This is the third of the three major pyramids at Giza. There are at least four other smaller ones still there today, but they are very small. This pyramid is called the Pyramid of Menkaure (Egyptian name) or the Pyramid of Mycerinus (Greek name). It was originally about 218 feet tall which made it less than half the size of the two largest pyramids at Giza.

The most interesting thing to me about the Menkaure pyramid is a large gash on its north face. I thought it was from inept tomb raiders, but that was not the case. It turned out that Malek Abdel Aziz, son of the great Pharaoh Saladin, decided to dismantle this pyramid in AD 1186. I don’t know the reason, but he commanded his people to tear down this pyramid. His workers spent 8 months trying to tear down this pyramid. At that point in time, they gave up. That, to me, is an amazing testimony to the construction and durability of the pyramids. I suspect when a pharaoh said to tear something down, the masses tore it down. The fact that they not only couldn’t tear this pyramid down, but in fact, barely dented it, says a lot about how well it was built.

The first two photos are just approaching photos. This pyramid is much smaller than the two largest ones at Giza but it is still an imposing structure.

You can see a closer photo of the gash in the next picture.

One other feature that made this pyramid different was that it was not faced with white limestone, but rather with red granite. The red granite comes from Aswan which is about a 90 minute flight away, or about a 400 mile long boat ride down the Nile. The red granite facing stones are the ones on the bottom of the pyramid.