The Pyramid of Menkaura
The Pyramid of Menkaura
The Pyramid of Menkaura
Discovered in 1837 by the Englishmen Richard William Vyse and
John Shea Perring, the pyramid of Menkaura is 66m. high and
104 m. per side. In 1500 it still boasted its beautiful exterior
facing, which was gradually almost completely removed.
The lower part of the pyramid is made of blocks of red Aswan
granite "much of which is still in place", which contrasted with
the upper portion in white Tura limestone. Herodotus described
the pyramid as being covered for half its height in Ethiopian
stone "the entrance to the pyramid, on the north side at about
4m above ground level, was found on 29 July 1837, Menkaura's
burial chamber has a complex structure, unlike those of Khufu
and Khafrae this fact reflects a series of transformations that
could only have been made during the course of work.
There are thus two burial chambers, one being the original and
the other the definitive one. In the latter, Vyse discovered a
basalt sarcophagus decorated with the typical "palace facade"
reliefs, with its cover broken, containing a wooden sarcophagus
and the remains of a mummified body. Unfortunately, both the
beautiful sarcophagus and what might have been the remains of
Menkaurae were lost in 1838 when the Beatrice sank off
Carthage as she was carrying them to England.
The interior of the pyramid is quite complex. The original design
called for a descending corridor from the base of the smaller
original pyramid to the burial chamber, this approach was at
some time abandoned, and another entrance was opened on
the north side.
This leads through an antechamber, the walls of which are
decorated with bas-reliefs of the "palace facade" motif to the
burial chamber as originally planned.
The plans were, however, again modified underneath the
original burial chamber another, much larger room was
excavated "6.50 by 2.30 m" with a 4 m ceiling and was dressed
with granite.
The Mortuary Temple Of Menkaura
Unfortunately, very little remains of the mortuary temple begun
by Menkaura in stone and completed in mud bricks by his son
and successor Shepseskaf, although is still intact in 1700.
Some of the blocks used in its construction weigh as much as
200 tons. The temple stands on the west side of the pyramid
and it had a quite complex structure with a vestibule a
rectangular courtyard, a double colonnaded portico that led to
the sanctuary, and many annexes.
A sloping causeway united the mortuary temple with the valley
temple, where the archaeologist George Reisner discovered
during excavations conducted in 1907 and 1908, the famous
schist triads in which the King is associated with Hathor and
other deities symbolizing Egyptian nomes.
The subsidiary Pyramids
The three subsidiary pyramids, of which the largest is flat sided
while the other two are stepped, rise to the south of main
pyramid pf Menkaura. Each was in turn flanked, also on the
south, by a small mortuary temple, in mud brick with wooden
columns. Even though no proof has yet come to light, it is
thought that the subsidiaries belonged to the royal brides of
Mankaura.
Two are unknown but the third is khamernebtry II, whose
features are those of Hathor in the triads.
The measurements of the bases of these three structures are
one third those of the main pyramid. Inside one of the
subsidiaries, Richard Vyse found the name of the King written in
red ink.
