(0430) Menkaure's Pyramid (Giza Plateau) Egypt

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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.
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. 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.
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 with the Beatrice as she made her 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.




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