Khufu (Cheops)

Khufu the Pharoah
Cheops, Suphis
Ivory statuette of Khufu in the Cairo Museum
Pharaoh of Egypt
Reign	2589–2566 BC[1][2] (63 years in Manetho),  4th Dynasty
Predecessor	Sneferu
Successor	Djedefre
Royal titulary Nomen: Khufu Protected by Khnum[3] Horus name: Medjedu Nebty name: Nebty-r-medjed Golden Horus: Bikwy-nub
Consort(s)	Meritites I, Henutsen, plus two other queens whose names are not known[1]
Children	Djedefra, Kawab, Khafre, Djedefhor, Bauefre, Babaef, Khufukhaef I, Minkhaf, Horbaef (?), Hetepheres II, Meresankh II, Khamerernebty I, Nefertiabet (?)[4]
Father	Sneferu
Mother	Hetepheres I
Died	2566 BC
Monuments	Great Pyramid of Giza, Khufu ship

Khufu (in Greek known as Χέοψ, Cheops, pronounced /ˈhɛɒps/; according to Manetho, Σοῦφις, Suphis) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 B.C.E Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . Khufu's full name was "Khnum-Khufu" which means "the god Khnum protects me."^[5]

Life

Khufu was the son of King Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres. Unlike his father, Khufu is remembered as a cruel and ruthless pharaoh in later folklore. Khufu had nine sons, one of whom, Djedefra, was his immediate successor. He also had fifteen daughters, one of whom would later become Queen Hetepheres II.

Khufu came to his throne in his twenties, and reigned for about 23 years, which is the number ascribed to him by the Turin King List. Other sources from much later periods suggest a significantly longer reign: Manetho gives him a reign of 63 years, and Herodotus states that he reigned fifty years. Since 2000, two dates have been discovered from his reign. An inscription containing his highest regnal year, the "Year of the 17th Count of Khufu", first mentioned by Flinders Petrie in an 1883 book and then lost to historians, was rediscovered by Zahi Hawass in 2001 in one of the relieving chambers within this king's pyramid. Secondly, in 2003, the "Year after the 13th cattle count" of Khufu was found on a rock inscription at the Dakhla Oasis in the Sahara.^[6] See this photo which contains Khufu's name enclosed in a serekh and the aforementioned date.[1]

He started building his pyramid at Giza, the first to be built there.^[7] Based on inscriptional evidence, it is also likely that he led military expeditions into the Sinai, Nubia and Libya.^[8]

The Westcar Papyrus, which was written well after his reign during the Middle Kingdom or later, describes the pharaoh being told magical tales by his sons Khafra and Djedefra. This story cycle depicts Khufu as mean and cruel, and as being ultimately frustrated in his attempts to ensure that his dynasty survives past his two sons. Whether anything in this story cycle is based on fact is unknown, but Khufu's negative reputation lasted at least until the time of Herodotus, who was told further stories of that king's cruelty to his people and to his own family in order to ensure the construction of his pyramid. What is known for certain is that his funerary cult lasted until the 26th Dynasty, which was one of the last native-Egyptian royal dynasties, almost 2,000 years after his death.

Funerary monuments

Picture of the Great Pyramid.

Most likenesses of Khufu are lost to history. Only one miniature statuette has been fully attributed to this pharaoh. Since he is credited with building the single largest building of ancient times, it is ironic that the only positively identified royal sculpture of his is also the smallest that has ever been found: a 7.6cm (3 inch) ivory statue that bears his name. It was discovered not at Giza, but in a temple in Abydos during an excavation by William Matthew Flinders Petrie in 1903. Originally this piece was found without its head, but bearing the pharaoh's name. Realizing the importance of this discovery, Petrie halted all further excavation on the site until the head was found three weeks later after an intensive sieving of the sand from the area where the base had been discovered.^[9] This piece is now on display in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. In more recent years, two other likenesses have been tentatively identified as being that of Khufu, based largely on stylistic similarities to the piece discovered by Petrie. One is a colossal head made of red granite of a king wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt that resides in the Brooklyn Museum, and the other a fragmentary miniature head made of limestone that also wears the white crown of Upper Egypt, which can be found in the Staatliche Sammlung für Ägyptische Kunst in Munich.^[10]

An empty sarcophagus is located in the King's Chamber inside the pyramid though it is unclear if it had ever been used for such a purpose as burial. While his mummy has never been recovered, his impressive and well preserved solar barge--or Khufu ship--was discovered buried in a pit at the foot of his great pyramid at Giza in 1954 by Egyptian archaeologists. It has been reassembled and placed in a museum for public viewing.

The so-called "Ring of Cheops", which bears the cartouche of Khufu and was once thought to have belonged to him. It is now thought to have belonged to a priest in the cult that deified Khufu at Giza. Late Period, Dynasty XXV or XXVII.

While pyramid construction had been solely for the reigning pharaoh prior to Khufu, his reign saw the construction of several minor pyramid structures that are believed to have been intended for other members of his royal household, amounting to a royal cemetery. Three small pyramids to the east of Khufu's pyramid are tentatively thought to belong to two of his wives, and the third has been ascribed to Khufu's mother Hetepheres I, whose funerary equipment was found relatively intact in a shaft tomb nearby. A series of mastabas were created adjacent to the small pyramids, and tombs have been found in this "cemetery". The closest tombs to Khufu's were those belonging to Prince Kawab and Khufuhaf and their respective wives. Next closest are the tombs of Prince Minkhaf and Queens Hetepheres II, and those of Meresankh II and Meresankh III.^[11] When the largest of these tombs (Tomb G7510) was excavated in 1927, it was found to contain a bust of Prince Ankhhaf, which can now be seen in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Cultural depictions

The Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz's first novel Khufu's Wisdom (ABATH AL-AQDAR|Mockery of the Fates (1939)) dealt with Khufu, his son Khafra and the succession of Djedef-ra.

• Mockery of the Fates (1939) عبث الأقدار
• Director Howard Hawks' 1955 film, Land of the Pharaohs, is a highly fictionalized account of Khufu's later life and pyramid building project.
• The Heroes graphic novel History of a Secret depicts Khufu as having the superhuman ability of levitation.^[12]
• The DC Comics superhero Hawkman is a reincarnation of Khufu.
• Although named as Cheops, Khufu appears as a Great Builder in the 2008 strategy video game Civilization Revolution. ^[13]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Clayton, Peter A. 'Chronicle of the Pharaohs. p42. Thames and Hudson, London, 2006. ISBN 978-0-500-28628-9
2. ^ Malek, Jaromir, "The Old Kingdom" in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, ed. Ian Shaw, Oxford University Press 2000, ISBN: 9780192804587 p.88
3. ^ King Kheops accessed November 18, 2006
4. ^ Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, ISBN 0-500-05128-3 pp.52-53
5. ^ Jaromir Malék, The Old Kingdom (c.2686-2160 B.C.E) in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (ed. Ian Shaw), Oxford University Press, 2000. p.94
6. ^ R. Kuper and F. Forster, "Khufu's 'mefat' expeditions into the Libyan Desert", Egyptian Archaeology 23, Autumn 2003, pp 25-28
7. ^ Figures: King Khufu (BBC). Accessed April 8.
8. ^ Guardian's Egypt: The Pharaoh Khufu
9. ^ Kevin Jackson and Jonathan Stamp, Building the Great Pyramid (Firefly Books, 2003) ISBN 1-55297-719-6
10. ^ Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), pp.194 and 219.
11. ^ Aidan Dodson, "An Eternal Harem. Part One: In the Beginning", KMT, Summer 2004, pp. 47-55.
12. ^ O'Hara, John; Carri Wagner (PDF). History of a Secret. Aspen MLT Inc.. pp. 6. http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/downloads/Heroes_novel_071.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-05. 
13. ^ Civilization Revolution: Great People "CivFanatics" Retrieved on 4th September 2009

• Freeman, Charles. The Legacy of Ancient Egypt. Ed. John D. Ray. Spain: Fournier Artes Graficos S.Z. Vitoria, 1997. 22.

External links

• - Archaeowiki.org
• The Jean-Pierre Houdin's Theory in Real-Time 3D
• Bust of Prince Ankhhaf, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accessed April 8, 2005
• Westcar Papyrus, accessed April 8, 2006.
• King Cheops
• Computer graphic of the great pyramid of khufu

See also

• Egyptian pyramid construction techniques
• Egyptian Fourth Dynasty Family Tree
• Khufu ship

v • d • e Notable List of pharaohs Early Dynastic Period of Egypt rulers Narmer · Menes · Hor-Aha · Djer · Khasekhemwy Old Kingdom rulers Djoser · Sneferu · Khufu · Khafra · Menkaura · Sahure · Pepi II Middle Kingdom of Egypt rulers Mentuhotep II · Amenemhat I · Senusret I · Senusret III · Amenemhat III · Sobekneferu Second Intermediate Period rulers Khendjer · Neferhotep I · Sobekhotep IV · Ay · Nebiriau I · Apophis · Sobekemsaf II · Intef VII · Seqenenre · Kamose New Kingdom rulers Ahmose I · Hatshepsut · Thutmose III · Amenhotep II · Amenhotep III · Akhenaten · Tutankhamun · Seti I · Ramesses II · Ramesses III Third Intermediate Period of Egypt rulers Psusennes I · Siamun · Shoshenq I · Osorkon II · Shoshenq III · Osorkon III · Piye · Tefnakht · Shabaka · Taharqa Other rulers Psamtik I · Necho II · Ahmose II · Nepherites I · Nectanebo I · Alexander the Great · Ptolemy I · Ptolemy II · Ptolemy XIII · Cleopatra VII Consorts Tetisheri · Ahhotep I · Ahmose-Nefertari · Ahmose · Tiye · Nefertiti · Ankhesenamen · Nefertari · Mark Antony Court officials Imhotep · Weni · Sobeknakht II · Ahmose-Ebana · Ineni · Senenmut · Rekhmire · Yuya · Amenhotep, son of Hapu  · Maya · Yuny · Bay · Manetho · Pothinus

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