Khufu

The name of Khufu, according to sovereign of the IV dynasty (2600-2480 B.C.) child of Snofru, in the form handed down by Herodotus, it belongs to the historical baggage of the whole world.The showiest testimony of its kingdom is constituted by the monumental pyramid that he made to build in the plain of Giza as his burial placing side by side with the pyramids of the queens and the mastabes of his children and the officials. Buried in big holes close to the pyramid of Khufu the famous "solar boats" are been recovered, monumental boats that had served to the great pharaoh in its trips and as other objects had been buried next to him, in the conviction that they served him in its trip toward the eternity. There are few information about the life of the builder of the great pyramid, except some material testimony of his autocratic power. The cartouche that contains the name of Khufwey (the true name of Khufu) has been found in various cave of stone, in the graves of the famigliaris and the courtiers and in some registrations of back date.But any contemporary document to the pharaoh can boast a genuine historical value, except the narration of the funerals of his mother, Hetephras, wife of Snofru, whose grave was open near the pyramid from Reisner in 1925. Some serious critical base doesn't exist for establishing the duration of the kingdom of Khufu: the Canon in Turin gives twenty-three years, while Manetone, founding only perhaps himself on conjectures, it assigns it not less than sixty-three years.

Khafra

Khafra, Egyptian Pharaoh of the IV dynasty (ca. 2600-2480 B.C.), it is the name handed down us by Herodotus. The egittologis generally agree with the name Khafra, found on the cartouche, even if some authoritative archaeologists bring serious matters to show that the two elements of the composed name must be reversed and that therefore it should be read Rakhaef. If this is true, it must be supposed that the exact pronunciation came with the time forgotten and replaced with that that reproduces the order in which the two elements were written. The greatness of this pharaoh as builder of pyramids has been to blame eclipsed by the fame of his father Khufu; in reality there is no big difference in the height of the two monuments and in the surface used for the constuction, and rather the second is situated in position more elevated, so it appears greater then the first one. The broken sarcophagus of smoothed granite is still in its place in the sepulchral room, but the thieves have left no trace of the body that occupied it. The most salient characteristic of the funeral temple of Khafre is given by the gigantic dimensions of the blocks of limestone employees, the biggest of any other monument known of ancient Egypt. To northeast in the immediate proximities of the temple the Sphinx rises. According to the most probable hypothesis, it seems to have been drawn, for order of Khafra, from an enormous block of rock that rose of side to the upper passage, and modeled to image of the pharaoh in the double aspect of lion and man. On the kingdom of Khafre the news is not more abundant than on that of Khufu. The tradition handed down by Herodotus, that makes of these sovereigns two cruel tyrants, is only perhaps a due inference to the huge work imposed to the unfortunate slaves to build the pyramids.

Menkaure

Menkaure or Menkaura, according to a pronunciation that it grants better him to the hieroglyphic writing, the third one of the pyramids of Giza it belongs, a construction of very smaller dimensions that would have, nevertheless, competed in shine with his gigantic neighbors if the project to cover the whole surface of pyramid of red granite had been completed. But the work was incomplete, and the bricks raw employees in good part of the upper passage and of the temple in the valley they denounce the sudden death of the holder. As it happened is not known, and it is not possible to say how much Herodotus can be believed when he affirms that Menkaure to the opposite one of his two great predecessors was sovereign beneficent and pious. The scrupulous researches conducted from Reisner and from his assistants in the zone of the third pyramid were compensated by the recovery of numerous and splendid statues, among which the most beautiful piece is perhaps the group in slate that represents to natural greatness Menkaure and his wife and that today it belongs to the treasures of the museum in Boston. After Menkaure the fortunes of the dynasty quickly decayed.