Mykerinus Steps Forth

Assertive and confident, from deep within the hazy mists of time, escorted by the mother goddess Hathor and Anput, his local district goddess, the pharaoh Mykerinus (Menkaure) steps towards us, out from the hard greywacke stele which has withstood the ravages of time. An imposing figure, handsome, determined and very much a leader of men, he now stands just a few kilometres from his most imposing monument, the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza. The world he knew was a one of opulence and innovation, a remarkable civilisation encapsulated within the narrow confines of the Nile Valley. 

The Three Pyramids of Giza, That of Mykerinus (Menkaure) is on the right

The great sepulchral monuments of the vast necropolis of the Western Desert has inspired mankind's imagination throughout the millennia -

                              "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

                              Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

                                                                                [Shelly 1818]

Mykerinus' immediate predecessors, Cheops (Khufu), his grandfather, and Kephren (Khafre), his father, built the much larger Pyramids, but this fine sculpture, in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, brings a human face and character to these rulers from the beginnings of recorded history; rulers whose mystical reigns inspired funerary monuments of such awe-inspiring, gargantuan proportions. 

The greywacke stele of Mykerinus & the goddesses
Hathor & Anput, in the Egyptian Museum

Elsewhere within the Museum are the seated figures of the high priest Rahotep and his wife, Nofret. Rahotep, High Priest of Ra, the sun-god, was half-brother of the Pharoah Cheops (Khufu) and consequently would have been the great-uncle of Mykerinus. The most striking feature of these ancient figures are their realistic eyes, finely wrought from rock crystal. Rahotep and his wife look quizzically at us as we walk towards them, seemingly gazing into our very souls with the wisdom of four and a half millennia. It is hard to believe the incredible age of these beautiful painted sculptures.

Rahotep, High Priest of Ra & Nofret, his wife. Egyptian Museum, Cairo

It is from admiring such images as those of Mykerinus, of Rahotep and Nofret, by seeing the massive Pyramids of Giza and the earlier Stepped Pyramid of the Pharaoh Zoser at Saqqara that we can begin to appreciate the amazing splendour and technology of this far distant age. It was an age that persevered, through the vicissitudes of invaders and weak rulers for almost 3000 years, assimilating the ways of the various invaders who entered the Nile Valley. It was an age that reached its apogee in the New Kingdom some 3500 years ago, best illustrated by the amazing treasure from the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamen.

          In a special chamber in the Egyptian Museum we can only gaze admiringly on the exquisitely worked solid gold funerary mask of Tutankhamen. The delicate gold, silver and inlaid scene of the boy-pharaoh and his queen on the back of a royal chair describes a scene of domestic harmony, while the beautiful protecting goddesses who guard the gilded-wood shrine containing the king's viscera show that he was well accompanied in his journey through the after-life, while an alert wooden jackal, Anubis, eternally guards Tutankhamen's sacred mummy.

The solid gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun & the pharoah with his wife on the royal chair,
Egyptian Museum, Cairo

It is only after viewing these exquisite treasures by ancient craftsmen that we begin to realise just how skilled and advanced the ancients were. It is frightening to think that what we see today in the Museums of the world is just a very small fraction of the riches of this ancient world. All the great tombs were well-plundered by grave-robbers thousands of years before modern Egyptologists even began their investigations, less than two hundred years ago. But in spite of these depredations, a wealth of knowledge has emerged from the ancient hieroglyphic texts, painstakingly deciphered by the 19th century work of the Frenchman Champollion, and the ornate, detailed and colourful frescoes of scenes of everyday life, of military campaigns and trading expedition that decorate the later tombs of the pharaohs and their courtiers. A wall-painting and relief in the Mastaba tomb of Princess Idut, daughter of the 5th dynasty Pharaoh Unis, at Saqqara shows an ox being slaughtered, another wall-painting shows a fishing expedition on the Nile. 

Butchering an ox, from the Mastaba tomb of Princess Idut, daughter of 5th dynasty pharoah Unas at Saqqara      

Each year further exciting discoveries are made from this fascinating era, and who knows, perhaps Egyptologists will one day find an unknown tomb rivaling that of Tutankhamun. To house these new discoveries a brand-new state-of-the-art Egyptian Museum is due to open, within view of the Pyramids in 2020.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

My travel books are available from Amazon: One Foot in Front of the Other

One Foot in Front of the Other - First Steps

One Foot in Front of the Other - Full Stride