Menkaure or Menkaura (; 2550 BC - 2503 BC) was a

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

of the

Fourth Dynasty of Egypt The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to c. 2498 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with othe ...

during 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 ...

. He is well known under his

Hellenized Hellenization or Hellenification is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language, and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonisation often led to the Hellenisation of indigenous people in the Hellenistic period, many of the te ...

names Mykerinos ( by

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

), in turn Latinized as Mycerinus, and Menkheres ( by

Manetho Manetho (; ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος, ''fl''. 290–260 BCE) was an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who lived in the early third century BCE, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. Little is certain about his ...

). According to Manetho, he was the throne successor of king

Bikheris Bikheris () is the Hellenized name of an ancient Egyptian king, who may have ruled during the 4th Dynasty ( Old Kingdom period). Next to nothing is known about this ruler and some Egyptologists even believe him to be fictitious.Jürgen von Becke ...

, but according to

archaeological 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, ...

evidence, he was almost certainly the successor of

Khafre Khafre or Chephren (died 2532 BC) was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the fourth king of the Fourth Dynasty, during the earlier half of the Old Kingdom period (c. 2700–2200 BC). He was son of the king Khufu, and succeeded his broth ...

. Africanus (from Syncellus) reports as rulers of the fourth dynasty Sôris, Suphis I, Suphis II, Mencherês (=Menkaure), Ratoisês, Bicheris, Sebercherês, and

Thamphthis Thamphthis ( c. 2500 BC) is the hellenized name of an ancient Egyptian ruler (pharaoh) of the 4th Dynasty in the Old Kingdom, who may have ruled under the name Djedefptah or Djedefkaf for between two and nine years. His original Egyptian name i ...

in this order. Menkaure became famous for his tomb, the

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 Menkaure , Four ...

, at

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...

and his statue triads, which showed him alongside the goddess Hathor and various regional deities.

Family

Menkaure was the son of

and the grandson of

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 ...

. A flint knife found in the mortuary temple of Menkaure mentioned a king's mother

Khamerernebty I Khamerernebty I was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 4th dynasty. She was probably a wife of King Khafre and the mother of King Menkaure and Queen Khamerernebty II. It is possible that she was a daughter of Khufu, based on the fact that inscript ...

, suggesting that Khafre and this queen were the parents of Menkaure. Menkaure is thought to have had at least two wives.

Possible son with Khamerernebty II

Queen

Khamerernebty II Khamerernebty II was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 4th Dynasty. She was a daughter of Pharaoh Khafre and Queen Khamerernebty I. She married her brother Menkaure and she was the mother of Prince Khuenre. Family Khamerernebty II is said t ...

is 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.Grajetzki, Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Golden House Publications, London, 2005, p13-14 Tyldesley, Joyce. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2006. * Khuenre: Menkaure was not succeeded by Prince Khuenre, likely his eldest son, who predeceased Menkaure, but rather by

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 ...

, a younger son of this king. Queen

Rekhetre Rekhetre () was an ancient Egyptian queen from the late 4th Dynasty or early 5th Dynasty. She was a daughter of King Khafre. Her husband is never mentioned, but Rekhetre would have been the wife of one of Khafre's successors, possibly Menkaur ...

is known to have been a daughter of Khafre and as such the most likely identity of her husband is Menkaure.

Possible children with unknown spouse(s)

Its possible that Menkaure had other children, but no mothers have been identified. *

(died c. 2498 BC): The successor to Menkaure and likely his son. * Sekhemre: Known from a statue and possibly a son of Menkaure. * A daughter who died in early adulthood is mentioned by

. 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 Khentkaus I, also referred to as Khentkawes () was a royal woman who lived in ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehist ...

: possible daughter of Menkaure The royal court included several of Menkaure's half brothers. His brothers

Nebemakhet Nebemakhet () was a king's son and a vizier during the 4th Dynasty. Nebemakhet was the son of King Khafre and Queen Meresankh III. He is shown in his mother's tomb and in his own tomb at Giza.Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal ...

Duaenre Duaenre () was a Vizier (Ancient Egypt), vizier under Menkaure during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt. His titles include those of ''king's son of his body'' (''za-nesut-khetef, wiktionary:zꜣ-nswt#Egyptian, zꜣ-nswt-wiktionary:ẖt#Egyptian, ẖtwi ...

, Nikaure, and Iunmin served 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.Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings Volume III: Memphis, Part I Abu Rawash to Abusir. 2nd edition (revised and augmented by Dr Jaromir Malek, 1974). Retrieved from gizapyramids.org

Reign

The length of Menkaure's reign is uncertain. The ancient

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

credits him with a reign of 63 years, but this is surely an exaggeration. The

Turin King List The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BC), now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the m ...

is 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 reign was meant to be written, which is generally accepted. A contemporary workmen's graffito reports about the "year after the 11th

cattle count In ancient Egypt, the cattle count was one of the two main means of evaluating the amount of taxes to be levied, the other one being the height of the annual inundation. A very important economic event, the cattle count was controlled by high offic ...

". If the cattle count was held every second year (as was

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

at least up to king

Sneferu Sneferu or Soris (c. 2600 BC) was an ancient Egyptian monarch and the first pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, during the earlier half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). He introduced major innovations in the design and constructio ...

), Menkaure might have ruled for 22 years. In 2013, a fragment of the sphinx of Menkaure was discovered at

Tel Hazor Tel Hazor (), translated in LXX as Hasōr (), and in Arabic Tell Waqqas or Tell Qedah el-Gul (), is an archaeological Tell (archaeology), tell at the site of ancient Hazor, located in the Upper Galilee, north of the Sea of Galilee, in the northe ...

at the entrance to the city palace.

Pyramid complex

Menkaure's pyramid at Giza was called ''Netjer-er-Menkaure'', meaning "Menkaure is Divine". This pyramid is the smallest of the three main pyramids at Giza. This pyramid measures at the base and 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: *

Nome Nome may refer to: Country subdivision * Nome (Egypt), an administrative division within ancient Egypt * Nome (Greece), the administrative division immediately below the ''peripheries of Greece'' (, pl. ) Places United States * Nome, Alaska ...

triad,

Hathor Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god R ...

-Mistress-of-the- Sycomore seated, and King and Hare-nome goddess standing, greywacke, in Boston Mus. 09.200. * Nome triad, King,

-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Theban

nome Nome may refer to: Country subdivision * Nome (Egypt), an administrative division within ancient Egypt * Nome (Greece), the administrative division immediately below the ''peripheries of Greece'' (, pl. ) Places United States * Nome, Alaska ...

-god standing,

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and Sorting (sediment), poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size Lith ...

. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40678.) * Nome triad, King,

-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Jackal-nome goddess standing,

. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40679.) * Nome triad, King,

-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and

Bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

-fetish nome -goddess standing,

. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 46499.) * Nome triad, King,

, and nome-god standing,

. (Middle part in Boston Mus. 11.3147, head of King in Brussels, Mus. Roy. E. 3074.) * Double-statue,’ King and wife (

) standing, uninscribed,

. (Now in Boston Mus. 11.1738.) * King seated, life-size, fragmentary,

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft Rock (geology), rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word ''alabaster''. In archaeology, the term ''alab ...

. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40703.) * King seated, lower part, inscribed seat,

. (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 the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Khamerernebti is given the title King's Mother on the fragment.

Sarcophagus

In 1837, English army officer

Richard William Howard Vyse Major General Richard William Howard Howard Vyse (25 July 1784 – 8 June 1853) was a British soldier and Egyptologist. He was also Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley (from 1807 to 1812) and Honiton (from 1812 to 1818). Family life Richar ...

, and engineer

John Shae Perring John Shae Perring (24 January 1813, Boston, Lincolnshire – 16 January 1869, Manchester) was a British engineer, anthropologist and Egyptologist, most notable for his work excavating and documenting Egyptian pyramids. Career In 1837 Perring an ...

began excavations within the pyramid of Menkaure. In the main burial chamber of the pyramid they found a large stone sarcophagus long, in width, and 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 the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in London, but the merchant ship ''Beatrice'' carrying 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 later Saite 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 the

Copt Copts (; ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptian population, descended from the ancient Egyptians. Copts pre ...

ic period in the first centuries AD.

Records from later periods

According to

(430 BC), Menkaure was the son of

(Greek ''Cheops''), and he alleviated the suffering his father's reign had caused the inhabitants of

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

. Herodotus adds that he suffered much misfortune: his only daughter, whose corpse was interred in a wooden

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...

(which Herodotus claims survived to his lifetime), died before him. Subsequently the

oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

Buto Buto (, , ''Butu''), Bouto, Butus (, ''Boutos'')Herodotus ii. 59, 63, 155. or Butosus was a city that the Ancient Egyptians called Per-Wadjet. It was located 95 km east of Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Egypt. What in classical times the ...

predicted he would only rule six more years.

In popular culture

* Menkaure was the subject of a poem by the nineteenth century English poet

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...

, entitled "Mycerinus". * Menkaure, using the Greek version of his name, Mencheres, is a major character in the '' Night Huntress'' series of books by

Jeaniene Frost Jeaniene Frost (born June 13, 1974) is an American fantasy author, known for her '' Night Huntress'' series and the ''Night Huntress World'' novels. Foreign rights for her novels have sold to twenty different countries. Bibliography The ''Night ...

, 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

File:Seal Impression with Name of King Menkaure LACMA M.80.202.837.jpg, Seal Impression with Name of King Menkaure LACMA M.80.202.837 File:Menkaura-ColossalStatue MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png, Colossal alabaster statue of Menkaure at the

(possibly a usurped statue of

) File:MenkauraAndQueen MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png, Greywacke statue of Menkaure and Queen Khamerernebty II at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. File:Egypt.Giza.Menkaure.01.jpg, Menkaure's Pyramid in Giza. File:Menkaura-FragmentaryTriad MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png, Fragmentary statue triad of Menkaure flanked by the goddess Hathor (left) and a male nome god (right), Boston Museum of Fine Arts. File:Pharaoh Menhaure triad statue, Caire-Musée.jpg, Menkaure alongside

and the nome goddess

Anput Anput is a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. Her name is written in hieroglyphs as ''jnpwt'' (reconstructed in Middle Egyptian as /ʔan.ˈpa.wat/ or /jan.ˈpa.wat/). In English, her name also is rendered as Anupet, Input, Inpewt, and Yineput. ...

File:Menkaura-FragmentarySeatedStatue MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png, Fragmentary alabaster statue of Menkaure at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. File:Menkaura-FragmentaryStatueTorso MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png, Fragmentary alabaster statue of Menkaure at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. File:Menkaura-FragmentaryStatueHead MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png, Fragmentary alabaster statue head of believed to depict either Menkaure or

at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. File:Mykerinos CG 42.jpg, Statuette of Menkaure of uncertain provenance, now in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

File:Menkaura-AnthropoidCoffinFragment-Drawing1840.png, Drawing of the anthropoid coffin fragment inscribed with the name of the king Menkaure made by excavator Richard Vyse and published in 1840. File:Basalt cylinder seal of pharaoh Menkaure, from Egypt, Old Kindom, 4th Dynasty, 2539-2511 BCE. Neues Museum, Berlin.jpg, Basalt cylinder seal of pharaoh Menkaure, from Egypt. Neues Museum, Berlin File:Greywacke Statue of Menkaure, Cairo Museum.jpg, Greywacke Statue of Menkaure flanked by Hathor and Anput, Cairo Museum 2023

References

External links

''Menkaure and His Queen''
by Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe.
View photos, videos, current status and other information on the pyramid of Menkaure
a
''Talking Pyramids''
{{Authority control 26th-century BC pharaohs Pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths Khafre