 4 x 2 Ferroviária (Vila Belmiro)

22/07/1956 – Santos 3 x 1 São Bento (SCS) (Vila Belmiro)

25/07/1956 – Santos 4 x 1 Juventus (Vila Belmiro)

29/07/1956 – Santos 3 x 3 Corinthians (Vila Belmiro)

01/08/1956 – Santos 4 x 0 Noroeste (Vila Belmiro)

05/08/1956 – Santos 5 x 0 Jabaquara (Vila Belmiro)

12/08/1956 – Santos 1 x 0 São Paulo (Vila Belmiro)

19/08/1956 – Santos 2 x 0 Taubaté (Vila Belmiro)

26/08/1956 – Santos 2 x 2 XV de Piracicaba (Vila Belmiro)

29/08/1956 – Santos 2 x 2 Nacional (Vila Belmiro)

09/09/1956 – XV de Jaú 1 x 3 Santos – Gols: Álvaro, Ramiro e Alfredinho; Artur Simões

22/09/1956 – Palmeiras 0 x 0 Santos (Estádio do Pacaembu)

26/09/1956 – Santos 9 x 1 Linense  (Vila Belmiro)

30/09/1956 – Santos 4 x 2 Portuguesa Santista (Vila Belmiro)

Série Azul
03/10/1956 – Santos 3 x 0 XV de Piracicaba (Vila Belmiro)

07/10/1956 – XV de Jaú 1 x 2 Santos

14/10/1956 – São Bento (SCS) 2 x 5 Santos

18/10/1956 – Portuguesa 1 x 2 Santos

24/10/1956 – Santos 2 x 1 Palmeiras (Vila Belmiro)

28/10/1956 – São Paulo 0 x 2 Santos

01/11/1956 – Taubaté 0 x 3 Santos

04/11/1956 – Santos 2 x 1 Juventus (Vila Belmiro)

11/11/1956 – Santos 0 x 4 Corinthians (Vila Belmiro)

18/11/1956 – Santos 3 x 0 XV de Jaú (Vila Belmiro)

25/11/1956 – XV de Piracicaba 1 x 3 Santos

28/11/1956 – Juventus 0 x 1 Santos

02/12/1956 – Santos 3 x 0 Portuguesa (Vila Belmiro)

05/12/1956 – Santos 4 x 0 Taubaté (Vila Belmiro)

09/12/1956 – Santos 1 x 3 São Paulo (Vila Belmiro)

12/12/1956 – Santos 4 x 1 São Bento (SCS) (Vila Belmiro)

22/12/1956 – Palmeiras 2 x 1 Santos

29/12/1956 – Corinthians 1 x 2 Santos

Jogo do título
A Federação Paulista de Futebol entendeu que a partida que apontaria a equipe campeã do Campeonato Paulista do ano de 1956 deveria ser disputada em um campo neutro e designou o Estádio Paulo Machado de Carvalho para ser o palco do encontro final entre o Santos FC e o São Paulo FC, que terminaram o certame com a mesma pontuação.

A partir desse jogo o clássico ficou conhecido como "San-São", nome dado pelo jornalista Thomaz Mazzoni, que trabalhou por muitos anos no jornal A Gazeta Esportiva.

Santos: Manga; Wilson e Feijó; Ramiro, Formiga e Zito; Tite, Jair Rosa Pinto, Pagão, Del Vecchio e Pepe. Técnico: Lula

Taubaté: Bonelli; Clélio e Mauro; Sarará, Vitor e Alfredo; Maurinho, Zezinho, Gino, Dino Sani e Canhoteiro. Técnico: Vicente Feola

{| align="center"
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Campeonato Paulista de Futebol

Campeonato Paulista de Futebol de 1956


Anathema grubunun 1995 yılında çıkardıkları albümün adıdır. Grubun popülaritesini önemli derecede artıran albüm aynı zamanda Anathema'nın en sert melodileri taşıyan albümüdür. Albümden sadece "The Silent Enigma" adlı şarkıya klip çekilmiştir.

Şarkı listesi
 Restless Oblivion
 Shroud of Frost
 ...Alone
 Sunset of Age
 Nocturnal Emission
 Cerulean Twilight
 The Silent Enigma
 A Dying Wish
 Black Orchid

Anathema albümleri
1995 albümleri

The Silent Enigma


الحزب القومي السوداني المتحد وهو عبارة عن تجمع لأحزاب جبال النوبة الأربعة :

1. الحزب القومي السوداني الحر بقيادة الأسقف فيليب عباس غبوش.

2. الحزب القومي السوداني بقيادة بروفسير الأمين حمودة.

3. الحزب القومي السوداني (القيادة الجماعية) بقيادة محمد حماد كوة.

4. اتحاد عام جبال النوبة بقيادة الأستاذ يوسف عبد الله جبريل.

وقد تم توحيد الحزب في مؤتمر كاودا الشهير عام 2002 م.

أحزاب السودان
سودان

الحزب القومي السوداني


Lukas Engelberger, né le  à Bâle, est une personnalité politique suisse du canton de Bâle-Ville, membre du Centre.

Il est conseiller d'État du canton de Bâle-Ville depuis 2014.

Biographie

Lukas Engelberger naît le  à Bâle.

Il obtient une licence en droit à l'Université de Bâle en 1999, puis un doctorat en 2004 (sur le sujet de l'applicabilité directe du droit de l'Organisation mondiale du commerce). Il est également titulaire du brevet d'avocat depuis 2001.

Il travaille dans un cabinet d'avocats bâlois de 2003 à 2005, puis comme juriste pour l'entreprise pharmaceutique Roche jusqu'à son élection au gouvernement de Bâle-Ville en 2014.

Il joue du piano depuis son enfance.

Il est marié au médecin Kirsten Beckers Engelberger et père de trois enfants.

Parcours politique

Il adhère au Parti démocrate-chrétien (PDC) en 1994. Il en préside la section de son canton en 2013-2014.

Il accède au Grand Conseil du canton de Bâle-Ville en 2004. Il y préside la commission chargée de mettre en œuvre la nouvelle constitution de 2005 à 2007 et la commission de l'économie et des redevances de 2007 à 2013.

Le , il est élu au Conseil d'État au second tour lors d'une élection complémentaire provoquée par la démission du PDC Carlo Conti. Il prend ses fonctions le , à la tête du département de la santé. Il est réélu au premier tour les  et .

Il préside à partir de  la Conférence des directeurs cantonaux de la santé, ce qui lui donne une large couverture médiatique dans l'ensemble du pays en raison de la pandémie de COVID-19.

Notes et références

Liens externes

Naissance en mai 1975
Naissance à Bâle
Personnalité politique bâloise
Personnalité du Parti démocrate-chrétien (Suisse)

Lukas Engelberger


Heinz Schwarz  fue un  escultor y grabador suizo, nacido en Arbon en 1920 y fallecido en Satigny en 1994.

Datos biográficos
Litógrafo de formación, se instaló en Ginebra  en 1943 y se consagró al modelado y la escultura. Realizó gran número de desnudos femeninos, así como algunos masculinos. Muchas de sus obras son visibles en los parques públicos del cantón de Ginebra, instalados en la ciudad gracias a la iniciativa de Claude Ketterer.

Esculturas
 L'adolescent et le cheval (fundición)
 Christine Z II (fundición)
 Clémentine

Notas y referencias

Enlaces externos

Escultores de Suiza del siglo XX
Grabadores de Suiza del siglo XX
Nacidos en el cantón de Turgovia
Fallecidos en el cantón de Ginebra

Heinz Schwartz


STS-71 was the third mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program and the first Space Shuttle docking to Russian space station Mir. It started on June 27, 1995, with the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis from launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Shuttle delivered a relief crew of two cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin to the station and recovered Increment astronaut Norman Thagard. Atlantis returned to Earth on July 7 with a crew of eight. It was the first of seven straight missions to Mir flown by Atlantis, and the second Shuttle mission to land with an eight-person crew after STS-61-A in 1985.

For the five days the Shuttle was docked to Mir they were the largest spacecraft in orbit at the time. STS-71 marked the first docking of a Space Shuttle to a space station, the first time a Shuttle crew switched members with the crew of a station, and the 100th crewed space launch by the United States. The mission carried Spacelab and included a logistical resupply of Mir. Together the Shuttle and station crews conducted various on-orbit joint US/Russian life science investigations with Spacelab along with the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II) experiment.

Crew

Mission highlights

The primary objectives of this flight were to rendezvous and perform the first docking between the Space Shuttle and the Russian Space Station Mir on June 29. In the first U.S.-Russian(Soviet) docking in twenty years, Atlantis delivered a relief crew of two cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin to Mir.

Other prime objectives were on-orbit joint United States of America-Russian life sciences investigations aboard SPACELAB/Mir, logistical resupply of the Mir and recovery of US astronaut Norman E. Thagard.

Secondary objectives included filming with the IMAX camera and the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II) experiment.

STS-71 was the 100th U.S. human space launch conducted from Cape Canaveral, the first U.S. Space Shuttle-Russian Space Station docking and joint on-orbit operations; largest spacecraft ever in orbit; and the first on-orbit changeout of Shuttle crew.

The rendezvous sequence began at 15:32:19 EDT with a lift-off in-plane with Mir's orbit, at the opening of the 10 minute 19 second launch window. Ascent was nominal with no OMS 1 burn required. The OMS 2 burn, initiated at 42 minutes 58 seconds Mission Elapsed Time, adjusted the orbit to 160 x 85.3 nautical miles. It was the lowest ever perigee altitude flown by an orbiter. This facilitated a very rapid initial catch up rate with Mir of about 880 nautical miles per orbit. Almost three hours later the orbit was raised to more typical values of 210 x 159 nautical miles by the OMS 3 burn.

Docking occurred at 9 am EDT, June 29, using R-Bar or Earth radius vector approach, with Atlantis closing in on Mir from directly below. R-bar approach allows natural forces to brake the orbiter's approach more than would occur along standard approach directly in front of the space station; also, an R-bar approach minimizes the number of orbiter jet firings needed for approach. The manual phase of the docking began with Atlantis about a half-mile (800 m) below Mir, with Gibson at the controls on aft flight deck. Stationkeeping was performed when the orbiter was about  from Mir, pending approval from Russian and U.S. flight directors to proceed. Gibson then maneuvered the orbiter to a point about  from Mir before beginning the final approach to station. Closing rate was close to the targeted 0.1 foot per second (30 mm/s), being approximately 0.107 foot per second (33 mm/s) at contact. Interface contact was nearly flawless: less than  lateral misalignment and an angular misalignment of less than 0.5 degrees per axis. No braking jet firings had been required. Docking occurred about 216 nautical miles () above Lake Baikal region of the Russian Federation. The Orbiter Docking System (ODS) with Androgynous Peripheral Docking System served as the actual connection point to a similar interface on the docking port on Mir's Kristall module. ODS, located in the forward payload bay of Atlantis, performed flawlessly during the docking sequence.

When linked, Atlantis and Mir formed the largest spacecraft ever in orbit, with a total mass of about 225 metric tons (almost one-half million pounds), orbiting some 218 nautical miles () above the Earth. After hatches on each side opened, STS-71 crew passed into Mir for a welcoming ceremony. On the same day, the Mir 18 crew officially transferred responsibility for the station to the Mir 19 crew, and the two crews switched spacecraft.

For the next five days, about 100 hours in total, joint U.S.-Russian operations were conducted, including biomedical investigations, and transfer of equipment to and from Mir. Fifteen separate biomedical and scientific investigations were conducted, using the Spacelab module installed in the aft portion of Atlantiss payload bay, and covering seven different disciplines: cardiovascular and pulmonary functions; human metabolism; neuroscience; hygiene, sanitation and radiation; behavioral performance and biology; fundamental biology; and microgravity research. The Mir 18 crew served as test subjects for investigations. Three Mir 18 crew members also carried out an intensive programme of exercise and other measures to prepare for re-entry into gravity environment after more than three months in space.

Numerous medical samples as well as disks and cassettes were transferred to Atlantis from Mir, including more than 100 urine and saliva samples, about 30 blood samples, 20 surface samples, 12 air samples, several water samples and numerous breath samples taken from Mir 18 crew members. Also moved was a broken Salyut-5 computer. Transferred to Mir were more than  of water generated by the orbiter for waste system flushing and electrolysis; specially designed spacewalking tools for use by the Mir 19 crew during a spacewalk to repair a jammed solar array on the Spektr module; and transfer of oxygen and nitrogen from Shuttle's environmental control system to raise air pressure on the station, to improve Mirs consumables margin.

The spacecraft undocked on July 4, following a farewell ceremony, with the Mir hatch closing at 3:32 pm EDT. July 3 and hatch on Orbiter Docking System shut 16 minutes later. Gibson compared separation sequence to a "cosmic" ballet: Prior to the Mir-Atlantis undocking, the Mir 19 crew temporarily abandoned station, flying away from it in their Soyuz spacecraft so they could record images of Atlantis and Mir separating. Soyuz unlatched at 6:55 am EDT, and Gibson undocked Atlantis from Mir at 7:10 am EDT. Whilst both spacecraft were undocked from Mir, the station suffered a computer malfunction and started to drift in attitude. The Mir 19 crew performed a hasty re-docking, monitored by Atlantis. They subsequently replaced computer hardware allowing them to regain attitude control.

The returning crew of eight equaled the largest crew (STS-61-A, October 1985) in Shuttle history. To ease their re-entry into gravity environment after more than 100 days in space, Mir 18 crew members Thagard, Dezhurov and Strekalov lay supine in custom-made recumbent seats installed prior to landing in the orbiter middeck.

Inflight problems included a glitch with General Purpose Computer 4 (GPC 4), which was declared failed when it did not synchronize with GPC 1; subsequent troubleshooting indicated it was an isolated event, and GPC 4 operated satisfactorily for the remainder of mission.

During the SAREX portion of the flight, the crew contacted several schools. One was Redlands High School in Redlands, California. Charlie Precourt was able to contact students, former students and technicians that built the communications package. A cross polarized, dual band yagi antenna array and automatic rotor was installed on the roof of the electronics classroom. A dual band radio was installed inside the radio room of the classroom. The contact window lasted about 10 minutes, during which time, about twelve people were able to ask questions. While most were basic or technical questions, one was peculiar. "What would happen of you sneezed inside your helmet?"  Precourt answered that you'd probably, "spray your face shield a little bit.." and carry on.

See also

 List of human spaceflights
 List of human spaceflights to Mir
 List of Space Shuttle missions
 Outline of space science
 United States Astronaut Hall of Fame#Exhibits

References

External links
 STS-71 Video Highlights

Space Shuttle missions
Spacecraft launched in 1995

STS-71