The Children of Adam and Eve

Menkaure was a pharaoh of Egypt in the 4th Dynasty (2613-2498 BC), second of four dynasties in the Old Kingdom Period.

Menkaure was the son of Khafra, whom he succeeded, and the grandson of Khufu. A flint knife found in the mortuary Temple of Menkaure mentioned a King's mother Khamerernebty I, suggesting that Khafra and this queen were the Parents of Menkaure.Menkaure is thought to have had at least two wives.

Queen Khamerernebty II is the daughter of Khamerernebti I and the mother of a King's son Khuenre. The location of Khuenre's tomb suggests that he was a son of Menkaure, maKing his mother the wife of this King. Queen Rekhetre is known to havebeen a daughter of Khafra and as such the most likely identity of her husband is Menkaure. Not many children are attested for Menkaure:

Khuenre was the son of queen Khamerernebti II. Menkaure was not succeeded by Prince Khuenre, his eldest son, who predeceased Menkaure, but rather by Shepseskaf, a younger son of this King. Shepseskaf was the successor to Menkaure and likely hisson. Sekhemre is known from a statue and possibly a son of Menkaure. A daughter that died in early adulthood is mentioned by Herodotus. She was placed at a superbly decorated hall of the palatial area at Sais, in a hollow gold layered Woodenzoomorphic burial feature in the shape of a kneeling cow, covered externally with a layer of red decoration except the neck area and the horns which were covered with adequate layers of gold.

The royal court included several of Menkaure's half brothers. His brothers Nebemakhet, Duaenre, Nikaure and Iunmin served as vizier during the reign of their brother. His brother Sekhemkare may have been younger and became vizier after the deathof Menkaure

Menkaure's pyramid at Giza was the smallest of the three pyramids at Giza. There are three subsidiary pyramids associated with Menkaure's pyramid. These pyramids are sometimes labeled G-IIIa (East subsidiary pyramid), G-IIIb (Middle subsidiarypyramid) and G-IIIc (West subsidiary pyramid). In the chapel associated with G-IIIa a statue of a Queen was found. It is possible that these pyramids were meant for the Queens of Khafra. It may be that Khamerernebti II was buried in one of thepyramids.

The Valley Temple was a mainly brick built structure which was enlarged in the 5th or 6th dynasty. From this Temple come the famous statues of Menkaure with his Queen and Menkaure with several deities. A partial list includes:

Nome triad, Hathor Mistress-of-the-SycaMore seated, and King and Hare-nome goddess standing, Greywacke, in Boston Museum.
Nome triad, King, Hathor Mistress-of-the-SycaMore and Theban nome-god standing, Greywacke, in Cairo Museum.
Nome triad, King, Hathor Mistress-of-the-SycaMore and Jackal-nome goddess standing, Greywacke, in Cairo Museum.
Nome triad, King, Hathor Mistress-of-the-SycaMore and Bat-fetish nome -goddess standing, Greywacke, in Cairo Museum.
Nome triad, King, Hathor, and nome-god standing, Greywacke. (Middle part in Boston Museum and head in Brussels, Museum.
Double-statue, King and wife (Khamerernebti II) standing, uninscribed, Greywacke, in Boston Museum.
King seated, life-size, fragmentary, alabaster in Cairo Museum.
King seated, lower part, inscribed seat, alabaster, in Boston Museum.

At the Mortuary Temple More statues and statue fragments were found. An interesting find is a fragment of a wand from Queen Khamerernebty I. The piece is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Khamerernebti is given the title King's Mother onthe fragment.

In 1837, English army officer Richard William Howard Vyse, and engineer John Shae Perring began excavations within the pyramid of Menkaure. In the main burial chamber of the pyramid they found a large Stone sarcophagus made of basalt. Thesarcophagus was uninscribed with hieroglyphs although it was decorated in the style of palace facade. Adjacent to the burial chamber were found Wooden fragments of a coffin bearing the name of Menkaure and a partial skeleton wrapped in a coarsecloth. The sarcophagus was removed from the pyramid and sent by ship to the British Museum in London, but the merchant ship Beatrice carrying it was lost after leaving port at Malta on October 13, 1838. The other materials were sent by aseparate ship and now reside at the museum, with the remains of the Wooden coffin case on display.

It is now thought that the coffin was a replacement made during the much later Saite period, nearly two millennia after the pharaoh's original interment. Radio carbon dating of the bone fragments that were found place them at an even later date,from the Coptic period in the first centuries AD.

According to Herodotus, Menkaure was the son of Khufu and alleviated the suffering his father's reign had caused the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Herodotus adds that he suffered much misfortune: his only daughter, whose corpse was interred in aWooden bull (which Herodotus claims survived to his lifetime), died before him; additionally, the oracle at Buto predicted he would only rule six years, but through his shrewdness, Menkaure was able to rule a total of 12 years and foil theprophecy.