The smallest pyramid in the Giza plateau for king Menkaure served as a tomb for the king who ruled Egypt during the reign of the fourth dynasty.
Size and constructions
The original height of the pyramid was 66,5, so he was the smallest pyramid from ancient Egypt. Now the height of this pyramid is just 61 meters. The base length is 108 meters.
The pyramid is constructed of local limestone covered with pink granite from Aswan. The first 16 outer courses of carving were made from red granite. The higher upper layers of the pyramid were carved from tura limestone.
Because of the left parts of granite, it helped archeologists to understand the techniques of building temples and tombs.
Age and location
King Menkaura ruled Egypt after king Cheops and Khafre, and the most speculative theory about his era was during the 26-century b.c. The pyramid lies some hundred meters to the west of the pyramids of Cheops and khafre.
Sarcophagus coffins
On 28 July 1837, it was discovered in the antechamber of the pyramid anthropoid coffin containing the name of king menkaure and inside remains of human bones. It is now considered to be a substitute coffin from another period.
Radiocarbon dating on bones indicates that it is determined to be less than 2000 years old.
The coffin mentioned above was transported to England and displayed now in the British Museum in London.
Deeper inside the pyramid, there was another sarcophagus from basalt, beautiful black, which contained the bones of a young woman. Still, unfortunately, this sarcophagus now sunk in the bottom of the Mediterranean sea when it was transported in 1838 to Europe. It was the only handful of the sarcophagus to survive to the modern period.
Pyramid complex
The foundation and inner core of the pyramid’s mortuary temple are made from limestone; it was first from granite, and there were carvings of granite on the walls, the other Tempel, called the valley temple, was built from stone was finished with crude bricks. The estimation weight for stones in this temple is around 220 tonnes, and the blocks of Aswan’s granite are around 30 tonnes.
Most probably, king Menkaure died before finishing his mortuary temple, and his son, king shepseskaf, completed it, according to the block of stone having the name him saying I made it, to memorate his father.
Valley temple
This valley temple was excavated between 1908 and 1910; an American archaeologist and egyptologist Reisner discovered it. Who found in this temple lots of statues for king menkaure. The statues were carved in naturalism style with a high degree of detail and perfection.
Queen's pyramids
To the south of Menkaure’s pyramids, there are three pyramids called queen’s pyramids; each one accompanied to his temple.
The first pyramid from the eastern side is the complete and accurate pyramid; its casing is partially from granite like the king’s pyramid.
Archeologists assumed that one of those pyramids was dedicated to the king’s sister-in-law, and another pyramid was pyramidion. At the same time, the third one was the ka pyramid for the king’s soul; however, inside this pyramid, a beautiful pink granite sarcophagus was discovered but empty!
Attempted demolition
Most rulers who ruled Egypt after the fail of ancient Egyptian civilization ignored the value of these monumental buildings, so they started to demolish these antiquities, assuming it was a paganism cult. Still, meanwhile, assuming that: inside these antiquities lots of treasures, around 1196 al-Aziz Osman attempted to destruct and demolish the pyramids, starting with menkaure, it was not easy to destruct the pyramids. They stayed there for around eight months, and it was cumbersome and expensive; they could almost remove one stone or two maximum daily; despite their efforts and hard work through eight months, they could destroy the northern side of the pyramid, making a big hole there.
1 comment
I view something genuinely special in this web site.