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The Pyramid of Menkaure, located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, is the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza. It is thought to have been built to serve as the tomb of the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure.
Menkaure's Pyramid had an original height of 65.5 metres (215 feet) and was the smallest of the three major pyramids at the Giza Necropolis. It now stands at 61 m (204 ft) tall with a base of 108.5 m. Its angle of incline is approximately 51°20′25″. It was constructed of limestone and granite. The first sixteen courses of the exterior were made of granite. The upper portion was cased in the normal manner with Tura limestone. Part of the granite was left in the rough. Incomplete projects like this help archeologists understand the methods used to build pyramids and temples. South of the pyramid of Menkaure were 3 satellite pyramids none of which appear to have been completed. The largest was made partly in granite like the main pyramid. Neither of the other 2 progressed beyond the construction of the inner core.
Herodotus's legend
Menkaure was allegedly a much more benevolent Pharaoh than his predecessors. According to legends related by Herodotus, he wrote the following:
"This Prince (Mycerinus) disapproved of the conduct of his father, reopened the temples and allowed the people, who were ground down to the lowest point of misery, to return to their occupations and to resume the practice of sacrifice. His justice in the decision of causes was beyond that of all the former kings. The Egyptians praise him in this respect more highly than any other monarchs, declaring that he not only gave his judgements with fairness, but also, when anyone was dissatisfied with his sentence, made compensation to him out of his own purse and thus pacified his anger."
The Gods however ordained that Egypt should suffer tyrannical rulers for a hundred and fifty years according to this legend, Herodotus goes on:
"An oracle reached him from the town of Buto, which said 'six years only shalt thou live upon this earth, and in the seventh thou shalt end thy days'. Mycerinus, indignant, sent an angry message to the oracle, reproaching the god with his injustice -'My father and uncle,' he said 'though they shut up the temples, took no thought of the gods and destroyed multitudes of men, nevertheless enjoyed a long life; I, who am pious , am to die soon!' There came in reply a second message from the oracle - 'for this very reason is thy life brought so quickly to a close - thou hast not done as it behoved thee. Egypt was fated to suffer affliction one hundred and fifty years - the two kings who preceded thee upon the throne understood this - thou hast not understood it' Mycerinus, when this answer reached him, perceiving that his doom was fixed, had lamps prepared, which he lighted every day at eventime, and feasted and enjoyed himself unceasingly both day and night, moving about in the marsh-country and the woods, and visiting all the places he heard were agreeable sojourns. His wish was to prove the oracle false, by turning night into days and so living twelve years in the space of six.Temple complex
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. The foundations of the valley temple were made of stone. However they were both finished with crude bricks. Reisner estimated that some of the blocks of local stone in the walls of the mortuary temple weighed as much as 220 tons, while the heaviest granite ashlars imported from Aswan weighed more than 30 tons. It is not unusual for a son or successor to complete a temple when a Pharaoh dies so it is not unreasonable to assume that Shepseskaf finished the temples with crude brick. There was an inscription in the mortuary temple that said he "made it (the temple) as his monument for his father, the king of upper and lower Egypt." During excavations of the temples Reisner found a large 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 unknown, because Menkaure's reign has not been accurately defined, but it was probably completed in 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.
Coffin and sarcophagus
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 on October 13, 1838, with the ship Beatrice, as she made her way between Cartagena and Malta, on the way to Great Britain.[4] 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.
Attempted demolition
At the end of the twelfth century al-Malek al-Aziz Othman ben Yusuf, Saladin's son and heir, attempted to demolish the pyramids starting with Menkaure's pyramid. The workmen who Al-Aziz had recruited to demolish the pyramid found it almost as expensive to destroy as to build. They stayed at their job for eight months. They were not able to remove more than one or two stones each day at a cost of tiring themselves out utterly. Some used wedges and levers to move the stones while others used ropes to pull them down. When it fell it would bury itself in the sand requiring extraordinary efforts to free it. Wedges were used to split the stones into several pieces and a cart was used to carry it to the foot of the escarpment, where it was left. Far from accomplishing what they intended to do they merely spoiled the pyramid by leaving a large vertical gash in its north face.
The Red Pyramid at Dashur was the third attempt at a pyramid for Snefru, the inaugural 4th Dynasty ruler who (rather madly) ordered the largest construction spree in human history via continual tomb-building projects. Two previous tombs appear to have been abandoned, with the collapse of a partially completed steep-walled pyramid at Meidum, and then the unused Bent pyramid about 2km to the south. The latter's angle was found to be too steep midway during construction and was adjusted to lower angle on its upper half; the Red Pyramid has this same angle (43°) throughout but a larger footprint, bringing it to equal the 105m height of the Bent Pyramid. The result was evidently the first straight-sided true pyramid. Though it was immediately surpassed by the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Red Pyramid remains the third largest ever completed.
In the foreground is the area of the mortuary temple at the western face of the pyramid. Fragments of a pyramidion have been set up on a modern base here.
4th Dynasty, early 26th century BCE, Dashur.
Bridge to Pyramid
I was rather struck by the geometry of the Ribblehead Viaduct and its shadow.
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Was going to process a whole lot of Paris photos last week but unfortunately broke the laptop screen. Finally, fixed it by replacing the LCD from another laptop.
This is the pyramid outside the Louvre Museum. Quite an impressive place with so much to see that you need at least a week to appreciate all the wonders in it.
The image is an HDR from 3 frames.
The idea of the tapered design is that it reduces the size of the building's shadow and therefore its effect on the light enjoyed by people in the vicinity. The spire is decorative.
According to Wikipedia, the Transamerica Pyramid at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, is a 48-story futurist building and the second-tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline. Its height is surpassed by Salesforce Tower. The building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, which moved its U.S. headquarters to Baltimore, Maryland, but it is still associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo. Designed by architect William Pereira and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, at 853 feet (260 m), on completion in 1972 it was the eighth-tallest building in the world.
a smooth-sided pyramid built in the 24th century BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Unas.
Unas built his pyramid between the complexes of Sekhemket and Djoser, in North Saqqara. Anchored to the valley temple at a nearby lake, a long causeway was constructed to provide access to the pyramid site. The pyramid is situated on the Saqqara plateau and lies on a line running from the pyramid of Sekhemkhet to the pyramid of Menkauhor.[18] The site required the construction of an exceptionally long causeway to reach a nearby lake, suggesting the site held some significance to Unas.
A late afternoon / evening photo-cruise around Pyramid Valley (North Canterbury) is always worthwhile. The environment changes quite dramatically in colour scheme throughout the seasons, and I was surprised how green it is - reflects the mild summer we're having so far.
Wasn't as much cloud around at sunset as I like, yet the more subtle tones can be quite relaxing to enjoy.
This ancient pyramid must be located in Saudi Arabia, not Egypt, given the male tour guide's clothing. (Hey, I couldn't find any figures in traditional Egyptian garb.) His partner, the buxom female guide? No idea if she's from the area, based on that “pharaoh queen” getup. The tourists are enthralled by the guide's narration of how something so mind-bogglingly immense and grand could have been constructed -- and still remain intact and Krispie after all this time.
UPDATE: The Pyramid Tours have closed permanently. The pyramid finally succumbed to the elements . . . of a teenage boy and his equally sweet-toothed parents! It was hard to watch. But really good!
Kay Martin - The Divorcees
Pyramid Books F-750, 1962
Cover Artist: Rudy Nappi
"Three mixed-up, sex-starved women on the loose in Reno."
Kay Martin was a pseudonym of Adela Maritano.
Today there was little wind, so I could get close: pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis).
Heute war kaum wind, sodass ich nah heran konnte: die Pyramidenhundswurz (Anacamptis pyramidalis).
The Transamerica Pyramid (Transamerica Building) is a 48 story skyscraper in San Francisco, California. The building was completed in 1972 and stands 260 metres (853 ft) in height. It remains the second tallest building in San Francisco.
This was taken on my last day in Cairo, headed up for a last look at the pyramids, and this amazing sky was available. Really made my day.
'pyramids' original collage for sale.
21 x 18cm
Signed and dated on rear.
£50 +pp
anthonyzinonos.bigcartel.com/product/original-pyramids-co...
Or perhaps the pyramids are for the souls of the mice that don't sell before their helium leeks out.
This is the first time I've ever cropped a fish-eye photo.
I have been meaning for years to take a photo of the person inflating the balloons; but hated the result and cropped the circular image to about 70% of the original.
I do like the way that lite fixture sticks out of the circle.
The "Place of Voices" Tikal, Peten, Guatemala. The most famous archeological site in Guatemala. Tikal was the capital of a state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the site dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal peaked during the Classic Period, about 200 to 900 AD.