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Pepi I - Meryre - "Beloved of Re" - (2332 BC ­ 2283 BC) Pepi I was the third king of the 6th Dynasty. The throne name Meryre means "Beloved of Re". This was a period that would eventually fall into the abyss of the First Intermediate Period. Pepi I was this pharaoh's birth name, though we may also find him listed as Pepy I, Piopi I, Pipi and the Greek Phiops. His throne name was Mery-re, meaning "Beloved of Re", though he actually used the throne name, Nefersahor during the first half of his reign, later changing it to Mery-re. He ruled Egypt from about 2332 through 2283 BC. He probably ascended the throne as an early age, and appears to have ruled for some 50 years (or at least 40 years). It is entirely possible that Pepi I did not follow his father to the throne. Kings Lists include the name of a King Userkara between that of Teti and Pepi I, and it may be that this king usurped the throne for a short time. He was probably the son of Teti and his queen, Iput I. Though he may have had at least six, the wives of Pepi I that we know of were Ankhnesmerire I and II (Sometimes also found as Meryre-ankh-nas), who were the daughters of an influential official (Probably governor of the region) at Abydos named Khui. Pepi I made his brother-in-law, we believe a son of Khui named Djau, vizier. A woman named Were-Imtes may have been his first wife but some Egyptologists have suggested that she might not have been his wife at all. It may have been Were-Imtes who plotted a conspiracy against her husband from the harem, but she was found out and punished. This happened in the twenty-first cattle census, or about year 42 of the king's rule. An accomplice in this plot might have been Rewer, a vizier of Pepi I who's name has been erased from his tomb. However, Callender has suggested that the conspiracy was not by one of Pepi's queens, but was instead a plot by perhaps the mother of the mysterious King Userkare. There is considerable confusion between the explanations provided by various Egyptologists about this conspiracy. Apparently, he married Ankhnesmerire I late in his rule, perhaps even after the harem conspiracy, and may have married her younger sister after the first sister's death, but this is by no means clear. His sons, Merenre (by Ankhnesmerire I) and Pepi II (by Ankhnesmerire II) would rule Egypt through the end of the 6th Dynasty.