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.