Famine Stela

Famine Stela

In the era of King Djoser, King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Neterkhet and founder of the Third Dynasty in the Old Kingdom, a shortage of the Nile flood in 2,700 BC led to a seven-year famine, leaving Egypt in a state of extreme distress. 

The king was perplexed as grains were insufficient, seeds dried up, people robbed each other, and temples and shrines closed. Looking for an end to his people’s suffering, the king consulted his architect and prime minister, Imhotep, commanding him to dig for a solution in the old sacred texts. Obeying the king’s order, Imhotep headed to a temple in the ancient city of Ain Shams (Old Heliopolis), where he discovered that the solution could be found in the city of Yebu (Aswan or Elephantine), the source of the Nile.

Imhotep, the architect of the Djoser pyramid in Saqqara, traveled to Yebu, where he visited the Temple of Khnum and saw the granite, precious stones, minerals, and building stones. Khnum, the god of fertility, was believed to have created mankind from clay.

After his state visit to Yebu, Imhotep updated king Djoser on his journey. On the day following his meeting with Imhetop, Khnum, came to the king in his dream, promising to end the famine and to allow the Nile to flow again if Djoser restores the temple of Khnum. Consequently, Djoser executed Khnum's wishes, allocating the revenue of the area from Elephantine to Khnum temple. Shortly afterwards, the famine and people’s suffering came to an end.

The famine story had been engraved on a granite stone in 250 BC during the era of Ptolemy V on the Sehel Island, Aswan. The Stela, which is 2.5 meters in height and 3 meters in width, includes 42 columns of hieroglyphic texts read from right to left. 

The Stela had a natural horizontal fissure when the Ptolemies engraved the story on it. Above the inscriptions, there were drawings depicting King Djsoer’s offerings to the triad of the Elephantine deities (Khnum, Anuket, and Satis), which were worshipped in Aswan during the Old Kingdom.