Pyramid of Menkaure

Listen for a moment. Out here, at the southern end of the Giza plateau, the noise of the city drops away. You hear wind moving over sand, the creak of a camel saddle, a guide calling in the distance. Now look at the base of the pyramid in front of you. Those lowest blocks are not the pale limestone you saw at the other two pyramids. They are dark red granite, heavy and rough, and they carry a warmth in the afternoon sun.

This is the Pyramid of Menkaure, the third and smallest of the three great pyramids of Giza. The Greeks knew this king as Mycerinus. He ruled during Egypt's Fourth Dynasty, the age of the great pyramid builders, more than four and a half thousand years ago. Most historians believe he was the son of Khafre, whose pyramid rises just to the north. His grandfather was probably Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid.

So why is this one so much smaller? Its original height was around sixty-five metres, less than half the height of the Great Pyramid. In volume, it holds only about a tenth of the stone. Some scholars link this to a changing economy or a shift in royal priorities. Others simply note that Menkaure had less space on the plateau. Nobody knows for certain. But smaller does not mean simpler — and that is the first surprise of this place.

Look again at that granite. It was quarried at Aswan, far to the south, and carried down the Nile by boat. Granite is much harder than limestone, and much harder to shape. The builders planned to wrap the lower part of this pyramid in a granite casing. It was a luxury the other two pyramids did not use in the same way. Menkaure's tomb was small, but it was dressed in expensive stone.

Here is a detail many visitors walk straight past. On many of those granite blocks, the outer face is still rough and bulging. The builders usually set casing stones in place first, then cut them smooth on site. Here, that final smoothing was never finished. Near the entrance, you can see sections where the surface was dressed flat. Elsewhere, the stone still carries its raw, lumpy surface. It is a frozen moment of construction, left open for thousands of years.

Why was it left unfinished? The most likely answer is that Menkaure died before the work was complete. His successor, Shepseskaf, finished parts of the funerary complex quickly and more cheaply. Archaeologists found that the temples beside the pyramid were completed in mudbrick rather than fine stone. You can read the story of a sudden ending in the building materials themselves — granite where the king planned, mudbrick where his successor rushed.

Now walk around to the north face, and look up. You will see a deep vertical scar cut into the side. This damage is much later. In the late twelfth century, a sultan of Egypt named al-Aziz Uthman, a son of Saladin, ordered workers to tear this pyramid down. According to medieval accounts, they worked for months. They managed to strip some stone and cut this gash. Then they gave up. The pyramid was simply too strong.

The entrance is also on the north side, as it is on the other Giza pyramids. Inside, a sloping passage leads down into the bedrock. The rooms below include a chamber carved with a decorative pattern of panels and niches, a design that copies the façade of a palace. Further down sits the burial chamber, lined in granite. When the interior is open to visitors, the passage is low and narrow. You will need to bend nearly double on the way down.

The burial chamber holds a sad story. In the 1830s, the British explorer Howard Vyse found a stone sarcophagus here, beautifully carved with the same palace pattern. He shipped it to England. The ship sank off the coast of Spain, and the sarcophagus went down with it. It still lies somewhere on the sea floor. Vyse also found wooden coffin pieces bearing Menkaure's name, but later study showed they came from a much later restoration of the burial.

Some of the finest treasures came from the temples below the pyramid. In the early twentieth century, the American archaeologist George Reisner excavated Menkaure's valley temple. His team found a group of superb statues. Some show the king standing between goddesses. One famous pair shows Menkaure beside his queen, her arm around his waist. These sculptures are now among the great works of Egyptian art, held in museums in Cairo and in Boston.

The Greek historian Herodotus, writing about two thousand years after Menkaure's reign, told a very different kind of story. He described Menkaure as a just and gentle king, kinder than his ancestors. According to one tale he repeated, an oracle told the king he had only six years to live. Menkaure, the story goes, lit lamps every night and feasted until dawn, to turn six years into twelve. It is legend, not history — but it is a lovely one.

Now look to the south of the main pyramid. You will see three much smaller pyramids standing in a row. These are known as the queens' pyramids. They are generally linked to royal women of Menkaure's family, although the exact owners are uncertain. Only the largest of them was given a full stone casing. The other two are stepped, so you can still see the layered structure inside. They show how a pyramid looks before its smooth outer skin is added.

From this end of the plateau, you also have one of the best views in Giza. Walk a little way out into the desert to the southwest. From there, all three great pyramids line up, with the queens' pyramids at their feet. Menkaure's pyramid stands closest to you, so it looks almost as large as the others. Many famous photographs of Giza are taken from this direction, especially in the softer light of late afternoon.

Before you leave, come back to the granite blocks at the base. Put your hand near one of those rough, unfinished faces. Somewhere on that stone are the marks of workers who expected to come back and finish the job. They never did. As you walk away, look back once more. The smallest pyramid sits quietly at the edge of the desert, red stone at its feet, still waiting to be completed.