khufu

Life of khufu

Khufu was the son of King sueferu and Queen hetepheres. Unlike his father, Khufu is remembered as a cruel and ruthless pharaoh in later folklore. Khufu had nine sons, one of whom, djedefra, was his immediate successor. He also had fifteen daughters, one of whom would later become queen hetepheres II Khufu came to his throne in his twenties, and reigned for about 23 years, which is the number ascribed to him by the turin king list. Other sources from much later periods suggest a significantly longer reign: manetho gives him a reign of 65 years, and herodutos states that he reigned fifty years. Since 2000, two dates have been discovered from his reign. An inscription containing his highest regnal year, the "Year of the 17th Count of Khufu", first mentioned by Flinders Petrie in an 1883 book and then lost to historians, was rediscovered by zahi hawwas in 2001 in one of the relieving chambers within this king's pyramid. Secondly, in 2003, the "Year after the 13th cattle count" of Khufu was found on a rock inscription at the dakhla Oasis in the Sahara.{4} See this photo which contains Khufu's name enclosed in a serekh and the aforementioned date.{1} He started building his pyramid at giza, the first to be built in this place.{5} Based on inscriptional evidence, it is also likely that he led military expeditions into the Sinai, Nubia and Libya.{6}
The westcar papyrus , which was written well after his reign during the middle kingdom or later, depicts the pharaoh being told magical tales by his sons khafre and djedefra. This story cycle depicts Khufu as mean and cruel, and is ultimately frustrated in his attempts to ensure that his dynasty survives past his two sons. Whether or not this story cycle is true is unknown, But Khufu's negative reputation lasted at least until the time of herodotus, who was told further stories of that king's cruelty to his people and to his own family in order to ensure the construction of his pyramid. What is known for certain is that his funerary cult lasted until the 26th dynasty, which was one of the last native-Egyptian royal dynasties, almost 2,000 years after his death.

Not very much is understood about the Cheops Pyramid. This pyramid was robbed long before archeologists knew about it. Anything about King Cheops was taken when the tomb was robbed. King Cheops (also known as Kufu) was believed to have been the ruler of a very advanced group. He was probably very rich and well respected. Archeologists know this because his pyramid was so big.
Image of Giza Pyramids at http://www.ghost-walks.blogspot.com/ from Mike Owen, , March 2000. Email message. King Cheops was buried alone in his big pyramid. His wives were probably buried in three smaller pyramids nearby. King Cheops’ Pyramid was probably built between 2589-2566 BC. It supposedly took over 2,300,000 giant stone blocks to make the Cheops Pyramid. Each stone block weighed over 2.5 tons. Researchers think it must have taken over 100,000 slaves to build the Cheops Pyramid.
The big stones were moved by sleds that they pulled up the pyramid to the right spot. The Queen's Chamber was never used. The floor of the chamber was never cleaned either. Egyptologists think that the Queen's Chamber was originally intended for the king. Then the builders changed the plan and moved to a new chamber. The most likely reason for changing the plan was that the coffin built for King Cheops was too big for the small halls that had been made.
The most spectacular room in the Cheops Pyramid is the Grand Gallery. The top of the Gallery is held up by pillars (large cylinder type things). They say that it is very, very tough to get anything through the ceiling because it is so well sealed. The Grand Gallery is very big. It leads to the Queen's Chamber.
The walls on the tomb in the King’s Chamber are made of pink rock. Inside the tomb is a huge coffin made out of red granite rock. The coffin didn’t have a lid on it. It was most likely that it was put inside the chamber when the pyramid was being built because it is too big to have been moved in afterwards.
Image from FrontPage 2000 clip art. On top of this tomb there are five more tombs which are needed to keep up the weight of the pyramid. The top tomb has a pointed roof made out of limestone. This is the most important of the upper tombs. In these tombs, there are only inscriptions on the walls.
King Cheops was the first person to be mummified. Archeologists have learned a lot from the markings on the walls of the Cheops Pyramid. Even though it was robbed, we still know about King Cheops from the markings on the walls. So in a way, Cheops was really able to live forever.

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