Nefertiti: The Mysterious Beauty of Ancient Egypt (Part 1)

Nefertiti, The Beauty that had baffled the historians for ages

Whenever we talk about women of the ancient world, the first name that comes to our mind is inevitably “Nefertiti”. Certainly no other women of antiquity could be more famous that this Egyptian Queen who was claimed to possess unsurpassed beauty (of course, we mustn’t forget our Helen of Troy and Cleopatra!). Despite her undoubted universal fame, our knowledge of Nefertiti, on the contrary, is ironically scant. How much do we really know about her? Well, we do know she was the royal wife of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten. But as for her birth, her life at court and her death, we have but meagre details. Indeed, Nefertiti is a figure who was constantly bedeviled by that shadow of mystery that has vexed and perplexed Egyptologists. Her mummy was never found or identified! In a way, this mystery, far from lessening the people’s fascination for her, only serves to give her a more alluring, charming and mystical aura that forever immortalises her name.

An artwork believed to depict Akhenaten and Nefertiti
or Smenkhare and Merytaten

Nefertiti’s beginning was as obscure as her later life towards the end of her husband’s reign. Her parents were never truly identified. They may have been of noble or common birth, and may not have been Egyptians! Some suggested that she was a daughter of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, thereby making her Akhenaten’s sibling. However, given she was not referred to as the King’s Daughter, this is extremely unlikely. Another hypothesis is that she was a descendant of Ahmose-Nefertari, the first Queen of the 18^th Dynasty but not directly in line to the throne. Another theory is that she was the daughter of Ay, the Vizier who later became Pharaoh. This is because in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, AY referred to himself as the “Father of the God”, who was in turn referred to as Nefertiti’s sister. Whatever the truth may be, we will never know for certain.  

  

Her name has also posed a problem. Nefertiti means the “The Beautiful One is Here”, which may suggest foreign birth. Her other possible is "Nefernefruaten", suggesting that she acted as the co-regent of Akhenaten under this throne name, though this again was never proven.

Nefertiti and Akhenaten

Nefertiti and Akhenaten had six daughters: Merytaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten (wife of Tutankhamen), Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. It was Akhenaten’s lesser Queen, Kiya, who provided her husband with a male heir, Tutankhamen. Evidence suggested that Nefertiti was greatly loved and favoured by Akhenaten. She was accorded great political and religious influence which rivaled that of Akhenaten himself. Akhenaten was regularly depicted showing affection for Nefertiti and his daughters in artwork from the Amarna period, something which was never before experimented in Egyptian art. In one inscription, Akhenaten was found to describe his beloved Queen as:

"the Mistress of Happiness, Endowed with Favors, at hearing whose voice the King rejoices, the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, May she live for Ever and Always".

Nefertiti and one of her daughters

Given her influential position within the Kingdom, she was generally credited with authoring the religious revolution carried out by her husband. While perhaps a mere outlandish exaggeration, there was no doubt she was vital to this new religious scheme as the feminine aspect of Aten. Together with her husband, the couple acted as a bridge connection their Kingdom with the new Sun God through which Aten’s power could be fully channeled. She was regularly portrayed taking part in daily worship and offering to Aten alongside Akhenaten, and replaced Isis, Nephthys, Selket (Serqet) and Neith on the four corners of Akhenaten's sarcophagus. This again demonstrated the magnitude and extent of her power and influence as a divine being on Earth. Interestingly, Nefertiti was also depicted smiting Egypt’s enemies in battle, a role traditionally reserved for the Pharaoh only. This is a piece of evidence that shows she may have acted as co-regent with Akhenaten.

Despite her enormous influence, Nefertiti mysteriously vanished from history around the twelfth year of her husband’s reign. Whatever happened next would have generations of historians baffled and caused controversy among them for a few decades.

To be continued….

The Mystery of Amarna Art

Akhenaten and his family - note the bizarre quality of their figure
which is almost  alien-like

The revolution carried out by Akhenaten was not confined to the area of religion alone. Indeed, noticeable change also occurred to the Egyptian art, which may serve to reflect Akhenaten’s religious disposition. The new artistic style adopted by the heretic Pharaoh nevertheless appeared somewhat bizarre and…to put it bluntly…otherworldly.

Ancient Egyptian art was generally formal and often depicted its subject matters in an idealised way with many layers of meaning. It was in other words very traditional, with its closely-observed guidelines and formality when people are portrayed. Nonetheless, despite the idealisation, individuals are not devoid of their facial characteristics altogether. One such example is Ramesses II’s recognisable nose.

However, towards the end of Amenhotep III’s reign and throughout the reign of Akhenaten, a new flowing artistic style developed. While often described as “naturalistic”, it is also extremely stylised in its depiction of human figures. Yet again in a clean break with the past traditions, Akhenaten had himself portrayed with a bizarre elongated skull, wide hips, tall and thin legs, a pendulous breast and a round belly. One may question how such peculiar portrayal does any justice to the dignity of a Pharaoh, who was himself an embodiment of god. Supposed one says that such strange portrayal may reflect Akhenaten’s often-cited deformity, he is not the only person portrayed in such a manner. Nefertiti, his Queen, and his daughters were likewise portrayed with elongated skull. Ahkenaten’s Chief Sculptor Bek was also depicted with pendulous breasts and a noticeable stomach. The Chief Sculptor has told us on a stele that he was instructed by the Pharaoh himself to represent what he saw, which indeed suggested that Akhenaten did possess his rather bizarre body figure.    

Such portrayal of the Pharaoh with a bizarre figure is not surprising given we knew about Akhenaten’s deformity. However, why was Akhenaten’s family, especially his Queen the beautiful Nefertiti, portrayed also in a similar manner? As far as we know, she never had any deformity. All we know is that during the Armarna period, the Pharaoh and his family were depicted according to slightly different artistic conventions as follows:

·     At the beginning of his reign – the Pharaoh was depicted with a standard body shape. This may be because he did not yet have a chance to develop his own artistic form, or the disease had not yet begun to afflict the Pharaoh.

·     Later in his reign – Under Bek, the Pharaoh began to be depicted with feminine curves, heavy thighs and belly, half –closed eyes, full lips and long face and neck.

·       At the end of his reign – Under Thutmose (who took over Bek as the Chief Sculptor), the Pharaoh was depicted with a more normal shape, but with an elongated skull still. It is Thuthmose who created the more beautiful artworks depicting the royal family, including the famous burst of Nefertiti

It remains a mystery to this day whether the idiosyncratic art from was stylistic or realistic, and if stylistic, what was its purpose.  It may be that the art was developed as a reverence for the natural world created and governed by the all-powerful sun Aten.

Aten: The Visible Sun (Beloved of Akhenaten)

Akhenaten’s abandonment of the old God Amun, who had been worshipped as the Supreme Deity for successive generations of Pharaohs before him, may have been motivated by a major pragmatic reason. Aten is the visible sun, Amun is mysterious and enigmatic. Whereas the cult of Amun was maintained by rites performed by priests often in great secrecy inside the dark enclosures of the temples inaccessible by the public, the temple of Aten in Akhenaten’s new capital Akhetaten lay exposed to the sun and the full power of the Sun God himself.

But was Aten the new god invented by Akhenaten as a new target of his idolatry? Did it represent a complete break away from the tradition of old? No, Aten was actually an obscure aspect of the Sun God worshipped as early as the Old Kingdom. It was not at all a mere invention and in fact assisted Akhenaten in his attempt to reconnect with the remnant of Egypt’s ancient religion dating back possibly to the time of Narmer himself.       

Temple of Aten at Akhetaten

The word “Aten” was associated with the traditional name for the sun-disc, hence the name of the God Aten. Aten's origins are unclear and he may have been a provincial Sun God worshipped in small villages near Heliopolis. In the coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom, the word “Aten” represents the sun disc, and in the famous Middle-Kingdom Story of Sinuhe, Amenemhat I is described as soaring into the sky to be united with Aten the Creator. Indeed, Aten has been called the creator of man and the nurturing spirit of the world. In the Book of the Dead, Aten is called on by the deceased, "Hail, Aten, thou lord of beams of light, when thou shinest, all faces live." During the New Kingdom, Aten was considered to constitute an aspect of the composite deity Ra-Amun-Horus, with Ra representing the daytime sun, Amun the sun in the underworld, and Horus the sunrise…

Akhenaten in the form of a Sphinx worshipping Aten

And then Akhenaten came along and swept away all the gods, and proclaimed Aten the Visible Sun to be the sole deity. The sun worship was taken a stage further and, according to some theories put forward, may have been based on the scientific observation that the sun’s energy is the ultimate source of all life. Akhenaten’s new religion was initially best described as a henotheistic religion, one being devoted to a single god while acknowledging the existence of other gods. However, it gradually developed into a proto-monotheistic system when the Pharaoh forbade the use of idols with the exception of a rayed solar disc. He made it clear that the image of Aten was the only representation of the God since the God transcended creation and thus should remain enigmatic and unrepresentable.  For this, Akhenaten was usually proclaimed the first monotheist.

Akhenaten’s deep veneration for the Visible Sun was demonstrated from a number of hymns to Aten composed during his reign, some even by himself. They describe the marvels of nature and proclaim the sun the absolute and universal lords of all things.

Despite being worshipped in the sunlight, the public was not permitted participation in the sacred rites to the Visible Sun. Only Akhenaten and his family could communicate with the God, as recorded in his Hymn to Aten where the Pharoah states “there is none who knows thee save thy son Akhenaten. Excluded from the worship, the people were unwilling to take up the new religion, and instead continued to worship the traditional gods in the private of their homes. That this is where Akhenaten has totally failed to instill in his people love in the new religion he painstakingly advocated and developed; his failure to advocate public participation.   

Akhenaten: The Heretic Pharaoh

Akhenaten

Akhenaten, father of the famous Tutankhamen, husband of the beautiful Nefertiti, and son of the magnificent Amenhotep III of the 18^th dynasty, was a Pharaoh like no others. Born during the apex of Egyptian Golden Age as Amenhotep IV, Akhenaten was never expected to take the throne.  He had an elder brother who was his father’s favourite. With his brother’s untimely death, the then malformed “Amenhotep IV” could finally make a bid to change the Egyptian world.

The Aten

Before the time of Amenhotel IV, the Egyptians worshipped the Sun God Amun as the supreme deity whose main temple was at Karnak, as well as a myriad of traditional gods and goddesses. Due to the supreme position of their god, the priests of Amun at Karnak posed a very powerful group exercising enormous influence over the society and in the royal court itself. However, little did they know that all these would utterly be changed with the ascension of Amenhotep IV to the throne. Indeed, about five years into his reign, the Pharaoh and his queen, Nefertiti, began to turn their interest toward their new kind of Sun God, Aten, which represented the visible sun. To demonstrate their piety and strong conviction in his new Sun God, Amenhotep IV changed his own name to Akhenaten (Beneficial to the Aten). Within the Karnak temple complex, a new temple was added. This new temple, in contrast to Amun’s dark and mystical chamber, lay exposed to the sun. Yet, all this was still not enough for Akhenaten, who went further as to declare that his god Aten was the only true god. The first monotheism in history was thus born. To the discontentment and protest from the priests of Amun, Akhenaten decided that his true god could not exist alongside other “false gods”, and proceeded to have their names erased on a wide scale and divert funding away from the traditional temples, although his religious policy remained largely tolerant.   

Akhenaten and his family
worshiping the Aten

Akhenaten’s revolutionary scheme which altered the landscape of Egyptian religion and social fabric earned him the name “the Heretic Pharaoh”. In a bid to further entrench his religious scheme, Akhenaten moved his entire court to a desolate location in the middle of Egypt, near the modern city of Tel Amarna, where no towns or temples to other deities existed to interfere with Akhenaten’s building programme. There the Pharaoh built the new capital city from scratch, Akhetaten (the Horizon of Aten), complete with government buildings, temples and palace.

Temple of Aten at Akhetaten

Why did Akhenaten carry out such a revolutionary reform? After all, the traditional religion has existed for more than 2,000 years since the Old Kingdom. Did Akhenaten like breaking away from the past and leaving his footprints for posterity? Certainly his reform did not fare well against the overwhelming wave of conservatism. Although Aten was exclusively worshipped in Akhetaten, Egyptians elsewhere continued to worship the traditional deities. Most were forced underground after Akhenaten obliterated the names of their deities and closed their temples. Priests to the traditional gods were unhappy when they suddenly found themselves unemployed. Armies were idle as Egypt’s vassal states rebelled while the Heretic Pharaoh preached his message of love and peace. The message could not have been clearer. Akhetaten’s reform was doomed to failure, and after Akhenaten’s death in the seventeenth year of his reign, his religious reform died with him.        

Hatshepsut: The Story of a Female Pharaoh (Part 2)

Hatshepsut Sphinx from Deir el-Bahri

A stunning feat of Hatshepsut is no doubt her ability to convince the people of Egypt to accept her rule. After all, she is a woman, albeit one of pure royal blood. Even more surprising is the fact that her stepson and nephew, Tuthmosis III seemed to like this co-ruling arrangement. Busy as he always was with all the expeditions to the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia that he was known as the “Napoleon of Egypt”. A great expansionist ruler, he is consistently regarded as one of the greatest of Egypt's warrior pharaohs who made Egypt an international superpower whose empire stretched from southern Syria through to Canaan and Nubia. Indeed, when not engaged in fighting he was always busy with his military training.

Hatshepsut's Obelisk at Karnak

And thus, Tuthmosis III was more than happy to let Hatshepsut take over in all the administrative affairs of Egypt and to defer to her in almost all matters of a domestic nature. When Tuthmosis III was on a campaign, Hatshepsut would be the undisputed ruler at home. In managing all the country’s administrative affairs, Hatshepsut was assisted by Senmut, her chief architect and official. In fact, it was theorised that Senmut was Hatshepsut's lover. Indeed, throughout his life, Senmut was never married, which was not the norm for an ordinary ancient Egyptian man.  

One of Hatshepsut’s chief architectural projects was the construction of a pair of obelisks at the entrance to the temple of Karnak. The obelisks’ thirty-metre-high tips were covered in gold and were the tallest in the world at the time. The obelisks were carved from pink granite from the distant quarries at Aswan, but exactly how they were transported hundreds of miles and then erected remains a mystery. The most likely mode of transport was most likely by boat up the Nile River. Hatshepsut also built Karnak’s Chapelle Rouge (“Red Chapel”) intended as a barque shrine whose red quartzite wall scenes depict the rites of kingship and feature her centre stage, accompanied by Tuthmosis II and Neferura, conducting her duties as God’s Wife before the statues of Amen, Mut and their fellow gods. The overseer of the project was none other than Senmut himself.    

Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple at Deir el-Bahri

Like many Pharaohs before her, the masterpiece of her Hatshepsut’s building projects was a mortuary temple built in a complex at Deir el-Bahri. It was designed by Senmut at a site on the West Bank of the Nile River opposite the city of Luxor near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. The focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning "the Holy of Holies". It is a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony which sits atop a series of terraces reached by long ramps that once were graced with gardens. The complex is considered one of the greatest monuments of the ancient world, whose design is thought to be derived from the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II built nearly 500 years earlier at Deir-el-Bahri next to her mortuary temple. Unfortunately, most of the statue ornaments once standing in the complex are now missing - the statues of Osiris in front of the pillars of the upper colonnade, the sphinx avenues in front of the court, and the standing, sitting, and kneeling figures of Hatshepsut; these were destroyed in a posthumous condemnation of the pharaoh.

The sexual graffiti

It is at this mortuary temple complex that another clue as to the relationship between Hatshepsut and Senmut was discovered. Behind one of the main doors in Djeser-Djeseru the name and image of Senmut were found. There was also a piece of graffiti in an unfinished tomb used as a rest house by the workers of Djeser-Djeseru depicting a male and a hermaphrodite in pharaonic regalia engaging in an explicit sexual act. The hermaphrodite figure was widely believed to represent none other than Hatshepsut. Senmut also had a chapel and a tomb constructed for him near Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. They were both heavily vandalized during the reign of Thutmose III. Neither tomb was complete nor was it known where Senmut was buried. Nonetheless, the presence of the tomb near Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple indicates that both wanted to remain close to one another even in the afterlife. 

Hatshepsut's Statues at Deir el-Bahri

After Hatshepsut’s death, Tuthmosis III became sole Pharoah. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the end of his reign when suddenly an attempt was made to remove Hatshepsut from certain historical and pharaonic records.  Her cartouches and images were hacked off some stone walls, leaving very obvious gaps in the artwork.  At the Deir el-Bahari temple, Hatshepsut's statues were torn down, smashed or disfigured before being buried in a pit. At Karnak, there even was an attempt to wall up her obelisks. While it is clear that much of this eradication occurred only during the end of Tuthmosis III's reign, the reason was not at all obvious. However, it was commonly believed that such obliteration of Hatshepsut’s memory was not carried out purely out of sheer spite or malice. Surely if the determined and strong Tuthmosis III wanted to avenge himself on his stepmother for taking over the affairs of Egypt, he would not have waited until her death and another two decades to seize the opportunity or stage a coup (he was the head of the army after all!). On the contrary, it was believed to be necessary to maintain the natural balance of order where only male were expected to rule, or simply for Tuthmosis III’ self-promotion.  In any case, the eradication was only sporadic and no evidence of Tuthmosis III’s intention to carry out a full-scale obliteration was ever found.

Tomb of Senmut

Hatshepsut’s legacy was by no means ordinary. In comparison with other female pharaohs, Hatshepsut's reign was much longer, more prosperous, and saw a long period of peace. She reestablished lost trade routes and brought great wealth to Egypt, which enabled magnificent building projects to be completed and in effect significantly raised the standard of Egyptian architecture that would be surpassed by no other civilisations for another thousand years. 

Hatshepsut: The Story of a Female Pharaoh (Part 1)

Hatshepsut

Let’s fast forward 1000 years to the New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty to meet with our new extraordinary and fascinating Pharaoh, Hatshepsut. Why is he…sorry she so fascinating? Precisely because now after a long period of male rule, a “she” now appears in the historical record not as just “anybody” but as a Pharaoh!

Hatshepsut is the daughter of the Pharaoh Tuthmosis I and sister to Pharaoh Tuthmosis II.  Unlike Tuthmosis II who was born to a minor wife Mutnofret, she was the daughter of the principle wife Ahmose, whose title “God’s Wife” she inherited. Following tradition, Tuthmosis II and Hatshepsut married and had a daughter, Neferura, although Tuthmosis II also fathered a son, Tuthmosis III, by a minor wife, Iset. After a brief reign, the frail Tuthmosis II died. His son Tuthmosis III was still an infant, so what Hatshepsut was supposed to do? She became regent…no even better…she went one step further and had herself established as Pharaoh two years into her regency!

Tuthmosis III

So began the reign of a wicked and ambitious stepmother? There are a number of conflicting sources. Suffice to say that all the conventions of the court were all warped and distorted to suit the rule of a woman. She would proceed to appropriate all of the paraphernalia of a Pharaoh. That one insignia of a Pharaoh is a beard posed no problem at all to Hatshepsut, who had no qualm dressing up as a man, flaunting a royal titulary and adopting her ultimate public guise. She is portrayed in statues and wall carving with a delicate oval face with an incongruously false royal goatee. It is clear that henceforth she was to be shown as a male king, but nonetheless be consistently referred to by feminine pronouns, her male garb not being intended to fool the citizens into believing she was actually male (her gender would have been obvious in any event from her name!).

So what gave Hatshepsut the courage to establish herself as Pharaoh? After all she was not the king's mother, only his stepmother. Nonetheless, she was the daughter, sister and wife of a king and a God’s Wife like her grandmother Ahmose-Nefertari. This no doubt would have given her quite an edge. Holding full royal titles, Hatshepsut was “King of Upper and Lower Egypt”, “Maatkare”, “Daughter of Ra”, “Khnemet-Amen”, “the Horus”, “Weseretkau”, “She of the Two Ladies”, “Wadjrenput”, “the Golden Horus”, “Netjeretkhau”. Once crowned, she remained Pharaoh even when Tuthmosis III came of age and they became co-rulers.   

Neferura on Senmut's lap

During co-regency, while Tuthmosis III led two campaigns through Palestine and became an accomplished warrior, Hatshepsut too sent at least military expedition into Syria-Palestine and south to Nubia. Contrary to the claim that her reign was barren of any military achievement, there were in fact at least four campaigns where enemies were slaughtered and she became known as “She who will be a Conqueror, flaming against her enemies”.  

As Pharaoh, Hatshepsut handed the hereditary position of God’s Wife priestess to her daughter Neferura, who was educated and raised by Senmut. He would become Neferura’s chief steward who accompanied her to the Hathor temple of Sinai, where Hatshepsut sent expeditions. Hatshepsut also regularly traded with Byblos, exchanging their cedars for papyrus, while the alliance with Crete ensured a steady flow of Minoan goods into the Nile Valley. The painting of long-haired Cretans in their colourful kilts bringing Minoan perfume vessels decorated with painting of sea shells, seaweed and octopuses was even portrayed in Senmut’s tomb at his hometown Armant. Unfortunately, the fate of this prosperous neighbour of Egypt was unexpectedly cut short following a great volcanic eruption on Thera. The resulting tsunami wreaked havoc on Crete’s harbours and around the eastern Mediterranean coastline of Syria, Palestine and Egypt. This was confirmed by the analysis of pumice gathered in the Delta in the 18^th Dynasty levels which revealed that it came from Thera. The cloud of black ash from the eruption covered so much of the ancient world that the Egyptian texts claim that “for nine days none could see the face of their fellow”.

The Land of Punt

Another destination for Hatshepsut’s expeditions was Punt, “God’s Land”, located south down the Red Sea (roughly modern Somalia). It was here that Hatshepsut traded every decent thing from her court in exchange for myrrh, both its resin and the resin-producing shrubs. Allegedly, at Amen’s command she ordered the shrubs to be placed in pots and transported on the Egyptian ships. Not merely as a form of ritual protection, myrrh’s protection qualities were real as it could destroy bacteria and be used as medication in medical papyri of the time.

Read on in our next blog to discover more of Hatshepsut’s achievement as a Pharaoh….   

Ancient Egypt: A View of the Fourth Dynasty from a Greek Perspective

A lot of our knowledge on ancient Egypt came from the work of Herodotus, a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484–c. 425 BC). Renowned as the “Father of History”, he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation by collecting his materials systematically and critically and arranging them into a historiographic narrative. In Book Two of The Histories, his masterpiece work, he related the stories of Khufu (“Cheops”) and Khafra (“Chephren”) and Menkaura (“Mycerinus”). These accounts are allegedly told to him by Egyptian priests during his visit to the pyramids in the mid-fifth century BC. Surprisingly, Herodotus described both Cheops and Chephren as tyrants, while Mycerinus was portrayed as a good king.

Account of Khufu’s Reign

Khugfu was portrayed as a Pharaoh who brought Egypt into all sorts of misery. Not only did he close all the temples thereby excluding his subjects from practicing their religion, he also compelled the, to labour as his slaves for his own end (obviously to build his lavish tomb). Details were given of how slaves were forced to bring blocks of stone from the quarries in the Arabian hills to the Nile, where they were further ferried across by others. Herodotus described how the work went in three-monthly shifts, 100,000 men working in each shift. After 10 years, the track along which the blocks were hauled was finally completed. The building of the pyramid itself took 20 years, and, according to Herodotus’ account, it is 5 furlongs (1 km) in length, 60 feet wide and 48 feet high. The pyramid is square at the base, its height equal to the length of each side, and is of polished stone blocks. Interestingly, Herodotus also told us the method the Egyptians employed to construct the pyramid i.e. to build it in steps or as tiers or terraces. When the base was complete, the blocks for the first tier above it were lifted from the ground by contrivances made of short timbers. In this first tier there was another, which raised the blocks on a stage higher, then yet another which raised them higher still. He also recounted how the interpreter helped him decipher the Egyptian inscription so as to ascertain the amount spent on food for the labourers.

“And I remember distinctly that the interpreter who read me the inscription said that the sum was 1,600 talents of silver…”

The account’s climax came when Herodotus alleged that at the end of his money, Cheops sent his daughter to a bawdy house to earn some money! Ironically the sum earned from such shameful transactions was then expended in the construction of the middle pyramid of the three standing in front of the great pyramid. Now whether this story is to be believed is extremely doubtful indeed!

Account of Khafra’s Reign

Cheops ruled for 50 years (according to Herodotus) and was succeeded on his death by his son Khafra (Herodotus said Khafra was Khufu’s brother!). Like Khufu, Khafra was oppressive. His pyramid is of smaller size (40 feet lower than Khufu’s). Herodotus proudly stated that he measured both pyramids himself. Khafra ruled for 56 years. This, said Herodotus, combined with his father’s reign made up a total of 106 years during which temples were never opened for worship and the country reduced to the greatest possible misery. Surely there must be an element of exaggeration in Herodotus’ account as it was usually agreed that Khufu and Khafra’s reigns were among the most prosperous and peaceful of those of the Old Kingdom. 

Account of Menkaura’s Reign

The next king of Egypt to rule after Chephren was Mycerinus, the son of Cheops. Mycerinus, reversing his father’s policy of which he did not approve, reopened all the temples and allowed his subjects, who had been brought into such abject slavery, to resume the practice of their religion and their normal work. Herodotus further commended the king for his reputation for justice in the decision of legal causes, and it was said how Mycerinus used to compensate out of his own property any man who was dissatisfied with the results of his suit. On his only daughter’s death, in his grief he built her a wooden cow, hollow inside and plated on the outside with gold, to receive her body. Herodotus then described how the cow was not buried, but could still be seen by him in Sais, with offering and incense offered before it every day. Another version of the story is that Mycerinus conceived a lust for his daughter and violated her, driving her to hang herself. However, this version seems improbable.

After his daughter’s death, a second calamity fell on Mycerinus. He received an oracle from Buto to the effect he was destined to live for only six more years and to die within the seventh. Mycerinus in retaliation sent an angry message reproaching the god with the injustice of allowing a man so pious as himself to die so soon, whereas the last two kings who had closed the temples, forgotten the gods and afflicted their fellow men, lived to a ripe old age. Convinced his doom was drawing near, he had innumerable lamps made, by the light of which he set himself every evening to drink and be merry, and never ceased by day or ight from the pursuit of pleasure, travelling from place to place amongst the pools and woodlands. His object in this was by turning night into day to extend the six remaining years of his life into twelve, and so convict the oracle of falsehood.

Despite his claim of having visited Egypt, the accuracy of Herodotus’ account remains controversial as clearly it was evident he was working from inadequate sources. Many even accused his account defective and mostly untrue. Indeed, this appears to be the case looking at the above extracts and the exaggeration contained therein on the tyranny of Khufu and Khafra.

Ancient Egypt: The Age of the Pyramids (Part 3)

Khafra

The Great Pyramid was only the first of the three impressive structures erected on the plateau of Giza, which gave the Old Kingdom the title “Pyramid Age”. The Fourth Dynasty’s passion for pyramid-building continued to be passed on to Khufu’s descendants. Khufu’s son, Khafra (or Chepren in Greek) attempted to outdo his father and took up a challenge at Giza beside Khufu’s Great Pyramid. The pyramid of Khafra, being built on higher ground, managed to rise even higher than its neighbour, although it was actually second in size. Covering the top is the gleaming casing of white limestone transported by boats from quarries across the Nile. This casing was laid over interior limestone blocks which were cut from the surrounding Giza site.  

Pyramid of Khafra

It was conjectured that in the course of freeing these interior blocks, quarrymen struck a steam of harder rock they avoided, leaving behind a hill. Khafra subsequently had this hill carved out in the shape of a recumbent lion bearing his own face – our famous Sphinx. The Greeks misunderstood this earliest colossal royal statue of Egypt for a woman (perhaps taking its headdress for long hair). During the New Kingdom, the Sphinx was regarded as a manifestation of the sun god. Between its paws is the famous Dream Stela, an inscribed tablet that records the promise to Tuthmosis IV that the sun god would ensure his accession to the throne should he clear away the sand that had drifted around the Sphinx and carry any necessary repairs.

The Sphinx possibly bearing Khafra's face

Khafra’s son, Menkaura (or Mycerinus in Greek) erected the last pyramid of Giza. Despite being half in size of its neighbours at 218 feet in height, it is distinguished by a notable casing of hard red granite transported from Aswan 500 miles to the south. The casing only covers the bottom quarter of the pyramid as Menkaura died unexpectedly after a reign of 28 years, leaving his pyramid incomplete. The reason for the pyramid’s smaller size is unclear. Perhaps the building spree by his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had put too great a pressure on Egypt’s resources, or lack of suitable location on the plateau.  

Pyramid of Menkaure

With this myriad of pyramids, the Giza plateau became virtually a city of the dead, laid out in orderly streets lined with several other smaller pyramids of princesses and queens, as well as hundreds of tombs for favoured nonroyal courtiers or royal sons.    

Menkaura and his Queen

How did ancient Egyptians construct these massive monuments that would have required intensive act of labour? Were it not for the two months every year when the Nile's water covered Egypt's farmland, leaving the entire workforce idle, none of these monuments would have been possible. During such times, a Pharaoh would have offered food for work and the promise of a good afterlife where he would later go to rule. In these two months, workmen gathered by ten of thousands from all over the Kingdom to help their Pharaoh complete his eternal resting place that would survive for 4,600 years.