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Khufu Facts

Khnum-Khufu that is the full name of king Khufu. It's means "[The god] Khnum protects me". The Greek authors who offered the first histories of Egypt assure us that Khufu--whom they named Cheops--was a concentrated man who offended Egypt's gods and forced his people into slaveholding. But this is unfair. Other analysis of the historical record shows that Khufu, the second king of the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, reigned Egypt for around 23 years (c. 2551-2528 B.C.). His period was a prosperous and pacific one, and he never enslaved his citizens.

King Snefru, one of the famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt, father of King Khufu, had been an impressive pyramid constructor, constructing not one, but three huge pyramids. Hetepheres, was his mother, Snefru's chief wife. American archaeologist George Reisner discovered a deep shaft covered close by Khufu's pyramid in 1925. At the base of the shaft was a limited room packed with Hetepheres' burial equipment, taking on a bed, a headrest, a carrying chair, a collection of rare silver bracelets, a range of cosmetics, and lots of pottery. Mysteriously, the alabaster sarcophagus was stripped. To date, the queen's body has not been got.

Khufu had different wives, as was the custom with Egyptian families, and many children. Meritetes, the wife of Khufu, was the mother of Djedefre, the king who followed Khufu. Henutsen, the wife of Khufu also, was the mother of king Khafre (Chephren in Greeks culture) who succeeded Djedefre as king. Khafre who constructed the second pyramid at Giza.

At the end of the day, our realizing of individuals and their complicated relationships nearly five thusands years ago, must be subject to a huge dose of caution, and humility, particularly in Egypt, where two-thirds of the country stays covered in sand and totally unexcavated, and where 99% of what we believe to be true comes from 1% of the population, royalty. And even then, what we believe we know is based on what this privileged few, mostly men, needed us to believe, as described on the walls of their tombs and temples.

Many conditions, such as science, maths and physics, have developed, amended, and, in some examples, completely reinvented themselves over a cross of thousands of years. Egyptology, then again, is in its infancy, having existed for just two centuries. Why, then, can we not remain to evolve our understanding of its most iconic forms or, at the same least, question them; such as king Khufu, the would be author of the world most known signature the Great Pyramid of Giza. The most famous place in Egypt, and the one that seems on almost every Egypt tour package, this is the oldest and biggest of the pyramids on the Giza.

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