During the Fourth Dynasty, major royal tombs were constructed just north of Saqqara at Giza – still close to the ancient capital, Memphis. Because of its three monumental pyramids and the Great Sphinx, and its convenient location on the western outskirts of Cairo, Giza has long been a prime destination for tourists (Figure 5.11).
The great pyramids
Three of the six kings of the Fourth Dynasty were buried here, Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure (ca. 2575–2500 BC). In addition to the great pyramids that mark their burials, Giza contains smaller pyramids for queens, temples devoted to the funerary cults, and a large number of
Figure 5.11 The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Menkaure (left) and Khafre (right), Giza
mastaba tombs, set out in rows, belonging to high officials and their families (Figure 5.12). The size of the pyramids and the proximity of the mastaba tombs indicate the great prestige and power of the pharaohs in this period. With their walls decorated with scenes of daily life, carved in low relief sculptures and painted bright colors, these tombs have given important information about Old Kingdom society. Also discovered at Giza are remains of the villages housing pyramid build-ers and those who later maintained the area and serviced the cult needs of the many shrines.
Since little is known of the history of these rulers, these grandiose funerary monuments have generated much speculation about the socio-economic conditions that promoted their construc-tion. The building methods themselves are still debated. It has been proposed, for example, that a step pyramid was erected first, with the steps later filled and the entire structure faced with good-quality stone. Such hypotheses are difficult to test, however, for no one is about to disas-semble these famous, well-preserved monuments to see how the inner blocks were laid.
Despite these difficulties, certain details of construction seem clear. After the rocky ground was leveled, a limestone platform was constructed, the base for the pyramid. When the pyra-mid was finished, it was enclosed by a low wall. The long sides were oriented to the cardinal points, with the main entrance on the north. The interior was made of local limestone, the visible exterior of high-quality limestone from Tura. Later pyramids might have cores of different materials, rubble or even mud brick.
Figure 5.12 Plan, the Necropolis, Giza
The largest pyramid at Giza, that of Khufu, originally measured ca. 230m × 230m × 146.6m, but due to some loss of the outer casing blocks it now measures 227m × 227m × 137m. The four sides rise at an angle of 51.5 degrees. It has been estimated that some 2.3 million blocks were used, at an average weight of ca. 2.5 tons each, with some weighing as much as 15 tons.
The construction probably continued throughout the entire twenty-three years of Khufu’s reign, with most of the work undertaken in the late summer and fall during the season of the Nile flood when farmers were free to work on the building project. Shipped to harbors adjacent to the pyramid site, the blocks were then dragged into place up earth ramps built around the ever-ris-ing buildever-ris-ing. Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian writever-ris-ing 2,000 years after the construction of these pyramids, stated that the work force consisted of 100,000 men. Modern specialists find this figure improbably high; 4,000 men at a time seems more credible, with additional workers performing supporting tasks, such as maintaining equipment and providing food and water.
The second pyramid, that of Khafre, Khufu’s son, is somewhat smaller, originally ca.
215m × 215m × 143.5m, but it stands on higher ground than Khufu’s pyramid and its sides rise at a slightly steeper angle. A good portion of the limestone casing survives near the top; this gives some idea of the original finish of the entire monument.
The third of the three main pyramids was erected for Khafre’s brother, Menkaure. It is con-siderably smaller than the other two, originally 108m × 108m × 66.5m. Casing, in granite, was provided only for the lowest sixteen courses.
The arrangement of chambers inside these pyramids is complex (Figure 5.13). Khufu’s pyra-mid has three principal chambers, thought to be the result of changing plans, not an attempt to confuse would-be thieves. The first chamber was cut into the bedrock, below the lowest course of the pyramid, and was reached by a descending passage. A second, unfinished chamber, erroneously called the “Queen’s Chamber,” lies in the lower part of the pyramid proper, and is reached from a corridor that ascends from the entrance on the north side of the pyramid. The
Figure 5.13 Cross sections, Pyramids of Djoser (at Saqqara), Khufu (at Giza), and Khafre (at Giza)
actual burial chamber is located higher up in the pyramid. It is larger (10.8m × 5.2m × 5.8m) and lined with red granite slabs. Access to this is gained by the Grand Gallery, a dramatic sloping cor-ridor 47m long and 8.5m high, with a corbelled ceiling. The horizontal passage between the end of the Grand Gallery and the burial chamber was blocked by three granite plugs, dropped into place like portcullises, guided by slots in the side walls. These efforts to protect the burial were in vain. All three pyramids were robbed long ago, probably in the First Intermediate Period. In Khufu’s burial chamber the only surviving remnant of what must have been a lavish collection of grave goods was the lidless outer sarcophagus of red Aswan granite.
Along the east and south sides of the Pyramid of Khufu and to the north and south of the Mortuary Temple of Khafre are several long, deep lenticular pits. Most have been found empty, but one, on the south side of Khufu’s pyramid, still contained in 1954 a cedar boat, 43m long, partly dismantled, with a second boat appearing in the 1980s – a monumentalization of the smaller boats discovered interred outside the funerary enclosure of Khasekhemwy at Abydos.
Such boats may have been used in the funeral procession, with continuing service in the king’s afterlife. This impressive discovery is now on display in a special museum near its find spot. The second boat is currently being prepared for display as well.
Temples at Giza: the Valley Temple of Khafre
Each royal pyramid was provided with two temples in which funerary rites were performed.
Gone, it is important to note, are the funerary enclosures of previous dynasties and architec-tural facilities for the performance of the sed-festival. The two temples both lie on the east side of the pyramid. Indeed, the linear east–west arrangement of these pyramid-temple complexes relates to the course of the sun and to the new prominence of the sun god, Re. The furthest east, on the edge of the zone of cultivation, is known as the Valley Temple. A causeway, or raised stone-paved road, perhaps an enclosed passage, linked the Valley Temple with the Mortuary Temple located at the east base of each pyramid. Final rites took place in this temple, as did periodic ceremonies thereafter, designed to maintain the king’s well-being in the afterlife.
The best preserved are the temples of Khafre, accompa-nied by a unique monument, the Great Sphinx. The Valley Temple of Khafre measures ca. 45m2, although the north wall projects out at a diagonal. It was built of large lime-stone blocks faced with massive ashlar blocks of red gran-ite from Aswan. Its monolithic pillars were also of grangran-ite.
Its walls, still standing 13m high, are battered, that is with a slightly sloping exterior face, a feature of this period. Inside the walls were undecorated, but elsewhere, such as in the mortuary temple at the base of Khufu’s pyramid, some slight evidence suggests that low reliefs originally deco-rated the limestone facing.
The king’s titles were carved in a band around each door-way, the only inscriptions in the building. The entrances led to high-ceilinged vestibules and then into a long antecham-ber. A deep pit in its floor contained a virtually complete statue of Khafre (Figure 5.14), found shattered but now
Figure 5.14 Khafre, seated statue, from the Valley Temple of Khafre, Giza. Egyptian Museum, Cairo
reassembled in the Cairo Museum, and portions of others. These statues formed a set of twenty-three, of diorite, schist, and alabaster, which stood in the main room of the temple, the T-shaped columned hall that lies to the west of the antechamber. Each statue perhaps symbolized one or, in three cases, two of the twenty-six parts of the king’s body.
The statue of Khafre resembles that of Djoser (Figure 5.10), but there are significant differ-ences. Khafre, a benign expression on his face, sits stiffly on a high-backed throne, but with both arms placed on his thighs, the right fist clenched, the left hand open, palm down. Like Djoser he wears the royal nemes headdress, now deco-rated with a uraeus or erect cobra, and the royal beard, but instead of the sed-festival cloak he wears a royal kilt with a precise pattern of folds.
This statue, by displaying additional emblems of the king’s power, shows more clearly than the statue of Djoser how the king, the land, and the gods were intertwined. Two lions, symbols of strength, support his seat.
On each side of the throne, enframed by the lion’s body, is the motif that represents the union of the two regions of ancient Egypt: the hieroglyphic sign for “union,” the knotting of the two plants that symbolize Lower and Upper Egypt, the papyrus and the lily. Lastly and most dramatically, a falcon sits on the top of the throne, perched behind the king’s head.
This representation of Horus, the sky god, spreads his wings to either side of the king’s head in a protective embrace – in addition, a symbol that the king is the earthly manifesta-tion of Horus.
A different vision of royalty is given by a statue found in the Valley Temple of Menkaure (Figure 5.15). Menkaure stands with his wife Khamerernebty in the striding pose character-istic of Egyptian art. Both are about the same size, somewhat under life-size (the height of the statue: 1.38m). The king clenches his fists, while the queen has her arm around her hus-band. This family portrait shows an idealized youthful, healthy couple, a vision that subse-quent Egyptians would often emulate in their funerary art. The statue, made of slate schist, was unfinished when placed in the temple, with only the heads and upper bodies completely polished. Traces of paint indicate that the entire statue was originally painted.
The exact purpose of the Valley Temple is not clear. There are several ceremonies connected with the preparation of a royal body for burial, known from texts, that possibly were carried out here. The body was “purified by washing,” a ceremony which assured regeneration. Second, the
Figure 5.15 Menkaure and Khamerernebty, statue from the Valley Temple of Menkaure, Giza
body was embalmed, either actually or symbolically (if the actual embalmment was done else-where). And third, the “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony was performed, to give life to statues and other images of the king, so they could serve as homes for the king’s spirit, his ka.
The Mortuary Temple of Khafre
According to traditional interpretation, after the rites in the Valley Temple were completed, the royal body was taken along the causeway, walled and covered to protect the purified body from contamination, to the Mortuary Temple, located at the east base of the pyramid. Final funeral rites were performed here. In addition, the temple offered access to the narrow terrace on which the pyramid stood, enclosed by a wall. But Dieter Arnold, supported by Mark Lehner, now questions this view on practical grounds: rooms, doorways, and corridors seem too small for the funeral procession to pass. Instead, the royal body would have been brought into the pyramid by a more direct route. Arnold then speculates about the function of mortuary temples. In addition to their ritual purpose, whatever that was, these buildings may also have served as a symbolic royal residence, because their layout corresponds, albeit in a very loose way, to that of certain later palaces and mansions.
The Mortuary Temple of Khafre is poorly preserved. It measures 110m × 45m. Like the Valley Temple, it was made of a limestone core faced with granite. Its ground plan displays for the first time the five elements that will be standard in royal mortuary temples of the rest of the Old Kingdom: 1) entrance hall; 2) colonnaded court; 3) statue chamber, typically with five niches for five statues; 4) magazines, or storerooms; and 5) the sanctuary, a tiny room at the rear.
The sanctuary contained a stele carved with a false door. Through this, the ka would emerge from the pyramid, and sample the offerings placed daily on the low altar in front of the false door.
The Great Sphinx
The colossal image of a sphinx, 73.2m long and 19.8m high, stands next to the Valley Temple of Khafre (Figure 5.11). It was carved out of the limestone bedrock during the Fourth Dynasty.
In later periods, perhaps in the Eighteenth Dynasty and during the Roman Empire, parts were shored up with masonry. In addition to these restorations, remains of chapels and stelai have emerged during explorations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For example, a small ruined temple of the Fourth Dynasty was discovered in front of the paws of the Sphinx.
The Great Sphinx is unique. Such statues do not normally form part of a pyramid complex.
The term “sphinx,” a Greek word, perhaps deriving from the Egyptian for “living image,” shesep ankh, denotes a composite creature with a lion’s body and a human head. Here, the head wears royal accoutrements: the nemes headdress with the uraeus on the forehead and a false beard (now gone). The face has been damaged, notably the nose, but may be a portrait of Khafre. It could also represent a guardian deity of this necropolis, since a lion was believed to stand watch at the gates of the underworld.
Sand accumulating around the Great Sphinx has had to be cleared periodically, in ancient as well as modern times. In his detailed account of Egypt, Herodotus did not mention the Sphinx;
perhaps in his day, the fifth century BC, it was completely buried in sand. The most interesting clearing took place in the Eighteenth Dynasty, a story recounted on a gray granite stele discov-ered in 1816–17 in front of the Sphinx. Thutmose IV, while still a prince, was resting in its shade during a hunting expedition. In a dream, the Sphinx promised him the throne if he would clear
the Sphinx of sand. Thutmose IV did so, and after he became king, he built a temple here and set up the commemorative stele mentioned above.