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Pyramid of Menkaure at Gizeh
Menkaure is Divine

 

The length of the sides of the pyramid was 102 x 105 and its height 66 m, the angle of inclination of walls 51 °. The surface of its base is 1/4, and the volume 1/10 of the Khufu pyramid. Originally the pyramid was covered with pink granite at the bottom and limestone at the top. On the northern side, from the low situated entrance at a height of 4 m, a descending corridor with a length of 32 m leads to a chamber with a niche decoration, a granite chamber with three stone barriers-traps. After almost 13 m there is a vestibule chamber. In this chamber above the sidewalk there is the mouth of the second corridor serving during the construction works as a ventilation shaft and for transporting granite slabs, the extension of which is located between the vestibule and the burial chamber. From the vestibule, lined with limestone on the floor, to the right burial chamber with granite and granite vaulted walls leads down a 10-meter long walkway, in which another trap lurks. In front of the funerary chamber there are stairs, leading to a room with six niches, possibly serving as warehouses. Menkaure's sarcophagus decorated with the image of the palace facade, removed from the pyramid in 1837 by R.W.H. Vyse, sank along with a transport ship off the coast of Europe in the Bay of Biscay. The remains of a wooden coffin from the vestibule, most probably from the time of the Saitian renewal of the burial site, found themselves in London. The mummy bones and bandages found at that time probably come from early Christianity.
On the south side of the pyramid, there was a cult pyramid (with a granite sarcophagus) and two pyramids of queens, one of which contained a sarcophagus with a female burial. On the eastern side there is the Menkaure burial mound, finished already for Shepseskaf and renovated and rebuilt Pepi I. A lower temple and a ramp were also built by Shepseskaf.

 

 

sarcophagus (drawing) unfinished lower parts of a granite facing

 

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