Egypt’s Monuments Part IX: The Pyramids Part VI; The Last Monarchs Of The Fourth Dynasty

In this post I will be finishing off Miroslav Verner’s chapter The Fourth Dynasty – The Greatest Of The Great and the last monuments mentioned are the third pyramid in Giza, the Mastabat Fara’un, and Queen Khentkaues I’s Step Pyramid. All of the monarchs responsible for the end of the Fourth Dynasty play significant roles in fall and economic instability in the end of the Fourth Dynasty. As stated in an earlier post the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty brought on much improvement from the Third, but in the end of the Fourth Dynasty the monarchs couldn’t keep this stability. One of these final rulers was a Queen who possibly ruled after her husband’s death, and was married to the first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty. Unlike Snefru, and even Khufu and Khafre, the last rulers of this era did not live long lives and died early. All three monarchs did not have sufficient supplies and resources to build as extravagant of tombs like their predecessors. This just shows how the end of the Fourth Dynasty differs from the beginning, with the Great Builder Snefru. The final pyramid at Giza is not as grand as the other two, although Khafre’s pyramid is a lot grander on the outside than inside, it is still a significant monument in Egypt’s history. This final pyramid took not one, but both of the final male ruler’s, to finish constructing it. Because of this many Egyptologist’s believe Shepseskaf built a mastaba instead of a pyramid. I will give a brief history of all three rulers and their accomplishments.

The first of these three rulers in the end of the Fourth Dynasty was the builder of the third pyramid in Giza; King Menkaure. The three pyramids of Giza are sometimes called the “great troika” and Menkaure’s pyramid is the smallest, and Verner states that this is where the start of the decline of the Fourth Dynasty was. “The smallest pyramid of the ‘great troika’ in Giza stands not far from the Nile and is called ‘Menkaure is divine.’ One might almost think that it anticipated, in its dimensions and partly unfinished state, the approaching decline of the Fourth Dynasty.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids: Their Archaeology and History. New York: Grove Press, 1997, p. 242). Menkaure was not able to finish his masterpiece and that task was left for his successor, but while working on it he tried to follow after the designs of Khufu and Khafre. He used pink granite mostly as well and in fact the entire outward casing was meant to be pink granite. “As in the case of Khafre’s pyramid, here too it was necessary to thoroughly prepare the rock subsoil, especially around the northeast corner. The difference in elevation between the base levels of the two pyramids is slight: Menkaure’s is only two and a half meters higher. Its core consists of limestone blocks quarried nearby. Up to a height of about fifteen meters, its casing is made of pink granite, while farther up it was probably made of limestone.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 242). One of the most fascinating objects within the pyramid was Menkaure’s sarcophagus, which differed from Khufu’s and Khafre’s, and was not made of pink granite: “On the burial chamber’s west wall Vyse [Richard W. H.] found a beautiful basalt sarcophagus decorated with niches and a lid ornamented with a concave cornice. Ricke [Herbert] saw a certain parallel between these decorations and those of the shrine of the god Anubis, and he interpreted them as an expression of the effort to increase the protection of the tomb by means of that divinity.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 245). Sadly the sarcophagus was lost in a ship wreck when it was being brought to Great Britain. Menkaure started on his pyramid complex, mortuary temples and all, but because of his early death his successor had the task of finishing these projects.

Shepseskaf’s reign was much shorter than that of Menkaure’s, and this may be why he was not able to build a pyramid but instead a mastaba. Egyptologists first thought the Mastabat Fara’un belonged to the last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty, but then through research and a fragmented stela found in the tomb it was accredited to Shepseskaf. The local people call the giant Mastaba tomb Mastabat Fara’un which means “Pharaoh’s Bench” and it is one of Egypt’s most puzzling tombs. One question is: why did he build this mastaba, a First Dynasty Pre-Dynastic era tomb, instead of the Fourth Dynasty pyramids that changed Egypt’s architecture forever? One of the answers to this is that Egypt’s economic stability was diminished in the end of the Fourth Dynasty. Unlike the pyramids of his predecessors Shepseskaf built his tomb out of mostly Limestone, which shows that he did not have the same materials accessible for building: “The casing consisted primarily of soft white limestone; only its lower level was made of pink granite.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 255). The mastaba opens up into a single corridor, or hallway, and then splits off into three big halls which hold the chambers and corridors of a typical tomb. Most scholars believe that the reason for why Shepseskaf built this mastaba is because he finished off all the available resources on Menkaure’s pyramid, and so resorted to making his tomb a mastaba. But there are those who have other ideas for why Shepseskaf built Mastbat Fara’un. One of these ideas is offered by Gustave Jequier: “He was convinced that Shepseskaf had intentionally chosen the unusual form of his royal tomb. As a protest against the increasing influence of the priesthood of the sun god Re, he rejected a tomb in the form of a pyramid, considered as a symbol of the sun, and decided to build a mastaba-like structure for himself. According to Jequier, the break with earlier tradition was emphasized by the fact that Shepseskaf did not have his tomb erected in the old cemetery at Giza, but rather in a distant place in modern South Saqqara. Jequier sees further evidence for his theory in the ruler’s name, which did not include the component re.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 257). But most Egyptologists go with the common idea that he didn’t have the materials to build a pyramid because of the fall in the economy at the end of the Fourth Dynasty.

The last ruler of the Fourth Dynasty was also one of the first Queens of the Fifth Dynasty. Queen Khentkaues I has a lot of mystery and uncertainty surrounding her. She is one of the rare queens who are thought to have ruled in Egypt, who is believed by some to have been the wife of Shepseskaf and then was remarried to the first king of the Fifth Dynasty, Userkaf. “He [Selim Hassan] considered Khentkaues I to be Shepseskaf’s consort and believed that after Shepseskaf’s death she ruled for a short time but was ultimately forced to yield power to the priesthood. The result was her marriage with Userkaf, the high priest of the sun god Re from Heliopolis and the later founder of the Fifth Dynasty. She refused, however, to be buried next to either her first or her second husband, and decided instead to have her own tomb built in Giza, near her royal predecessors.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 263). Her tomb was once considered to be the fourth pyramid at Giza and is said to resemble her first husband’s tomb; which would be the Mastabat Fara’un. Like her predecessors she used pink granite and limestone for the materials, and she tried to make both steps completely square. An interesting fact is that the tomb was altered: “Not long after it was completed, the tomb was substantially altered, probably during the first half of the Fifth Dynasty. Over the west half of the tomb, a limestone structure with an oblong plan that resembled a mastaba was built. It was intentionally not placed over the center of the tomb, since its weight might have ruptured the ceilings of the chambers in the lower part.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 260). The alteration on Khentkaues tomb is theorized to be because of the change of religion because where in the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty only those of the royal family ruled, during the time of Khentkaues the priesthood began to rule. Her second husband, a high priest, founded the Fifth Dynasty and this shows in the changes made to her tomb. “The transformation of the tomb, which probably took place at the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty, seems to have been intended to express a fundamental conceptual change connected with a later elevation of Khentkaues’s status and that of her cult. Only concern about the stability of the original rock-cut tomb prevented the construction of a pyramid with two or possibly three steps.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 261-262).

These last monarchs who ruled in the end of the Fourth Dynasty show through their tombs and building materials that the economy had plummeted from where it once was. Under the first King of this era, Snefru, the economy was flourishing, but like with all civilizations there are seasons of plenty and then seasons of hardship. Not only did the Fifth Dynasty bring about economical changes but the monarchy was changed as well. In the Fourth Dynasty those born of royal blood were the only ones who ruled Egypt, and many kings placed their royal family members in charge of the official offices. But the first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty was not a royal but instead a High Priest, and so the priesthood began to take a higher status then in the eras before. This began an inward fight that is commonly seen in civilizations, a battle of the monarchs and the priesthood. In some cases the monarchs win out and in others the priesthood does, and the first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty is proof of this type of instability. Many civilizations of the past have dealt with the same inward fighting, although it is mostly a political fight and blood is rarely shed over this type of warring. But nonetheless the instability of Egypt’s economy at that time shows that there was another hidden type of instability occurring; a political one.