Saqqara

Saqqara is one of the most large archaeological sites in Egypt! It was the burying ground for Memphis, the capital of Ancient Egypt, nevertheless it is still one of the virgin archaeologic sites.

This ai a list of the most famous monuments in Saqqara:

Gisr el-Mudir

 

Imhotep Museum

Mazghuna

Step Pyramid of Djoser

Pyramid of Unas

Tomb of Irukaptah

The Serapeum

Mastaba of Ti

Monastery of St. Jeremias

The Pyramid of Userkaf

Pyramid of Teti

Tomb of Nefer-her-ptah

Single Mastaba of Nebet and Khenut

Tomb of Nefer and Companions

Tomb of Mereruka

Mastaba of Kagemni

Mastaba of Kagemni

Inside the mastaba of Kagemni

From mastaba of Kagemni

Kagemni followed the rules of both the Third (2649-2575 B.C.E.) and 4th (2575-2465 B.C.E.) Dynasties of Egypt. He acted as the mayor of the capital of Memphis for Huni (2599-2575  B.C.E.)  and  as  a  vizier  for  Sneferu (2575-2551 B.C.E.). Kagemni, nonetheless, is famous for his Teachings, written for him by a scriber named Kaires, a clarifying  text  referred with  special  attitudes  of  service and  dedication  on  the  part  of  high-ranking  officials. Kagemnis  tomb  at  Saqqara, near the pyramid of Teti was  L-shaped  and  represented  dancers,  acrobats,  hunting, scribblers, and agricultural settings in pretty reliefs. There were pits included in the tomb for tone boats as well.

Mastaba belongs to an official who was appointed as a chief of justness, the highest governmental post in old Egypt, in the reign of the king Teti the 1st king of the sixth dynasty.

Kagemni was a son in law to the pharaoh and this was why he responsible him with such a high post. This enabled Kagemni to build an some ornamented tomb close to the pyramid of his king Teti. With his high put up and royal connecters, Kagemni was effective to get the best Egyptian workers of the time to progress his tomb.

Mastaba is on the dot located to the northwestern of the pyramid of Teti and to the northwest of the main pyramid at the complex of Saqqara, the step pyramid of King Djoser. This location reflects the essential power of such a high govermtal situation of the time.

This Mastaba tomb, which is an serious stage in the conversion from Mastaba building to pyramids building, was first discovered by Richard Lepsius, opening up Prussian Egyptologist and linguist and pioneer of modern archaeology, in 1843.

Tomb of Mereruka

Entrance of the tomb of Mereruka

Mereruka served King Teti (2323-2291 B.C.E.) as vizier, chief justice, and the executive program of Tetis cult personnel. The son of  the  noble  Nedjetempet,  Mereruka  married  Princess Sesheshet, also addressed  Idut. She  was  Tetis  daughter. His son was Meryteti. Mereruka made the royal tomb of Teti as part of his responsibilities as vizier.

Mererukas have tomb in Saqqara is  a  amazing monument, spread by his grand wife and son. The tomb contains more than thirty chambers and was designed as a vast mastab

Tomb of Mereruka

A serdab was likewise part of the design. Scenes of gardening, fishing, fowling, hunting, harp playing, scribes, spreads, pets, and dwarves cater historical data of the period.

Tomb of Companions and Nefer

On the south side of the causeway leading to the Pyramid of King Unas is the Tomb of Nefer and Companions from the 5th Dynasty, in all probability the family or communal tomb of a guild of singers. It has a single chamber, 8 meters long, with nine tomb shots. In one of these was found the mummy of a naked man, raised only with a necklace of blue pearls, lying on his side with his legs more or less bent, as if asleep. The walls, looked with plaster, display a rich kind of reliefs. On the left hand wall are 5 rows of pictures from everyday life, letting in woodworkers, producing scenes, and a particular and informative scene depicting the debut of a boat. On the right wall the dead men are depicted with their wives at a funeral junket.

Single Mastaba of Nebet and Khenut

Mastaba of Nebet

To the northwest of the Pyramid of King Unas is the big Double Mastaba of "Nebet" and "Khenut", Unas's wives, which earlier covered an area of 161ft/49m by 72ft/22m and stood 13 ft/4 metre high. Both tombs have the very ground plan and layout, reflecting the equal status of the two occupiers. Khenut's tomb, to the west, is much finished, but Nebet's is well kept and worth close inspection.

The entrance, on the southwest side, leads into an antechamber of some size, the walls of which are decorated with rests of the dead Queen navigation in a boat through the marshes, etc. To the left (westward) of this chamber is a spacious open court, without decoration, and straight on is a second, earlier, antechamber with highly unusual mural eases showing Nebet with servants bringing in food and sledges laden with great jars; one of the women of the serail is a dwarf. On the north wall, preceding the door, Nebet is read seated in front of votive oblations.

Mastaba of Nefer-her-ptah (The Bird Tomb)

A mastaba that belonged to Nefer-her-en-Ptah who went during the 5th Dynasty. His principal title was "the head of the stylists of the Great House". It is a small tomb of just one room mounted with interesting but undone paintings that are finely executed. It disagrees from the other graves for several concludes. First, the paintings are done in red ochre, then adjusted and finished in grey on which the sculptors had not begun to run the reliefs. The decorations show scenes from agricultural life, such as milking, checking hearts, wine pressing, gathering of Acer pseudoplatanus figs, and the cultivation of gardens. On the crowning panel of the west wall, there is a signal big scene of bird hunting that gives the tomb the name, the bird tomb.

Pyramid of Teti

Pyramid of Teti

The pyramid of Teti was constructed at North Saqqara on the only left spot, south of the 1st and 2nd Dynasty mastabas and to the north of the pyramid of Userkaf. By this time, the layout of the complex, both inside and right, had become almost standardized, though the chapel in front of the entrance to the tomb is somewhat of a freshness. The pyramid had a paced core with a smooth outer incase. Inside, a corridor comes from the north to a chamber. After this, a further, horizontal corridor passes by three portcullises before

Text show cartouche of Teti from his pyramid

The mortuary complex outside was accessible by means of a valley temple and causeway, both now lost. Large magazines flanked the long entrance hall and the court behind, here embedded by square granite pillars reminiscent of those of the fourth Dynasty. Beyond the endless and bare transverse hall lay the inner apartments of the temple; a chamber with 5 cult niches followed by a square vestibule and the offering chapel itself, also embedded by magazines.

The Pyramid of Userkaf

The Pyramid of Userkaf

The Pyramid of Userkaf is settled at Saqqara at the northeast of Djoser's complex. It was built by pharaoh Userkaf, first pharaoh of the fifth Dynasty who ruled Egypt for 7 years. This pyramid was built as the ancient Egyptians think in resurrection. Userkaf was buried in this pyramid according to the ancient Egyptian concept of life after death.

The localized description for the the pyramid is el-haram el-makherbish "ruined pyramid". The pyramid is not on the tourist track and requires a 30 minute track up the soft sand from the step pyramid to

Ruins of the Dead Temple arround the Pyramid of Userkaf

make. The pyramid has been stripped of its outer casing and looks as a deal of rubble. Part of the black basalt give court floor is still visible. A satellite pyramid, 21 metre square, and third pyramid just south of the enclosure wall, was apparently for a queen whose name is Neferhetepes. The open courtyard seems to be in a trench assorted meter lower than the close desert. Egyptologist are still debating the reasons why Userkaf, the foqualitynder of the fifth Dynasty , would build his pyramid on this certain location, away from the fifth Dynasty necropolis of Abusir or his herald Shepseskaf in south Saqqara . Userkaf precious to be close the Djoser's step pyramid and this positioning is in all probability for political and dynastic causes.

Monastery of St. Jeremias

The Principal Church of the Monastery of St. Jeremias

The ruined monastery of the Coptic St. Jeremias (Jeremiah) dwells south of the causeway of the pyramid of King Unas on the inch of the desert plateau of Saqqara, due east of the New Kingdom necropolis. This monastery was set up in the late fifth century AD, perhaps by Jeremias himself, and it functioned up to the middle of the 9th century. It was first turned up between years 1906 and 1909 aside the British archaeologist J.E. Quibell, who found many remains of stone carving and painted plaster decoration, most of which is nowadays on display in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Numerous building blocks of the monastery had been got from the ancient tombs of Saqqara, admitting limestone rests from Old Kingdom mastabas and from the nearby New Kingdom tombs. Limestone was only applied for the 4 churches of the complex; the mobile phones of the monks and other utilitary structures were established in mudbrick.

Mastaba of Ti

Iside the Mastaba of Ti

Ti was an serious official in the fifth Dynasty. He did under both King Neferirkare and King Niuserre.  He had legion different titles, but the most worthy of these were likely overseer of all works of the king.  He seems to have been in charge of building the pyramids of both Neferirkare and Niuserre and galore other sun temples. The embarrassment of titles and large size of his L shaped mastaba speak to his importance in 5th Dynasty government.  His mastaba measured 42  meter x 34 m at its widest points.  It is also fair proper in that it has two serdab chambers.  The tomb was situated in the north mastaba astudiest Saqqara.

The basic structure is as follows: a portico that takes onto a columnar hall.  One serdab is on the north side of this hall, while a corridor leads south into the chapel of the mastaba.  This corridor is divided into 2 breaks; a storeroom is set just west of the second part of the corridor.  Two pillars are in the chapel, while the serdab is situated on the north side. 

The eases in this tomb are absolutely getting, and (in my opinion) among the finest in the Old Kingdom.  Pictures of animal husbandry, boat making, tracing, butchering, and the procession  of the nomes, offering scenes, brewing, and harvest scenes (amongst numerous others) feature in this tomb. 

Single series of relief work that I found particularly interesting was the advance of the nomes offering sceneI wasn't aware that this kind of scene was found in interior tombs not just an offering scene, but an actual procession of the domains of Egypt. The contingent work on the baskets of the offer bearers is amazing, with close striations/ridges perhaps connoting wicker or reed work.  Virtually all basket is individualized could this ponder produce that was known specially well from particular localizations.  This scene is discovered on the north wall of the chapel.

The hippo-hunt scene in particular interesting. It is found just above the exhibit of the domains on the central part of the north wall, and is arguably the focal point of this wall of the chapel.  In addition to being a motif that features in other Old and New Kingdom tombs (did it only develop in the fifth dynasty?), I'm fascinated by a lot of the details in this scene as well: just below the boat on the right, a crocodile and hippo attack one another.  Ti points the hunt, but does not participate directly in the housing of the hippo. This scene would seem to have a kind of hot appreciate.

The Serapeum

The Serapeum

The Serapeum houses the rock-cut underground burial chambers of the Apis cops. Apis, the sacred bull of the god Ptah, was worshiped in a temple of his own, and after his dying was embalmed and buried with serious pomp. From the time of Amenophis III, and belike earlier, the Apis tombs consisted of an underground chamber recorded by a sloping shaft. In the prevail of King Ramses II, Prince Khaemweset fabricated a common burial position for all the Apis bulls consisting of an underground corridor 100 meters long flanked on both sides by chambers in

Statue of Apis at the Serapeum

which the woody coffins of the bulls were included. 20 of the chambers here settled contain the sarcophagi of processed black or red granite, each hewn from a one block where the Apis bull mummies were housed. They standard some four meters in length and are estimated to press 65 tons.

Tomb of Irukaptah

Tomb of Irukaptah

Irukaptah was the Chief of Butchers during the reign of different  pharaohs  and  was  swallowed  in  the  royal  complex  of Saqqara as a signal of his rank and faithful overhaul. Irukaptahs  fine  burial  site  held  reliefs  and  paintings showing  the  butchering  of  animals.  He  also  approved KA statues for his burial site.

The grave of Irukaptah is located in the west group, 9.5 meter under the level of the Unas causeway and 10.5 metre from its south side. It can be given by the modern staircase which runs aboard the causeway (see tb-610). The tomb was dug at the base of a small cliff in ranked limestone which overhangs it by 17 meter and the tomb also takes on a courtyard. It is one of the largest of the group (13.45 metre from north to south) and it disagrees from all others by its exceptional interior statues, carved directly into the rock. On the other hand, the radicals of the decoration are limited and banal for the era on the situation of Saqqara, similar ones can be discovered, for instance, in the identified mastaba of Ti.

Pyramid of Unas, New Light

Pyramid of Unas

Unas causeway to the pyramid of Unas

King Unas ruled at the end of the fifth Dynasty, for a period of up to thirty years. Unas's pyramid at Saqqara, although the smallest of the Old Kingdom pyramids, shines his long reign in the in an elaborate way carved hieroglyphic palm of the inner chambers  the earliest identified example of the Pyramid Texts. Before his time, with the elision of Djoser's monuments) all of the known pyramids had been undecorated.

Unas's pyramid seems unremarkable, little more than a big heap of rubble which is shadowed by its older neighbor, the Step Pyramid of King Djoser. The body structure was first investigated by Gaston Maspero in 1881 who had been collating a corpus of texts found in other Dynasty V and VI pyramids and he was the first to enter Unas's subterranean chambers. The pyramid and part of the mortuary temple was hollowed by (Alexandre Barsanti) on behalf of Maspero at the turn of the 20th century, and investigation of the mortuary temple and causeway was later kept by Cecil Firth, Jean-Philippe Lauer and others up to the nowadays.

The Pyramid Texts:

The Pyramid Texts of Unas's Pyramid

The Pyramid Texts, which are first got on the private walls of the pyramid of King Unas (the last king of the fifth Dynasty), and earlier in the pyramids of the sixth Dynasty kings (and some queens), are a ranking source of texts from this period. That texts are in all probability to be dated no earlier than or so one hundred years before the earliest saved copy, and many of the texts are topical with the pyramids in which they are discovered. These texts were intended to aid the deceased king in his transition to and continued well-being in the hereafter. They include magical spells, whose purpose is to protect the deceased from  various  perils  (for  example,  snakes  and  scorpions),  texts  which  are  corresponding different  funerary  rituals,  and  spells  fashioned to allow  the  deceased  to  defeated  any obstacles that he might see in the next life.

Pyramid of Unas reopened in 2016:

The Egyptians reopened the Pyramid of Unas for public visitation subsequently being closed for twenty years. The repository, set within the Saqqara necropolis, about Cairo, is known for being the best to have funeral texts  in  its  inner  walls,  known  as  the  Pyramid  Texts. Before, the inner walls of these pharaonic tombs didnt have several inscriptions, as is the case of the 3 great pyramids of Giza, also based near the Egyptian capital.

The texts line rituals, prayers and anthems and were intended to guide the dead king in his way to the other world.  Unas  was  the  close monarch of the fifth Pharaoh Dynasty of Egypt, during the so named Old Kingdom. He ruled for around thirty years during the 24th century B.C.

The site of the Pyramid is set about the most famous repository of Saqqara, the  step pyramid of Djoser, considered to be Egypt first. From right, the Unas  tomb draws little care, since its in ruins. The true attractivenesses  lie inside the mortuary temple, the inscribed inscriptions, the roof that replicates a star-filled sky and other art works painted or engraved in the walls.

Step Pyramid of Djoser

Step Pyramid of Djoser

Along the west bank of the Nile on the border of the desert at Saqqara is the Step Pyramid  complex of Horus Neterikhet, known as King Djoser, credibly the 2nd  pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty. The  constructions of the complex are significant because they are the first ones made of quarried stone, in regular courses.

The  third century BC historian Manetho confirms the Djoser complexs originality when he themes  that  Imhotep, whom the Greeks  anticipated Asclepios for his 

Cobra heads, Step Pyramid at Saqqara

The first modern exploration of the Step Pyramid was made by the Prussian general Baron von Minutoli, who recorded it with the Italian engineer Geronimo Segato through 1821. This scholars discovered 2 chambers, raised with blue faence juries, and the granite overleap, which had  already  been  void in antiquity. In the corner of a hallway they discovered what was left of a mummy with a heavy gilded skull and a couple of sandals, also gilded. These were took by von Minutoli, but then missing at sea.

Pierre Lacau and Cecil M.Firth began excavating  the complex in 1924.The first places  they  searched  were  two  mounds,  situated at the northeast corner  of  the  serious pyramid. They were greatly amazed to find 2 faades with fluted columns almost in the Greek Doric style. Firth at first considered he was excavating a Ptolemaic social organisation, but some New Kingdom hieratic composition on the walls of the entering corridors soon proved the building to date to the third Dynasty. It was in these inscriptions that the name (Zoser) was first got; contemporary texts good use the name Neterikhet, sometimes followed by the epithet golden sun.

Mazghuna

Remains of the southern pyramid of Mazghuna

Mazghuna is  a  locate  south  of  Dahshur associated with the last rules of the 12th Dynasty. The pyramidal works of Akhenaten (1799-1787 B.C.E.) and Queen Sobekneferu (1787-1783 B.C.E.) were discovered at that place. They were brother and sister, and they established to renovate their dynastic claims and halt the disintegration of Egypt and the first of the Second Intermediate Period, to no help. The Hyksos and other established details were already ready in the  Delta, and  the nome  tribes were establishing their own claims to domain and power. The pyramidal tombs of these rules are in ruins.

Imhotep Museum

Model of the Step Pyramid in Imhotep Museum

Imhotep Museum at Saqqara, founded in 2006, is a place museum intentional to house artifacts from local diggings. It serves to set visitors for their inspect to the necropolis of Saqqara, which includes  the Step Pyramid of King Djoser, the Serapeum, the pyramids of Teti and King Unas, and elite tombs from all epochs of ancient Egyptian history. The museum is discovered after Imhotep, the Old Kingdom official credited with design the Step Pyramid; later deified, he became honorable as a wise man and a patron of medicine

Gisr el-Mudir

Gisr el-Mudir

The Gisr el-Mudir , placed just west of King Sekhemkhets pyramid complex, was located in the early twentieth century, but not inquired until the middle-1990s. It comprises of masonry of roughly hewn limestone blockages in layers, taking it potentially the earliest known stone structure in Egypt. Its builder is unknown, but proposed dates have shifted  from  Dynasty 3  to  the  Early Dynastic period, and in particular to Dynasty 2. Others have tentatively imputed the Gisr el-Mudir to Khasekhemwy. Pottery observed during the 1995 season can be antique to the end of Dynasty 2 or starting of the third Dynasty. Accordingly, it has been indicated that these empty precincts are the counterparts of the Abydene enclosures built in muck brick.

King Shepseskaf (2472-2467)

Cartouche of Shepseskaf

King Shepseskaf was the sixth Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He governed ancient Egypt from 2472 BC to 2467 BC. Shepseskaf was in power through a very difficult political period, during which there were galore confrentations with assorted priests. Many Nomes desired independence and rose against Shepseskaf's authority. He completed his predecessors' repositories, but some records indicate that he was not settled from a royal line. His tomb is in South Saqqara. Mykerinos was delivered the goods by his oldest enduring son, Shepseskaf. His wife, Bunefer; bore him a daughter, Khamaat, who tied the Memphite high-priest Ptah-shepses. According to the Turin King-list, Shepseskaf's reign lasted for just four years.This may correspond well with the fact that the highest attested year for this king is the year after the first cattle count. This, however, left him with enough time not only to errect his have funerary memorial but besides to hastily clean his father's mortuary temple.

Shepseskaf's Mastaba

Again matching to the Turin King-list, his reign was came by a two year reign of an unknown king, who may be identified with king Thamphthis shown by Manetho. Shepseskaf chosen not to have a pyramid, but a sarcophagus-like mastaba as a tomb and he run back to the cemetery of Saqqara. This is seen by some Egyptologists as a sign of shifting beliefs, by others as a sign that he wanted to distance himself from the constructing policy of his sires. Others again see it as proof that the establishing policy of Kheops and Khefren had entirely exhausted the resourcefulnesses and wealth of the royal family. Shepseskaf was the sixth king of the 4th Dynasty. He found ancient Egypt from 2472 BC to 2467 BC. Shepseskaf was in power through a very difficult semipolitical period, during which there were many confrentations with several priests. Many Nomes in demand independence and risen against Shepseskaf's authority. He total his predecessors' memorials, but some records show that he was not descended from a royal line. His tomb is in South Saqqara.

Shepseskaf was probably not of royal standard and had to merry in to the first family to get have of the throne. When he came to power there are denotations of some disorder in Egypt. His first years look to have been quite difficult with oppositions with various chemical groups of priests and probably parts of the nobility as well. The most essential was when states rebelled against his authority. If the conflict escalated beyond civil obedience we don't know, but it credibly did not. He restored order in the country and could clean his predecessor Menkaure's repositories at Giza. The only portraying maybe to be of him is a head of white alabastrine (above right), but its identification is very disputable since it was found in the Valley Temple of Menkaure whose characteristics it looks to have. Shepseskaf is alone in Egyptian history by constructing an invention of his own for his serious monument, today called "Mastabat el-Faraún" - Pharaoh's Mastaba. I was called "the Purified Pyramid" though the hieroglyph in the name (in picture left) was of another shape. This monument was made as a sarcophagus-like mastaba with a slenderly vaulted roof, and placed 20 km south of Giza 3 km southeast of the old memorial park of Sakkara. If this new design (never to be recurring) was a sign of switching beliefs is uncertain, but by this he broke the building tradition accepted by the pharaohs in the past. The superstructure was of clean design with the grave chamber placed asymmetrical to the geometrical centre of the construction.

The Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

The Fourth Dynasty dated back to (2630—2524). Manetho Africanus lists two other kings in this list, a king names Ratoisis (ruling 25 years) between Menkaure and Bakare, and another king Thamplitis (ruling 9 years) after Shepseskaf. Manetho Africanus: also does not mention Djedefre.

The dynasty list of Kings:

King Sneferu  (2575—2551)

King Khufu (Cheops) (2551—2528)

Pharaoh Kauab

King Djedefre (2528—2520)

King Khafre (Chephren) (2520—2494)

King Bakare (2550—2548)

King Menkaure (Mycerinus) (2490—2474)

King Shepseskaf (2472—2467)

The Queens Pyramids of Menkaure

The Queens Pyramids of Menkaure

The Queens Pyramids of Menkaure, three small queens pyramids are situated to the south side of the pyramid and, like the other repositories, they  were  never  finished.  It  has  been  advised  that  the  biggest and Nearly complete of  these belonged to Menkaure's important wife Khamerenebti II.

The Pyramid of Menkaure

The Pyramid of Menkaure

The last of the three older pyramids at Giza is the one connected with Menkaure. In one of the chambers  on  an  arch  was  false  the  name  Menkaure.
Menkaure's Pyramid had an particular height of 65.5 meters (215 ft) and was the tightest of the three leading pyramids at the Giza Necropolis. It now stands at 61 m (204 ft) tall with a base of 108.5 m. Its angle of incline is about 5120 25?. 

It was constructed of limestone and granite. The first sixteen trends of the exterior were made of granite. The upper helping was cased in the normal fashion with Tura limestone. Part of the granite  was left  in the  rough. Broken projects like  this help archeologists understand the methods used to progress pyramids and temples. 

Inside the pyramid of Menkaure

South of the pyramid of Menkaure were 3 satellite pyramids none of which seem to have been completed. The largest was made part in granite like the main pyramid. Neither of the other 2 progressed beyond the construction of the inner core.

Richard Howard,  who  first  imposed  Egypt  in  1835,  discovered  in  the  upper foyer the remains of a wooden frail coffin inscribed with Menkaure's name and containing human bones. This is now took to be a near coffin from the Saite period, and radiocarbon dating on the bones established them to be less than 2,000 years old.

The pyramid assorted with Menkaure is encourage SW of the other 2 pyramids but  not just SW. It is a Gentle beginning further towards south. This offset, along with the smaller size of the pyramid, is significant to the Orion correlation theory that advises that the pyramids form an take match on the prime of Orions Belt in the constellation of Orion which well ensure more depth afterwards.

Menkaure's Artifacts

Alabaster Head:

The alabaster head of Menkaure

A pretty head, for Menkaure, in Egyptian alabaster (calcite) of a statue of Mykerinos was found during the 1908 digs of the Valley Temple of Mykerinos' funerary monument at Giza. It measures 28.5 cm in height by 16 cm. It was learned along the remains several other statues, four of which were inscribed with Mykerinos' titulary. There were hence at least four statues representing Mykerinos, and this lovely alabaster head may once have been part of one of them.

The king's face is fresh and round, the eyes understandably big. The nose is gentle and the mouth has a noted lower lip. He wears a false byssus. The uraeus is carved onto the wig of this statue, with only its head popping. This head is quite some in that the king is played wearing a wig rather of a crown or the royal nemes headgear, but this does add to the intimacy it looks to contemplate. It is plausibly one of the finest samples of Old Kingdom art and can be marvelled at in the Boston Museum of close arts.

Other artifacts of Menkaure:

White Crown

Triad Statues

Statues of Mykerinos and Khamernebti II

King Menkaure (Mycerinus) (2490-2474)

Statue of Menkaure

King Menkaure  was the fifth ruler of the Fourth Dynasty, the detergent builder of the third pyramid at Giza. The  heir  of  Khafre, Menkaur  ruled  from  2490 B.C.E. until  his  death,  and  was  anticipated  Mycerinus  by  the Greeks.  He  was  Khafres  son,  probably  born  to  Queen Khamerernebty (2) or  peradventure  to  Queen  Persenti His sons  were  Kaaur,  Khuenr,  the  chosen  heir  who  died young, and Shepseskhaf, who succeeded him. His daughter  was  Khentakawes (1). Shepseskhaf  perchance  good Menkaurs pyramid, the third one erected at Giza, and it is known that he total Menkaurs mortuary temple. He was read as being godly, and his death was forecast by the Oracle of Buto.

Menkaure's pyramid  at  Giza  was  designed  smaller  than  the ones raised there by Khufu and Khafre, but it was continued  by  expensive  Aswan stone.  A  basalt  Sarcophagus was set within the pyramid and taken fine panel medals. Statues and other reliefs manifest to the skill of the artisans  of  his  historical  period.  In  the  Twenty-sixth Dynasty  (664-525  B.C.E.)  Menkaurs  remains  were located into a new wooden coffin. His basalt Sarcophagus was  took to  Europe,  but  it  reportedly  went  set  in  a shipwreck off the coast of Spain.