Menkaure's Pyramid

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Menkaure's Pyramid
Menkaure
The Pyramid of Menkaure
Type	True Pyramid
Height	65.5 metres (215 ft)
Base	103.4 metres (339 ft)
Slope	51°20′25″

Menkaure's Pyramid, located on the Giza Plateau on the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, is the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza. It was built to serve as the tomb of the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure.

1 Size and construction
2 Age and location
3 Coffin and Sarcophagus
4 Further reading
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Size and construction

Menkaure's Pyramid had an original height of 65.5 meters (215 feet)^{[citation needed]}. It now stands at 62 m (203 ft) tall with a base of 103.4 m (339 ft). Its angle of incline is approximately 51°20′25″. It was constructed of limestone and granite.

[edit] Age and location

The pyramid's date of construction is unknown, because Menkaure's reign has not been accurately defined, but it was probably completed sometime during the 26th century BC. It lies a few hundred meters southwest of its larger neighbors, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Pyramid of Khufu in the Giza necropolis.

[edit] Coffin and Sarcophagus

Richard William Howard Vyse, who first visited Egypt in 1835, discovered in the upper antechamber the remains of a wooden anthropoid coffin inscribed with Menkaure's name and containing human bones. This is now considered to be a substitute coffin from the Saite period, and radiocarbon dating on the bones determined them to be less than 2,000 years old^{[citation needed]}, suggesting either an all-too-common bungled handling of remains from another site, or access to the pyramid during Roman times. Deeper into the pyramid Vyse came upon a beautiful basalt sarcophagus, rich in detail with a bold projecting cornice. Unfortunately, this sarcophagus now lies at the bottom of the Mediterranean, sinking on October 13 1838, with the ship Beatrice, as she made her way between Cartagena and Malta, on the way to Great Britain.^[1] It is one of only a handful of extant Old Kingdom sarcophagi. The anthropoid coffin, however, was successfully transported on a separate ship and may be seen today at the British Museum.^[1]