Khentkaus I

The hieroglyphic
name of Khentkaus

Khentkaus I, likewise referred to as Khentkawes, was a Queen of Ancient Egypt during the 4th dynasty. She may have been a daughter of pharaoh Menkaure, wife of both pharaohs Shepseskaf and Userkaf and mother of Sahure. Her Mastaba at Giza - tomb LG100 - is placed very last to Menkaure's pyramid complex. This close joining may point to a family relationship, but it is not quite clear exactly what that relationship is. The proximity of Khentkaus' pyramid complex to that of King Menkaure has led to the supposition that she may have been his girl. She may have been married to pharoah Userkaf and may have been the mother of Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai. Verner has stated that it is more probable however that Sahure was a son of Userkaf and his wife Neferhetepes. It has likewise been indicated Khentkaus was the mother and compelling for her son Thampthis and the mother of Neferirkare Kakai rather. Manetho's King List has Menkaure and Thampthis strong in the 4th dynasty, which bonds her to the end of the 4th dynasty. Khentkaus appears to have served as a strong and may have even taken on kingly titles. Some of her titles are ambiguous and are apparently open to reading.

The "Khentkaus Problem" has a long history. In the 1930s Hassan projected that Khentkaus was a girl of Menkaure, and married first to Shepseskaf and later to Userkaf. Ventikiev was the first to suggest that the title mwt nswt bity nswt bity should be read as "The Mother of two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt". Junker believed that the universe of the pyramid town suggested that Khentkaus was a very important person and that the title should be taken as "the King of Upper and Lower Egypt and the Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt". He advised that she was the girl of Menkaure and the sister of Shepseskaf.

Borchardt evoked that Shepseskaf was a commoner who married the kings girl Khentkaus. He encourage thought that Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai were boys of Shepseskaf and Khentkaus. Borchardt supposed that Userkaf was an foreigner who was able to take the throne because Sahure and Neferirkare were likewise young to climb up the throne when Shepseskaf died. Grdseloff proposed that Shepseskaf and Khentkaus were the son and girl of Menkaure, and that Userkaf was a prince form a collateral branch of the royal family who came to the throne when he married the royal widow woman and mother of the heirs to the throne Khentkaus.

Altenmller suggested that Khentkaus was none other than the lady Redjedjet named in the Westcar Papyrus. He indicated that Khentkaus was the mother of Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai. Kozloff supposed that Shepseskaf was the son of Menkaure with a small wife who related the throne later the death of the Kings Son Khuenre. Shepseskaf married Menkaures daughter Khentkaus. Upon the earlier death of Shepseskaf, Khentkaus married the high Priest of Re to guarantee the throne for her two sons.

Callender took the fact that Khentkaus name never come out in a cartouche to mean that she never ruled Egypt. Instead she preferred to read the mwt nswt bity nswt bity title as the mother of two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. She considered Khentkaus had to be a daughter of Menkaure and the wife of either Shepseskaf or Thampthis. She showed to Userkaf and Neferirkare as the 2 sons named to as the sons of Khentkaus in her title. Khentkaus was buried in Giza. Her tomb is noted as LG 100 and G 8400 and is set in the central field, Giza which is section of the Giza Necropolis. The pyramid complex of Khentkaus takes her pyramid, a boat pit, a Valley Temple and a pyramid town.

Depicting for Khentkaus from her tomb

The pyramid complex dwells of the pyramid, a chapel, a solar boat, the pyramid city, a water tank and granaries. The pyramid was primitively described in the 19th century as an incomplete pyramid and it had been supposed that it belonged King Shepseskaf. The pyramid was excavated by Selim Hassan starting in 1932. The tomb was presented the number LG100 by Lepsius.

The chapel comprised of a extended hall and an secret chapel. A passage cut in the floor of the inner chapel results to the burial chamber. The floor of the chapel was covered in Tura limestone. The walls were covered in relief, but the scenes are very seriously hurt. ease fragments were saw in the debris when the tomb was unearthed by Selim Hassan. The passage to the burial chamber and the chamber itself were lined with red granite. The passage is 5.6 m long and comes below the essential structure of the pyramid. The burial chamber is great and most nearly resembles the burial chamber of King Shepseskaf in Saqqara. The burial chamber perhaps housed an alabaster sarcophagus, many pieces were found in the sand and rubble that filled the chamber. also in the chamber held a small scarab made of a brown color limestone. Its craftsmanship leads to the belief that it is from the 12th dynasty. It leads some to trust that her tomb was reused for other later tombs.

The solar boat is set to the south-west of the pyramid. A pit measuring some 30.25 m long and 4.25 m deep was cut into the rock. The prow and stern of the boat were upraised and the boat appears to have had a roof. It may represent the night-boat of the sun-god Ra. If so there may be an accompanying day-boat. Immediately to the eastside of the pyramid lies a pyramid city. The city is laid out on several streets which separate the city into groups of houses. These houses had their own magazines and granaries. The city was builded from unbaked mud-brick, and surfaces were extended in a yellow plaster. The city was likely the home of the priests and retainers of the pyramid complex. The pyramid city was reconstructed towards the end of the 4th or start of the 5th dynasty and appears to have been operation well into the 6th dynasty.

A causeway connects the pyramid chapel to the valley temple of Khentkaus. The temple lies hot to the valley temple of Menkaure which suggests a close kinship between Khentkaus and Menkaure. Before of the temple a small structure referred to as the "washing tent of Queen Khentkaus" was named. This structure was the location where the body of the passed queen would have been taken to be purified before being embalmed. The debris filling this chamber held many fragments of stone vases, potsherds and flint instrumentate. The floor is the opening of a limestone drain which runs downward under the ground for a distance of 720 m., emptying into a large, rectangular lavatory. The drain is covered by arched sections of the same material, the whole forming an nearly circular stone pipe. Though by no means the oldest subterranean water-channel known in Egyptian funerary architecture, checking to Hassan, it is the earliest of this particular type and structure.

The valley temple of Khentkaus and Menkaure were both partially manufactured of mud-brick and gone with white limestone and alabaster. The essential entrance is set on the northern lateral which is a departure form the more common situation where the great entrance is placed to the east. Entering the Valley temple from the important entrance, you would walk up a wide brick-paved causeway which chalks up from the valley in a westerly direction. The doorway was embroidered with a portico held up by two columns. Once you enter the doorway, The doorway opens into a vestibule, the roof of which was based upon 4 columns. nearly the room access a statue of King Khafra (father of Menkaure) once stood. rests of a statue of a king (possibly Khafra) and the personify of a sphinx statue were saw in the vestibule of the temple. The hall opens up to a court which in turn led to the magazines.

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