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.