Khufu
Khufu was the second pharaoh of the fourth dynasty of Ancient Egypt who ruled for twenty three years, between 2589 and 2566 BCE. He is famous for ordering the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza, his tomb and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Greeks named him Cheops. The name Khufu is a shortened version of the egyptian phrase Khnum-kuefui which means "Khnum protects me", being Khnum the name of the local god of Elephantine, an island near the first Nile cataract.
Very little is known about Khufu's life and reign. He was the son and successor of Sneferu and queen Hetepheres I and he had at least three wives. His main wife was Meritites I, who bore him a son named Kewab and a daughter, Hetepheres II. Queen Henutsen, another of his wives, seems to be the mother of Khafre (the ruler associated with the Second Pyramid at Giza) and of prince Khufukhaf.
Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the middle of the 4th century BCE and recorded his journey on Book 2 of his Histories, portrays Khufu as a cruel ruler who led his people into misery. According to the Greek historian, Khufu had all the temples closed and ordered all Egyptians to work on the building of his pyramid [1]. Herodotus also wrote that after spending all his fortune, Khufu sent one of his daughters to work as a prostitute in a brothel in order to raise money for his pyramid. [2]. The authenticity of these stories is considered doubtful.
Although it appears that Khufu wasn't as popular as his father and his grandfather Djoser, his funerary cult was still practised in the time of the twenty-sixth dynasty and even during the roman period.
The only surviving representation of Khufu is a tiny ivory statuette (7.5 cm high), which portrays him seated on a throne holding a flail in his right hand and wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt. The statuette was found at the temple of Khentimentiu at Abydos by Flinders Petrie and it is now at display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Khufu's sucessor was Radjedef, who killed his brother Kewab, the rightful heir to the egyptian throne.
References
Bibliography
- Nicholas Grimal (1992) A History of Ancient Egypt ISBN 0631193960
- Ian Shaw (2003) The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt ISBN 0192804588