Pyramid of Menkaure
The pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three main pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex, located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. It is thought to have been built to serve as the tomb of the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure.
Pyramid of Menkaure
c. 2510 BC (4th dynasty)
limestone, core
red granite, white limestone, casing
65 metres (213 ft) or 125 cubits (original)
102.2 by 104.6 metres (335 ft × 343 ft) or 200 cubits (original)
235,183 cubic metres (8,305,409 cu ft)
51°20'25''
Age and location[edit]
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. It is a few hundred meters southwest of its larger neighbors, the pyramid of Khafre and the Great Pyramid of Khufu in the Giza necropolis.
Pyramid complex[edit]
Pyramid temple[edit]
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 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 from the Sixth Dynasty suggest that a cult for the Pharaoh was maintained, or was periodically renewed, for two centuries after his death.[6]
Valley temple[edit]
The Menkaure Valley temple was excavated between 1908 and 1910 by American archaeologist George Andrew Reisner.[6] 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, with a high degree of detail.[7]