Baufra

According to Africanus, Manetho named Bicheres as the successor to Suphis (Khafra) but there is no archaeological evidence for a king by that name. Diodorus writes that after Khufu died, his brother Chefren (Khafra) took the throne, but also adds that according to some, it was his son Chabryen (Radjedef) who ascended the throne. This is probaby a mistake, as they were in fact brothers. This shows that there were inconsistencies in the traditions about the fourth dynasty even in ancient Egypt.

The Turin papyrus and Manetho both give eight kings of the fourth dynasty. The Abydos king lists only six, while the Saqqara king list give nine. This confusion among the sources is very hard to reconcile or decipher. The Saqqara list is damaged after the cartouche of Khafra, leaving five unreadable names (numbers 35-39.) By coincidence, the Turin papyrus is also damaged in the same spot (4.13-16), leaving four unreadable names after Khafra.

Turin 4.14 and 4.15 can with good confidence be assigned to Menkaura and Shepseskaf respectively. That leaves 4.13 and 4.15 as possible placements for Baufra. Logically Baufra must have ruled before Menkaura, just like Ratoises (Radjedef,) his name was displaced in Manetho's dynasty, and should thus be in 4.13. This give the succession Baufra → Menkaura → Shepseskaf → Djedefhor. This might have been the tradition about the pyramid builders during the New Kingdom, and would solve the Turin problem.

The Saqqara list still have one more empty cartouche to account for, and there seems to be no solution to this problem.