The 3 rd Pyramid
Pharaoh Menkaure, son of Khafre ruled Egypt for at least 18 years. It is the smallest of the three Great pyramids at Giza. In 1899 George Reisner was given excavating concession. In the Valley Temple he found several magnificent triad statues of the goddess Hathor and Nome deities. These are considered some of the greatest works of the Old Kingdom.
The pyramid is remarkable because it is the only pyramid in Dynasty IV that was cased in 16 layers of granite, Menkaure planned to cover the surface with granite but he could not because of his sudden death.
The pyramid complex of Menkaure was completed by his son and successor Shepseskaf but the temples has architectural additions which were made during Dynasties V and VI. This suggests that the cult of Menkaure was very important and perhaps differed from the cults of Khufu and Khafre. At the pyramid's entrance, there is an inscription records that Menkaure died on the twenty-third day of the fourth month of the summer and that he built the pyramid. It is thought that this inscription dates to the reign of Khaemwas, son of Ramsses II. The name of Menkaure found written in red ochre on the ceiling of the burial chamber in one of the subsidiary pyramids.
