King Khufu | The Second King of the fourth dynasty
King Khufu
King Khufu is one of the most famous kings of ancient Egypt. King Khufu came after his father, King Sneferu, as the second king of the fourth dynasty.
His character was also linked to the story of his pyramid, as some believe that Khufu, by building this miraculous pyramid, has harnessed his people to this work and is, therefore, an unjust king, as Herodotus narrated, that the construction of the pyramid took twenty years of oppressing the people and that the ascending road took ten years; that is, the total is thirty years.
But the truth is that the pyramid employed about a hundred thousand workers annually over thirty years, and they worked only during the four months of the flood, as agriculture was the main occupation of the ancient Egyptians. Thus, King Khufu provided his people with opportunities to work during a time of no work, and therefore, he was the first king to insure his people against unemployment.
King Khufu's construction of the Great Pyramid in Giza, regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world, stands as one of his most significant works. It took about twenty years to build it, and its height is 146 meters, of which about nine meters have shrunk as a result of erosion factors and the removal of the outer cladding stones, and the amount of stones used in its construction is about two million and three hundred thousand blocks of stone.
King Khufu's origins
There is firm evidence that Khufu's mother is Queen Hetep Hiras, and it is also believed that his father is Sneferu. The tomb of Hetep Hiras was found with a collection of bottles, seals, and offerings, some of which had Sneferu's name written on them. Therefore, it is believed that Hetep Hiras was the wife of Sneferu, and since she was Khufu's mother, Sneferu was likely Khufu's father.
There are statues of King Khufu, often between 5 and 7 centimeters in height, made using an elephant's tooth.A statuette in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, “Museums in Cairo,” was found in Abydos in 1903 by an American researcher.The statue comes with a red-colored crown, which is the crown of the sea face.The statue used to have Pharaonic cartouches with King Khufu's name engraved on it, but it is no longer visible now.
There is a difference in the duration of the pharaoh's reign, and one of the most important pieces of evidence is the Turin Papyrus, which refers to the duration of his reign as 23 years.The Greek historian Herodotus says that King Khufu's reign was 50 years, while an Egyptian priest named Manitou says his reign was 63 years.
During the reign of King Khufu, he sent two expeditions, one to the Bahariya Oasis and the Dakhlah Oasis in the New Valley in the Libyan Desert, while the other expedition he sent to Sinai to find copper and turquoise.
King Khufu's Boat Museum
South of the eastern side of the pyramid is a modern building that houses the boat that was discovered in 1954. It is a huge royal boat made of cedar wood, which was found disassembled in the pit and is one of the largest boats found in Egypt so far. On the front of the boat's deck is a canopy, the center part of which is covered by a frame that holds the canopy. At the back of the boat is the main cabin, in the form of a roof supported by palm tree pillars.
