Menkaure


Menkaure or Menkaura was a king of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. He is well known under his Hellenized names Mykerinos, in turn Latinized as Mycerinus, and Menkheres. According to Manetho, he was the throne successor of king Bikheris, but according to archaeological evidence, he was almost certainly the successor of Khafre. Africanus reports as rulers of the fourth dynasty Sôris, Suphis I, Suphis II, Mencherês, Ratoisês, Bicheris, Sebercherês, and Thamphthis in this order. Menkaure became famous for his tomb, the Pyramid of Menkaure, at Giza and his statue triads, which showed him alongside the goddess Hathor and various regional deities.

Family

Menkaure was the son of Khafre and the grandson of Khufu. A flint knife found in the mortuary temple of Menkaure mentioned a king's mother Khamerernebty I, 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 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.
  • Khuenre: Menkaure was not succeeded by Prince Khuenre, likely his eldest son, who predeceased Menkaure, but rather by Shepseskaf, a younger son of this king.
Queen Rekhetre 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.
  • Shepseskaf : 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 Herodotus. 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 daughter of Menkaure
The royal court included several of Menkaure's half brothers. His brothers Nebemakhet, Duaenre, 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.

Reign

Image:Menkaura.jpg|thumb|right|Menkaura flanked by the goddess Hathor and the personification of the nome of Seshesh. Graywacke statue in Cairo Museum.
The length of Menkaure's reign is uncertain. The ancient historian Manetho credits him with a reign of 63 years, but this is surely an exaggeration. The Turin King List 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". If the cattle count was held every second year, Menkaure might have ruled for 22 years.
In 2013, a fragment of the sphinx of Menkaure was discovered at Tel Hazor 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, G-IIIb and G-IIIc. 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:

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

Sarcophagus

In 1837, English army officer Richard William Howard Vyse, and engineer John Shae Perring 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 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. Radiocarbon dating of the bone fragments that were found, place them at an even later date, from the Coptic period in the first centuries AD.

Records from later periods

According to Herodotus, Menkaure was the son of Khufu, and he alleviated the suffering his father's reign had caused the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Herodotus adds that he suffered much misfortune: his only daughter, whose corpse was interred in a wooden bull, died before him. Subsequently the oracle at Buto predicted he would only rule six more years.

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