The Pyramid of Menkaure is located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. It is the smallest of the three main Pyramids of Giza. It was constructed of limestone and granite. It is thought to have been built to serve as the tomb of the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure.
It was the smallest of the three major pyramids at the Giza Necropolis and had an original height of 65.5 meters. It now stands at 61 m tall with a base of 108.5 m. This Prince Mycerinus disapproved of the conduct of his father and reopened the temples for the people, who were deprived of their rights and allowed to return to their occupations and to resume the practice of sacrifice.
The Egyptians praise him due to his justice and respect more highly than any other monarchs, declaring that he not only gave his judgments with fairness, but also, when anyone was dissatisfied with his sentence, made compensation to him out of his own purse and thus placated his anger.
In the mortuary temple the foundations and the inner core were made of limestone. The floors were begun with granite and granite facings were added to some of the walls.
There was an inscription in the mortuary temple that said he “made it as his monument for his father, the king of upper and lower Egypt.” During excavations of the temples Reisner found an enormous number of statues mostly of Menkaure alone and as a member of a group.
These were all carved in the naturalistic style of the old kingdom with a high degree of detail evident. The pyramid’s date of construction is anonymous, because Menkaure’s reign has not been accurately defined, but it was probably completed in the 26th century BC.
