Menkaure

Not to be confused withMenkare.

Menkaure
Menkaura, Mykerinos, Menkheres
Greywackestatue of Menkaure Egyptian Museum,Cairo
Pharaoh
Reign	18 to 22 years,starting c. 2530 BC
Predecessor	Khafre(most likely) orBikheris
Successor	Shepseskaf
Royal titulary Horus name Hor-Kakhet ῌr-k3-ḫt Bull of the divine company Nebty name Ka-Nebty Nbt.j-k3 Bull of the two Ladies Golden Horus Netjer-bik-nebu Nṯr-bjk-nb.w The divine golden falcon Abydos King List Menkaure mn-kꜣ.w-rꜥ HisKaswill stay like Ra Saqqara Tablet ...kaure ...kꜣ.w-rꜥ Nomen Menkaura mn-kꜣw-rꜥ Hiska-soulswill stay like Ra Alternative spellings: mn-kꜣ(w)-rꜥ
Consort	Khamerernebty II,Rekhetre?
Children	Khuenre,Shepseskaf,Khentkaus I?, Sekhemre
Father	Khafre
Mother	Khamerernebty I
Born	2532 BC
Died	c. 2500 BC
Burial	Pyramid of Menkaure
Dynasty	Fourth Dynasty

MenkaureorMenkaura(Egyptiantransliteration:mn-kꜣw-rꜥ) was apharaohof theFourth Dynasty of Egyptduring theOld Kingdom.He is well known under hisHellenizednamesMykerinos(Ancient Greek:Μυκερῖνος,romanized:MukerînosbyHerodotus), in turnLatinizedasMycerinus,andMenkheres(Μεγχέρης,MenkhérēsbyManetho). According to Manetho, he was the throne successor of kingBikheris,but according toarchaeologicalevidence, he was almost certainly the successor ofKhafre.Africanus (from Syncellus) reports as rulers of the fourth dynastySôris,Suphis I,Suphis II,Mencherês (=Menkaure),Ratoisês,Bicheris,Sebercherês,andThamphthisin this order.Menkaure became famous for his tomb, thePyramid of Menkaure,atGizaand his statue triads, which showed him alongside the goddess Hathor and various regional deities.

Family

See also:Fourth Dynasty of Egypt family tree

Menkaure was the son ofKhafreand the grandson ofKhufu.A flint knife found in the mortuary temple of Menkaure mentioned a king's motherKhamerernebty I,suggesting that Khafre and this queen were the parents of Menkaure. Menkaure is thought to have had at least two wives.

• QueenKhamerernebty IIis the daughter of Khamerernebty I and the mother of a king's son Khuenre. The location of Khuenre's tomb suggests that he was a son of Menkaure, making his mother the wife of this king.
• QueenRekhetreis known to have been a daughter of Khafre and as such the most likely identity of her husband is Menkaure.

Not many children are attested for Menkaure:

• Khuenrewas the son of queenKhamerernebty II.Menkaure was not succeeded by Prince Khuenre, his eldest son, who predeceased Menkaure, but rather byShepseskaf,a younger son of this king.
• Shepseskafwas the successor to Menkaure and likely his son.
• Sekhemre is known from a statue and possibly a son of Menkaure.
• A daughter who died in early adulthood is mentioned byHerodotus.She was placed at a decorated hall of the palatial area at Sais, in a hollow gold layered wooden zoomorphic burial feature in the shape of a kneeling cow covered externally with a layer of red decoration except the neck area and the horns that were covered with adequate layers of gold.
• Khentkaus I– possible Menkaure's daughter

The royal court included several of Menkaure's half brothers. His brothersNebemakhet,Duaenre,Nikaure,andIunminserved as viziers during the reign of their brother. His brother Sekhemkare may have been younger than he was and became vizier after the death of Menkaure.

Reign

Menkaura flanked by the goddessHathor(left) and the personification of the nome of Sesheshet (right). Graywacke statue in Cairo Museum.

The length of Menkaure's reign is uncertain. The ancienthistorianManetho credits him with rulership of 63 years, but this is surely an exaggeration. TheTurin King Listis damaged at the spot where it should present the full sum of years, but the remains allow a reconstruction of "..?.. + 8 years of rulership". Egyptologists think that 18-year rulership was meant to be written, which is generally accepted. A contemporary workmen's graffito reports about the "year after the 11thcattle count".If the cattle count was held every second year (as wastraditionat least up to kingSneferu), Menkaure might have ruled for 22 years.

In 2013, a fragment of the sphinx of Menkaure was discovered atTel Hazorat the entrance to the city palace.

Pyramid complex

Main article:Pyramid of Menkaure

Menkaure's pyramid at Giza was calledNetjer-er-Menkaure,meaning "Menkaure is Divine". This pyramid is the smallest of the three main pyramids at Giza. This pyramid measures 103.4 m (339 ft) at the base and 65.5 m (215 ft) in height.There are three subsidiary pyramids associated with Menkaure's pyramid.

These other pyramids are sometimes labeled G-IIIa (East subsidiary pyramid), G-IIIb (Middle subsidiary pyramid) and G-IIIc (West subsidiary pyramid). In the chapel associated with G-IIIa a statue of a queen was found. It is possible that these pyramids were meant for the queens of Khafre. It may be that Khamerernebti II was buried in one of the pyramids.

Valley temple

The Valley temple was a mainly brick built structure that was enlarged in the fifth or sixth Dynasty. From this temple come the famous statues of Menkaure with his queen and Menkaure with several deities. A partial list includes:

• Nometriad,Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomoreseated, and King andHare-nomegoddess standing, greywacke, in Boston Mus. 09.200.
• Nome triad, King,Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore andThebannome-god standing,greywacke.(Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40678.)
• Nome triad, King,Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Jackal-nome goddess standing,greywacke.(Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40679.)
• Nome triad, King,Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore andBat-fetish nome -goddess standing,greywacke.(Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 46499.)
• Nome triad, King,Hathor,and nome-god standing,greywacke.(Middle part in Boston Mus. 11.3147, head of King in Brussels, Mus. Roy. E. 3074.)
• Double-statue,’ King and wife (Khamerernebti II) standing, uninscribed,greywacke.(Now in Boston Mus. 11.1738.)
• King seated, life-size, fragmentary,alabaster.(Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40703.)
• King seated, lower part, inscribed seat,alabaster.(Now in Boston Mus. 09.202)

Mortuary Temple

At his mortuary temple more statues and statue fragments were found. An interesting find is a fragment of a wand from Queen Khamerernebty I. The piece is now in theBoston Museum of Fine Arts.Khamerernebti is given the title King's Mother on the fragment.

Sarcophagus

Burial chamber of Menkaure, today, and as discovered with now lost sarcophagus

In 1837, English army officerRichard William Howard Vyse,and engineerJohn Shae Perringbegan excavations within the pyramid of Menkaure. In the main burial chamber of the pyramid they found a large stone sarcophagus 8 feet 0 inches (244 cm) long, 3 feet 0 inches (91 cm) in width, and 2 feet 11 inches (89 cm) in height, made of basalt. The sarcophagus was not inscribed with hieroglyphs although it was decorated in the style of palace facade. Adjacent to the burial chamber were found wooden fragments of a coffin bearing the name of Menkaure and a partial skeleton wrapped in a coarse cloth. The sarcophagus was removed from the pyramid and was sent by ship to theBritish Museumin London, but the merchant shipBeatricecarrying it was lost after leaving port at Malta on October 13, 1838. The other materials were sent by a separate ship, and those materials now reside at the museum, with the remains of the wooden coffin case on display.

It is now thought that the coffin was a replacement made during the much laterSaite period,nearly two millennia after the king's original interment. Radio carbon dating of the bone fragments that were found, place them at an even later date, from theCopticperiod in the first centuriesAD.

Records from later periods

According toHerodotus(430 BC), Menkaure was the son ofKhufu(GreekCheops), and that he alleviated the suffering his father's reign had caused the inhabitants ofancient Egypt.Herodotus adds that he suffered much misfortune: his only daughter, whose corpse was interred in a woodenbull(which Herodotus claims survived to his lifetime), died before him. Subsequently theoracleatButopredicted he would only rule six more years.

The king deemed this unjust, and sent back to the oracle a message of reproach, blaming the god: why must he die so soon who was pious, whereas his father and his uncle had lived long, who shut up the temples, and regarded not the gods, and destroyed men? But a second utterance from the place of divination declared to him that his good deeds were the very cause of shortening his life; for he had done what was contrary to fate; Egypt should have been afflicted for an hundred and fifty years, whereof the two kings before him had been aware, but not Mycerinus. Hearing this, he knew that his doom was fixed. Therefore he caused many lamps to be made, and would light these at nightfall and drink and make merry; by day or night he never ceased from revelling, roaming to the marsh country and the groves and wherever he heard of the likeliest places of pleasure. Thus he planned, that by turning night into day he might make his six years into twelve and so prove the oracle false.

Trivia

• Menkaure was the subject of a poem by the nineteenth century English poetMatthew Arnold,entitled "Mycerinus".
• Menkaure, using the Greek version of his name, Mencheres, is a major character in theNight Huntressseries of books byJeaniene Frost,depicted as an extremely old and powerful vampire living in modern times. He is a protagonist of one book in the series.

Gallery of images

• 
  Colossal alabaster statue of Menkaura at theBoston Museum of Fine Arts
• 
  Greywacke statue of Menkaura and Queen Khamerernebty II at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
• 
  Menkaure's Pyramidin Giza.
• 
  Fragmentary statue triad of Menkaura flanked by the goddess Hathor (left) and a male nome god (right), Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
• 
  Fragmentary alabaster statue head of believed to depict either MenkaureorShepseskafat the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
• 
  Drawing of the anthropoid coffin fragment inscribed with the name of the king Menkaura made by excavator Richard Vyse and published in 1840.
• 
  Menkaura alongsideHathorand the nome goddessAnput
• 
  Basalt cylinder seal of pharaoh Menkaure, from Egypt. Neues Museum, Berlin
• 
  Greywacke Statue of Menkaure flanked by Hathor and Anput, Cairo Museum 2023

External links

• Menkaure and His Queenby Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe.
• View photos, videos, current status and other information on the pyramid of MenkaureatTalking Pyramids