The pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three main pyramids of the

Giza pyramid complex The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid of Giza, Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx of G ...

, located on the

Giza Plateau The Giza Plateau () is a limestone plateau in Giza, Egypt, the site of the Fourth Dynasty Giza pyramid complex, which includes the pyramids of Pyramid of Khufu, Khufu, Pyramid of Khafre, Khafre and Pyramid of Menkaure, Menkaure, the Great Sphinx o ...

in the southwestern outskirts of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. It is thought to have been built to serve as the

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

of the Fourth Dynasty King Menkaure.

Size and construction

Menkaure's

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

had an original height of , and was the smallest of the three major pyramids at the

Giza Necropolis The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. All were built during ...

. It now stands at tall with a base of . Its angle of incline is approximately 51°20′25″. It was constructed of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and Aswan

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

. The upper portion was cased in the normal manner with Tura limestone. The construction of the outer casing of the pyramid was halted at sixteen to eighteen layers of granite following Menkaure's death, only seven of which remain today due to vandalism and erosion. Part of the granite was left in the rough. The descending passage to lower burial chamber is in the 'large apartment' floor, probably original hidden by floor blocks. It is theorised that originally the pyramid was planned to be smaller, with the blind alley being the originally planned entrance passage. A boat

hieroglyph Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

was found painted on a limestone block near the pyramid, which may indicate the presence of a boat pit for a

solar barque thumb Solar barques were the vessels used by the sun god Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology. During the day, Ra was said to use a vessel called the Mandjet () or the Boat of Millions of Years (), and the vessel he used during the night was known ...

Age and location

The pyramid's date of construction is unknown, because Menkaure's reign has not been accurately defined, but it was probably completed in the

26th century BC The 26th century BC was a century that lasted from the year 2600 BC to 2501 BC. Events Crete * c. 2600–2400 BC: Minoan civilization, Early Minoan I period in Crete. Egypt * c. 2551–2526 BC: Reign of Khufu, second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynas ...

. It is a few hundred meters southwest of its larger neighbors, the pyramid of Khafre and the

Great Pyramid The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wond ...

Khufu Khufu or Cheops (died 2566 BC) was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his ...

in the Giza

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

Sarcophagus and coffin

In 1837, Howard Vyse and John Shae Perring discovered the

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek language, Greek wikt:σάρξ, σάρξ ...

of Menkaure, described as beautiful black and rich in detail with a bold projecting

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, which contained the bones of a young woman. It was loaded onto the ship ''Beatrice'', but wrecked off the Spanish coast on the way to Great Britain. A wooden anthropoid

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

inscribed with Menkaure's name and containing the remains of a mummy were found in the upper burial chamber and later transferred safely to the British Museum. The coffin was radiocarbon dated to 1212–846 BC, from the late New Kingdom to the Third Intermediate Period. The male body and its shroud were carbon dated to the early Islamic Period.

Pyramid complex

Pyramid temple

In the mortuary temple, the foundations and the inner core were made of limestone. The floors were begun with granite and granite facings were added to some of the walls. The foundations of the valley temple were made of stone. Both temples were finished with crude bricks. Reisner estimated that some of the blocks of local stone in the walls of the mortuary temple weighed as much as 220 tons. The heaviest granite ashlars imported from Aswan weighed more than 30 tons. It is assumed that Menkaure's successor

Shepseskaf Shepseskaf (meaning "His Ka is noble") was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, the sixth and probably last ruler of the fourth dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He reigned most probably for four but possibly up to seven years in the late 26th ...

completed the temple construction. An inscription was found in the mortuary temple that said he "made it (the temple) as his monument for his father, the king of upper and lower Egypt." Subsequent architectural additions and two

stelae A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

from the Sixth Dynasty suggest that a cult for the Pharaoh was maintained, or was periodically renewed, for two centuries after his death.Lehner, Mark in:

Valley temple

The Menkaure Valley temple was excavated between 1908 and 1910 by American

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

George Andrew Reisner George Andrew Reisner Jr. (November 5, 1867 – June 6, 1942) was an American archeologist of Ancient Egypt, Nubia and Palestine. Early life Reisner was born on November 5, 1867, in Indianapolis. His parents were George Andrew Reisner Sr. and M ...

. He found a large number of statues, mostly of Menkaure alone, and as a member of a group. These were all carved in the naturalistic style of the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...

, with a high degree of detail.

Queens' pyramids

South of the pyramid of Menkaure are three smaller pyramids, designated G3-a, G3-b, and G3-c, each accompanied by a temple and substructure. The easternmost is the largest and a true pyramid. Its casing is partly of granite, like the main pyramid, and is believed to have been completed due to the limestone pyramidion found close by. Neither of the other two progressed beyond the construction of the inner core.Edwards, I. E. S.: ''The Pyramids of Egypt'' 1986/1947 pp. 147–163 Reisner speculated that the structures were likely tombs for the queens of Menkaure, and that the individuals buried there may have been his half-sisters. The archaeologist

Mark Lehner Mark Lehner (born 1950 in Dakota) is an American archaeology, archaeologist with more than 30 years of experience excavating in Egypt. He is the director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) and has appeared in numerous television documenta ...

argues that pyramid G3-a has a layout akin to a '' ka'' pyramid, which would have housed a statue of the king rather than a body. The fact that the structure once contained a pink granite sarcophagus, has led scholars to speculate that it may have been reused as a queen's burial tomb, or that it served as a chapel where the body of Menkaure was mummified.

Attempted demolition

In 1196,

Al-Aziz Uthman Al-Malik Al-Aziz Uthman ibn Salah Ad-Din Yusuf (1171 – 29 November 1198) was the second Ayyubid dynasty, Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt. He was the second son of Saladin. Life Before his death, Saladin had divided his dominions amongst his kin: Al-A ...

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

's son and the

Sultan of Egypt Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Though the extent of the Egyptian Sultanate ebbed and flowed, it generally ...

, attempted to demolish the pyramids, starting with that of Menkaure. Workmen recruited to demolish the pyramid stayed at their job for eight months, but the task was expensive and slow. Workers were only able to remove one or two stones each day at most. Some used wedges and levers to move the stones, while others used ropes to pull them down. When a stone fell, it would bury itself in the sand, requiring extraordinary efforts to free it. Wedges were used to split the stones into several pieces, and a cart was used to carry it to the foot of the escarpment, where it was left. Despite their efforts, workmen were only able to damage the pyramid to the extent of leaving a large vertical gash at its northern face.

Restoration attempt

In January 2024, a project to study and document the outer granite blocks which had fallen off of the facade began, with the goal to reinstall them. The project was planned to take three years to complete. Weeks after the announcement, the project was cancelled following backlash by researchers and a report by a team of experts called in by Egyptian officials and led by

Zahi Hawass Zahi Abass Hawass (; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptians, Egyptian archaeology, archaeologist, Egyptology, Egyptologist, and former Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt), Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, a position he held twice. He has ...

, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities which “unanimously objected to the re-installation of the granite casing blocks scattered around the base of the pyramid”.

References

External links

Guardian's Ancient Egypt: The Pyramid of Menkaure
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyramid Of Menkaure Buildings and structures completed in the 26th century BC Giza pyramid complex Pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt Menkaure Buildings and structures in Giza Iconoclasm in Egypt