Cheops

This article explains the Pharaoh Cheops. For further meanings, see Cheops (disambiguation) .

Khufu is a redirect to this article. For the asteroid of the same name, see (3362) Khufu .

Cheops
Statuette of Cheops ; Egyptian Museum Cairo
Horus name	Medjedu Mḏdw who (the enemies) crushes Medjed Mḏd (.w)
Sideline	Medjed-er-Nebti Mḏd-r-Nbtj The (the enemy) crushes according to the two mistresses
Gold name	Bikui-nebu Bjkwj-nbw Gold (Golden) of the two falcons
Proper name	Chui ef ui (Chufu) Ḫwj = fw (j) He protects me Khnum chui ef ui (usually rendered as: Chnumchufu) ẖnmw hwj = fw (j) Khnum (be) protects me
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. III./10)	In the original, the ruler's name has been removed. Only the years have been preserved.
List of Kings of Abydos (Seti I) (No.21)	Chufu Ḫ (w) j = fw (j) He protects me
List of Kings of Saqqara (No.17)	Chufu Ḫ (w) j = fw (j)
Greek Manetho variants: in  Eratosthenes :	Herodotus : Χέοψ Chéops Flavius ​​Josephus : Sofe Africanus : Souphis I. Eusebius : Souphis Eusebius, AV : Souphis Chnoubos

Cheops ( ancient Egyptian Chufu ) was the second king ( pharaoh ) of the ancient Egyptian 4th Dynasty in the Old Kingdom . Over his reign, which ran to about 2620 to 2580 BC. And there is very little evidence of his person.

Cheops succeeded his father or stepfather, King Sneferu , to the throne. He was the builder of the famous Great Pyramid of Giza , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Cheops became famous primarily for his pyramid; Very little is known about his life, reign and any state-religious activities. The only image of Cheops so far that has been completely preserved is an ivory figurine about 7.5 cm in size , which was found in Abydos in 1903 and whose chronology is uncertain.

Otherwise only fragments remain of any reliefs and statues , his temple complexes are only preserved as ruins or have been lost. What is known about Cheops today comes from inscriptions in his necropolis and from written records much later . For example, he is the main literary character in the stories of the Westcar papyrus from the 13th Dynasty . Most of it has come down to us from the writings of ancient Egyptian and Greek historians .

Cheops' obituary is presented in an ambivalent and not always easy to judge form: While Cheops enjoyed cultic veneration and monument preservation at least in the Old and New Kingdom and his reputation was maintained through literary works, the Greek scholars Manetho , Herodot and Diodorus drew around 2000 years later an extremely negative character image of him. Thanks to these Greek authors, this rather critical to gloomy image of King Cheops has survived to this day.

Surname

Cheops ( Χέοψ Chéops ) is the Graecised form of the Pharaoh's name, handed down by Herodotus and Diodorus , who is also very well known under his maiden name Chufu (actually Khnum-Chuf (u) ). Less common, graced variants of his name are the Sûphís (Σοῦφις) attested by Manetho and the Sofe (Σόφη) handed down by Flavius ​​Josephus .

Origin and family

ancestry

The mother of Cheops was Hetepheres I ; his predecessor Sneferu has long been accepted as his father . His sons Anchhaf (but perhaps also a son of Cheops), Nefermaat and Rahotep would have been his half-brothers.

It is still not clear whether Sneferu was actually the father of Cheops. At the beginning of the 20th century, if you saw a noble from the provinces in Cheops who had only married into Snofru's family, George Andrew Reisner's excavations in Giza seemed to speak for a different version. In 1925 the shaft grave of Hetepheres (G 7000x) was discovered east of the Great Pyramid , in which numerous grave goods were found. On the one hand, the name of Sneferu was found several times in the grave, on the other hand she is referred to as the "king mother" ( mwt nswt - mut-nesut ). This made it clear that she was the wife of Sneferu and thus both were the parents of Cheops.

More recently, however, doubts about Cheops' immediate royal descent have been expressed again. The reason for this is the title of Hetepheres and the grave G 7000x as such. It is problematic that among the numerous titles that Hetepheres carried, that of the “king's wife” ( ḥmt nswt - hemet-nisut ) cannot be found. In return, however, she bore the title of a “biological daughter of God ” ( s3t nṯr nt ẖt = f - sat netjer net chet = ef), which appeared here for the first time. It was therefore suggested that Cheops was not a biological son of Sneferu and instead tried to legitimize his claim to rule over a fictitious divine descent of his mother. The tomb itself speaks against Cheops descent from Snefru, as all the queen tombs of the Old Kingdom were built in the pyramid complex of their spouses and not their sons.

However, there are certain limitations to these doubts. On the one hand, the title consort of the king is only proven with certainty after Hetepheres, its absence is therefore no clear evidence against a marriage with Sneferu. Second, it is not certain that Hetepheres was actually buried in Giza. Although her grave remained untouched, the sarcophagus was found empty. Instead, the grave contained the canopic box with the mummified organs of the Hetepheres.

In summary, due to the frequent mention of Snofru's name in the grave G 7000x and due to her title, Hetepheres can be regarded with a high degree of probability as the main wife of Snefru, but there is no final certainty for this. So she could have been a subordinate concubine or a relative of Sneferu. In the first case, Cheops would actually have been a biological son of Snefru, but without a legitimate claim to the throne.

Marriages

Cheops was married to Meritites I , a daughter of Snofru, as well as Henutsen and other women not known by name. Meritites I. is documented at the time, but Henutsen's name is only mentioned on a stele that is dated to the 26th dynasty and that identifies her as the owner of one of the queen pyramids of Cheops (GIc).

progeny

The later pharaohs Radjedef (Djedefre) and Chephren as well as Babaef I , Hordjedef and Minchaef are held for sons of Cheops due to their titles and the position of their graves in the east cemetery of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Another prince named Kawab , who was also buried in a grave in the Ostfriedhof, was considered to be the Crown Prince who died prematurely for a long time, but this assumption is only based on the position of his grave, further evidence does not exist. According to more recent findings, Kawab seems to have been a son of Sneferu and thus a brother of Cheops.

Another such grave belonged to Chufuchaef I , who was either another son or identical to the later Pharaoh Chephren. There is no contemporary record of a son named Bauefre . He is mentioned in a rock inscription in Wadi Hammamat and in the Westcar papyrus (both originated in the Middle Kingdom ). Perhaps he was identical to Babaef I. Mindjedef and Duaenhor were possibly also other sons, but perhaps also sons of Kawab and thus grandchildren or nephews of Cheops.

It is not clear whether Horbaef was also a son of Cheops. It is only attested by its sarcophagus , the exact location of which has not been noted. A later assignment to a grave in the east cemetery of the Great Pyramid, where the sons of Cheops were buried, is therefore speculative.

Daughters were Hetepheres II. (Wife of Kawab and after his death Radjedef) and Meresanch II. (Wife of Horbaef), possibly also Chamerernebti I. (wife of Chephren) and Neferetiabet .

Domination

Abydos Bubastis Dachla Dendera Elephantine el-Kab Gebel el-Asr Giza Hatnub Saqqara Tanis Tida Wadi al-Garf Wadi Hammamat Wadi Maghara

Sites of evidence of Cheops

Term of office

There is uncertainty about the length of the reign of Cheops. The royal papyrus Turin , which originated in the New Kingdom and is an important document on Egyptian chronology , names 23 years of reign, the Greek historian Herodotus 50 and that in the 3rd century BC. Egyptian priests Manetho living in 63 BC. The highest contemporary documented date is a “17th Times the census ”(this means a nationwide census of cattle for the purpose of tax collection). An additional problem arises from the fact that these censuses were originally carried out every two years, but later also sometimes annually. If a regular biennial census took place under Cheops, then 34 years of government would be occupied. Thomas Schneider assumes that the 23 years of reign in the Turin royal papyrus corresponded to biennial counts and that Cheops ruled a total of 46 years.

Trade and expeditions

The only more precisely datable events from his reign are three expeditions, two of which he sent to the area around the Dachla oasis in the Libyan desert and which served to procure pigments . According to rock inscriptions from the so-called "water mountain of Djedefre" located about 50 km west of Dachla, these expeditions took place in the "year after the 12th count" (25th year of government) and in the "year after the 13th time the count" (27. Government year). In 2011 a port facility was explored near Wadi al-Garf on the Red Sea , which, according to the ceramics found and the inscriptions, was founded in the early 4th dynasty, probably under Sneferu. A heavily destroyed papyrus found here also mentions a “year after the 13th count” of Cheops and is probably related to an expedition to the Sinai Peninsula .

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  The "water mountain of Djedefre"

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  Inscription with Horus name of Cheops

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  Inscription with the names of the expedition leaders

Undated graffiti is evidence of Cheops in Elkab and on Elephantine , as well as in the quarries of Hatnub and Wadi Hammamat . His name is also attested outside the borders of Egypt at the time: he had two steles erected in the diorite quarries on Gebel el-Asr, west of Abu Simbel . A rock inscription in Wadi Maghara on the Sinai shows Cheops as the protector of the mines there. Trade relations with the Phoenician city ​​of Byblos can also be proven. Fragments of alabaster vessels and a copper ax bearing the name of Cheops were found there.

Statue of Hemiunu in the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim

The court

Several high officials of Cheops are documented by their graves in Giza. It is noticeable that the highest offices were only held by members of the royal family. Anchhaf, Chufuchaef I and Minchaef, possibly also Kawab, bore the title of vizier ; however, he is only explicitly referred to as a vizier on a statue from the 19th dynasty .

To the west of the Cheops pyramid are several civil servants who were employed in the construction industry. The most important of them was Hemiunu , probably a nephew of Cheops. He also held the office of vizier and also carried the title of head of all construction works for the king . So he was in charge of the construction of the Cheops pyramid and the surrounding facilities.

Other well-known persons with leading positions in the building management were Iunu , Kaemach, Kanefer and Wepemnofret. In the case of these less senior officials, no direct family relationship to the royal family can be proven. Those named here and other grave owners, whose offices are not known, bore the title of king's son or king's daughter , but they lacked other titles that were always present in actual princes and princesses. It should therefore have been a matter of pure rank titles that did not indicate a direct royal descent.

Construction activity

Giza

The Great Pyramid of Cheops

→ Main article : Great Pyramid of Cheops

The Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza

Cheops' particular fame is mainly due to the Cheops pyramid in Giza , the highest pyramid in the world. He named his pyramid Achet Chufu , which means horizon of Cheops . It is counted among the seven ancient wonders of the world . Its side length is 230 meters and it was originally 147 meters high. However, since it was later used as a quarry for buildings in Cairo , it has become about 10 meters lower. A total of around 2.5 million stone blocks were used to build the pyramid. Locally occurring limestone was the main building material. Granite was also used for the so-called relief chambers above the burial chamber. The cladding of the pyramid was originally made of white Tura limestone and was almost completely removed in the Middle Ages in order to obtain building material for the old town of Cairo.

On the north side is the original entrance and a few meters below a tunnel, which was built in the 9th century by order of the Caliph Al-Ma'mun in order to be able to penetrate into the interior of the pyramid. Inside there are three chambers: the first below the pyramid in the natural rock, the second ( queen chamber ) a little higher in the core masonry, the third with a sarcophagus above the great gallery . The granite sarcophagus measures 2.28 × 0.98 × 1.05 meters. No body or grave goods were found. The pyramid was obviously robbed in the Middle Ages at the latest, but probably already in Pharaonic times.

The pyramid complex

Plan of the Giza Necropolis

On the east side of the pyramid is the mortuary temple, of which only the foundations are preserved today. The valley temple could not be located so far, as a village extends over its assumed location today.

To the east and west of the pyramid, two large cemeteries were built under Cheops. There are three queen pyramids for the wives of Cheops in the east cemetery. The southern one (G1c) is considered to be the pyramid of the "Great Wife", Queen Henutsen, the middle one (G1b) was intended for meritites, the northern one (G1a) was considered a cult pyramid until Rainer Stadelmann used it in conjunction with the grave shaft (G 7000x) of the Queen Mother Hetepheres I brought. A fourth, smaller pyramid served as a cult pyramid for the king. Several large mastabas were also built in the east in which the close relatives of Cheops, mainly his sons and their wives, were buried. The western cemetery complex consists of smaller mastabas, the owners of which were mainly high officials. Both cemeteries continued to be used and enlarged in the following two dynasties.

Model of the salvaged Cheops barque

A total of seven boat pits were created in the pyramid district: two each on the east and south side of the Great Pyramid, one near the mortuary temple and two between the pyramids of the queens. The two pits on the south side were discovered in 1954 and still contained two complete, dismantled boats .

One of these ships was restored and can now be viewed in its own museum. The second is still in the sealed pit and was explored by Japanese archaeologists with camera probes from 1995 to 1996. This ship is also to be salvaged and restored over the next few years.

See also : Giza Necropolis

The Sphinx

→ Main article : Great Sphinx of Giza

The great Sphinx of Giza

Granite block with the name of Horus of Cheops from Bubastis

The majority of the Sphinx is believed to be a work by Chephren, although there is no clear contemporary evidence for this. The assumption is mainly based on the fact that the Sphinx and its temple are located immediately next to the valley temple of the Chephren pyramid . Based on the stylistic representation of the head, however, Rainer Stadelmann believes that this monument can be attributed to Cheops. An indication here is the shape of the face: This is always shown elongated in statues of Chephren, while the Sphinx has a rather broad face, just like the statues of Cheops. Chephren is also always shown with a beard, but Cheops without. The Sphinx once had a beard, but it was only added in the New Kingdom . According to Stadelmann, the headscarf also provides several indications for Cheops. First of all, the entire headscarf of the Sphinx is pleated , which is also the case with Cheops, but not with Chephren, whose headscarf only the side wings are pleated. The headscarf of the Sphinx also lacks a headband, which is always present in Chephren. Finally, the Uraeus serpent on the forehead of the Sphinx seems to speak more for Cheops, as it is raised here, while from Radjedef it is depicted flat.

Building activity outside of Giza

Construction projects for Cheops outside Giza are very sparsely documented. A granite block from his reign was found in Tida near Buto . Further blocks in Tanis and Bubastis were probably moved there secondarily. An inscription in from the Ptolemaic period coming Hathor Temple of Dendera called Cheops also as the builder of the previous building no longer extant today.

Statues

The statuette from Abydos

Statuette of Cheops

→ Main article : Statuette of Cheops

The best-known round sculpture of Cheops is a statuette made of ivory , only 7.5 cm high , which was found in 1903 by Flinders Petrie in Abydos and which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo . It shows the enthroned king wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt. A cartouche containing the ruler's proper name is no longer legible today. However, the name of Horus of Cheops can still be clearly recognized on the throne next to the right lower leg of the ruler. The age of the statuette is disputed. For a long time it was considered a work of the 4th Dynasty; Zahi Hawass, however, dates it to a much more recent time, namely the 26th Dynasty .

More statues

It is often said that the small statuette from Abydos is the only surviving image of Cheops. However, this statement is not correct. In fact, it is only the only nearly completely preserved image that is known for certain to represent Cheops. In addition, there are a number of other finds that can be assigned to this ruler. An unequivocal assignment is possible with a total of three statuette bases, all of which come from Giza. One is now in the Museo Egizio in Turin . The fragment measures just 3.3 × 4.5 × 2.6 cm. It is made of limestone and shows the ruler's left foot, next to which the remains of a cartouche with the name "... fu" can be seen, which can be added to "Chufu".

Berlin king's head

The other two pieces are in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston ; both are made of alabaster . The first (Inv.-No. 24.2711) was found north of the queen pyramid G Ia. It consists of a base plate on which remains of the feet have been preserved. It measures 8.2 × 7.6 cm. The name of Cheops is fully preserved here. The second (Inv.-No. 13.3448) was found in the rubble of the mastaba G 2391, immediately northwest of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Part of the base plate and remains of the feet have been preserved here. As with the Turin fragment, only the end of Cheops' name has survived.

Brooklyn King's Head

During excavations that took place between 2001 and 2003 in the northwest of Sakkara , two terracotta figures were found, both of which show a lion goddess with two kings depicted as children at each foot. In the first figure, which has a total height of 100 cm, the right king is marked with the Horus name of Cheops. The left king is made separately and bears the proper name of Pepi I , a ruler of the 6th dynasty . Presumably his statue was added later and the figure was probably created under Cheops. The second figure is almost identical in size and appearance to the first. The only difference is that the goddess is holding a scepter here . Again, two kings are depicted at their feet, the left of whom was added later and bears the name of Pepi I. There is no inscription on the right one. Due to their similarity, the excavators assume that both statues belong together and were made at the same time under Cheops or his successor. Later Pepi I added his image. In the Middle Kingdom, the now broken statues were repaired and reused, although the kings depicted had probably lost their importance compared to the lion goddess, as their names were covered with plaster.

In addition to the labeled bases and the two group statues, there are eight other pieces in various museums that can only be assigned to Cheops by their style and / or where they were found. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston owns fragments of a total of three possible statues of Cheops. The first was an alabaster seated statue. Two fragments of it (Inv.-No. 25-1509a-b) have been preserved, which were found near the grave of Cheops' mother Hetepheres. One shows the statue base and a foot, the other shows the ruler's right arm on his chest. In the chapel of the Mastaba des Idu (G 7102) in the east cemetery of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, another fragment (Inv.-No. 27.1466) made of alabaster was discovered that belonged to a life-size statue. It includes parts of a wig and the wing tip of a Horus falcon. The third fragment from Boston consists of the remains of a lion's head, which probably belonged to a throne of Cheops.

The Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim houses two other objects ; these were also made from alabaster. One shows a cat-headed goddess ( Bastet or Sachmet ). The position of her right arm reveals that she originally belonged to a group of statues, similar to the well-known triads of Mykerinos . Due to its style, it is assigned to the early 4th dynasty. The second object is a throne, of which only four fragments (Inv. Nos. 5416, 6447 and 6448) have survived, which were found in the GIS cemetery immediately south of the Great Pyramid.

Munich King's Head

The chronological classification of a head of a royal statue in Berlin (Inv.-No. 14396) is very uncertain. It was bought by Adolf Erman in Giza in 1899 and is made from breccia . Edna Russmann believes she can see a portrait of Cheops in this. However, this assignment is problematic because the criteria for it are not clear. The round wig, for example, can only be used with difficulty for the chronological classification, as there are too few examples from the Old Kingdom. The fact that the head is depicted beardless, as it seems to be typical for Cheops, is not sufficient evidence. Dietrich Wildung, for example, assigns the Berlin head to King Niuserre from the 5th Dynasty - this was also depicted without a beard. Finally, Rainer Stadelmann points out that the uraeus snake on the king's forehead, as it is shown here, has only been documented since the reign of Chephren.

The assignment of a head in the Brooklyn Museum (Inv.-No. 46.167) is also not clear . It is 54.3 cm high and made of rose granite. Its location is unknown. Due to the shape of his face, he is sometimes assigned to Cheops, but also to his grandfather Huni by other archaeologists .

A head with almost the same facial features as the Brooklyn head is in the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich . With a height of 5.7 cm, it is much smaller and consists of limestone.

From the Cairo fragment No. 2 (C2 / K2 - after W. Helck ), probably from the former annals stone of the 5th dynasty , we know of two further statues, which are no longer preserved, which Cheops commissioned; one was 7 meters high, the other was made of pure gold.

Cheops in memory of ancient Egypt

Old empire

Cheops enjoyed an extensive cult of the dead during the Old Kingdom . By the end of the 6th dynasty, a total of 67 funeral priests and six officials connected with the cult of the dead are recorded. Of the priests, ten were active during the 4th Dynasty (seven of whom were members of the royal family), 28 during the 5th Dynasty, and 29 during the 6th Dynasty . This is an extremely high number. For comparison: For his predecessor Snofru there were only 18 in the same period and for his two successors Radjedef and Chephren, eight and 32 priests and civil servants, respectively, are attested.

Such a cult of the dead was always of great economic importance, as numerous agricultural goods ( domains ) were set up to supply offerings . In the case of Cheops, however, the cult's economic importance quickly waned. Of a total of 60 royal domains, 35 are known from the 4th dynasty and 25 from the 5th dynasty. During the 6th dynasty, the cult of the dead seems to have no longer played an economic role, because no domain names have survived from this time.

Middle realm

Relief fragment from the temples of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, which was reused in the Amenemhet I pyramid in Lisht; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. No. 22.1.7

During the Middle Kingdom , the cult of the dead of Cheops was largely extinguished. The pyramid city Achet-Chufu continued to exist during this time, but the cult temples remained unused. At the beginning of the 12th dynasty , King Amenemhet I had large areas of the temples demolished and used the stones to build his own pyramid in El Lisht .

A group of statues in Moscow dating to the 13th dynasty suggests that Cheops was worshiped as a god. His name appears as God in the sacrificial formula there.

Wadi Hammamat

An important document from the 12th dynasty is a rock inscription in Wadi Hammamat , which names the names of Cheops and his sons Radjedef, Chephren, Hordjedef and Bauefre side by side. All of these names are written in cartouches, leading to the suggestion that Hordjedef and Bauefre might once have ruled as kings. However, there is no contemporary evidence for this.

A more likely motivation for the application of the inscription can be assumed that Cheops and his sons were venerated as the patron saints of Wadi Hammamat. This thesis is supported by the fact that an alabaster vessel with the name of Cheops was found in Koptos , at the starting point for expeditions into the wadi, and it can therefore be assumed that he once enjoyed cultic veneration there.

The stories of the Westcar papyrus

The Westcar papyrus

An important document from the 13th dynasty that mentions Cheops is the famous Westcar papyrus , in which the king witnesses a miracle and receives a prophecy from a magician named Dedi . Within the story, Cheops is portrayed in a way that is difficult to judge. On the one hand, he is portrayed as ruthless in deciding to behead a convicted prisoner to test Dedi's supposed magical powers. On the other hand, Cheops is presented as inquisitive, docile and generous: he accepts the indignation and the subsequent alternative offer from Dedi to behead three animals instead of the prisoner. He also patiently questions the circumstances and the content of the Dedi's prophecy and generously rewards the magician after everything has been discussed. The contradictory representation of Cheops is the subject of disputes between Egyptologists and historians to this day. Earlier Egyptologists and historians in particular, such as Adolf Erman , Kurt Heinrich Sethe and Wolfgang Helck, rated Cheops' character as heartless and heretical . They refer to the ancient Greek traditions of Herodotus and Diodorus , which describe an exaggeratedly negative character image of Cheops without paying attention to the paradoxical (because positive) traditions of the Egyptians, which they themselves had always taught. But other Egyptologists, such as Dietrich Wildung , see Cheops' judgment as an act of grace : the prisoner could have got his life back if Dedi had actually performed his magic trick. Wildung believes that Dedi's refusal was an allusion to the respect the Egyptians showed for human life. The ancient Egyptians were of the opinion that human life should not be misused for dark magic or similar evil things. Verena Lepper and Miriam Lichtheim suspect that a difficult to judge portrayal of Cheops was exactly what the author had planned: He wanted to create a mysterious character.

New kingdom

During the New Kingdom , Egypt revived interest in the Giza necropolis. During the 18th dynasty , Amenhotep II built a temple north of the Sphinx. Here he also had a stele set up on which Giza is referred to as the "resting place of Cheops and Chephren". His son and successor Thutmose IV later had the Sphinx freed from the desert sand and the so-called Sphinx stele (also dream stele ) erected between its front paws . With regard to Cheops and Chephren, it contains a very similar formulation as on the stela of Amenhotep II. However, neither of them contain clear information about who was considered to be the builder of the Sphinx.

During the 19th Dynasty , Chaemwaset , a son of Ramses II , undertook restoration projects across the country. This also included numerous pyramids, as is known from inscriptions. Possibly the Great Pyramid was one of them. Although nothing is left of its outer cover, the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus have handed down that there were probably original inscriptions on the Great Pyramid, even if Herodotus misinterpreted them as indicating the food rations for the workers.

Also in the 19th dynasty some graffiti are dated, which were affixed in the graves of Chnumhotep II. And Amenemhet in the central Egyptian place Beni Hassan and contain the name of Cheops. These graffiti are probably related to the town of Menat-Chufu , which must have been near the tombs. The place is mentioned in the funerary inscriptions and later visitors to the tomb read the name of the ruler and perhaps saw it in connection with a temple of Cheops, which may have been located near these tombs. Menat-Chufu ( wet nurse of Cheops ) near Beni Hassan is even believed to be the birthplace of this king.

Third intermediate and late period

Signet ring of the Cheops priest Neferibre

Since the 18th dynasty, the mortuary temple of the Queen's pyramid GIc, which belongs to the Cheops complex, served as a sanctuary of Isis . This temple was expanded in the 21st Dynasty . In the 26th dynasty it underwent a major expansion. At this time, Isis priests are documented who also held the title of priest of Cheops. A stele comes from the 26th dynasty, the so-called Inventory Stela , which reports on the founding of this temple and also names Cheops as the builder of his pyramid and the Queen's Pyramid of the Henutsen (GIc).

From Giza or Saqqara comes a gold signet ring, which is dated to the 27th dynasty and belonged to a priest of Cheops named Neferibre. In addition, there are over 30 scarabs with his name from the late period , which prove a certain veneration of his person during this time. The scarabs with his name were apparently perceived by parts of the population as bringing luck. In the Temple of Isis there is also a priest family tree, which extends over seven generations and spans a period from around 670 to 488 BC. Includes. However, it is questionable whether Cheops himself actually enjoyed an independent cult again or whether he only played a symbolic role here in the sense of a supposed founder of the Temple of Isis. He played the role of a fictional primordial king until Ptolemaic times.

According to Dietrich Wildung , the texts commemorating Cheops form a closed complex of monuments that is closely tied to the Temple of Isis at the Great Pyramid. All of the inscriptions can be ascribed to a family or family tradition of a single clan, to which the memory of the ancient kings is reserved. According to Wildung, Cheops, named as the “founder king” and not as an object of cultic veneration, did not enjoy his own cult in Giza later in the 26th and 27th dynasties, as did the other kings of the 4th dynasty in the graffiti and be listed on the serapeum stele. Rather, only epithets and thus fictitious priesthoods in the service of the rulers who have their grave monuments in Giza were added to the real priestly titles. The Isis priests, who were familiar with the circumstances through their activities as priests near the Great Pyramid, chose only those rulers whose monuments they also had before their eyes to decorate their title series of royal priesthoods.

Cheops in memory of antiquity

Bust of Herodotus

Lore

The ancient Egyptian historian Manetho calls Cheops " Suphis " in his Aegyptiaca and gives him a reign of 63 years. He also mentions that Cheops built the Great Pyramid, then claims that his contemporary Herodotus said that the pyramid was built by a king "Cheops". Obviously, Manetho thought "Chéops" and "Suphis" were two different kings. Manetho also reports that Cheops wrote a sacred book with the intention of expressing his contempt for the gods and that he (Manetho) acquired the book during his journey through Egypt. The story of the alleged “holy book” is being questioned by modern Egyptologists because it would be very unusual for a pharaoh to write books and for such a valuable document to be so easily sold to private individuals.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus describes Cheops as a heretic and cruel tyrant : He reports that Cheops followed his father Rhampsinitos on the throne after the benevolent and generous ruler had died. Cheops had ruled for 50 years and the Egyptians began to suffer terribly under him: With the accession to the throne, the king should have started to revile the gods. After that, Cheops had closed all the temples of the gods and kept the priests away from their work by forbidding all kinds of sacrifices to any deity. Cheops then forced the Egyptians to build him the largest pyramid of all time, and Herodotus describes extravagantly how, in his opinion, the pyramid was built and what equipment was used. Herodotus also claims that a huge chamber with a deep lake and an artificial island in the middle was created under the pyramid and that the golden sarcophagus of Cheops was laid there along with the mummy and the precious grave goods. Then Herodotus how many onions , lettuces and leeks plants have consumed the workers and that it all information from one interpreter have received in discussions with the local dead priests. When the king threatened to run out of money, the ruler sent his own daughter to a brothel to fill his coffers. According to a writer, the wages of the workers alone consumed 1,600 talents . It is said of the daughter that in order to be able to erect a monument for herself, she had every lover give her a stone. With these stones she built a small pyramid with an edge length of about 150 feet (corresponds to about 45.7 meters) close to that of her evil father.

The ancient historian Diodorus claims, in addition to his retelling of Herodotus traditions, that Cheops was so hated by his people that the priests of the dead of the king brought his sarcophagus with its corpse and grave goods in a secret place and hid it.

Similar stories are told about King Chephren. He is described as the direct successor of Cheops and also portrayed as evil and is said to have ruled for 56 years. Herodotus claims that the Egyptians also suffered badly under him, that the terrible time of the Egyptians - together with the tyrannical rule of Cheops - lasted a total of 106 years. But then he describes a king Mykerinos as successor to Chephren and that this king was the counterpart to his two predecessors: Herodotus describes Mykerinos as sad and dismayed about the atrocities of Cheops and Chephren and how he brought prosperity and piety back to Egypt.

Interpretations

Today modern Egyptologists such as Aidon Dodson , Dietrich Wildung , Wolfgang Helck and Siegfried Morenz rate Herodotus and Diodor's stories as a kind of bad gossip , both of which were shaped by the contemporary worldview of the authors. They also urge caution with regard to the credibility of the ancient representations. Manetho, Herodotus and Diodorus lived and worked around 2000 years after Cheops and had, if at all, only very outdated sources that they could consult. In the case of Herodotus, it is even suspected that he himself was never in Egypt. Added to this are the views of the local population, which of course no longer corresponded to those of the time of the Old Kingdom and which flowed into the writings of the ancient authors: The ancient authors and later also the priests of the New Kingdom must have excessively large graves such as the Giza pyramids outraged - both the Greeks and the priests of the dead felt reminded of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his megalomaniac building projects at that time . This extremely negative image was conveniently and unreservedly projected onto Cheops and his vast pyramid . The views may have been encouraged by the fact that during the lifetime of Cheops, permission to make oversized gemstone statues and display them in public places and temples was reserved for the king alone. During their lifetime, the historians who wrote in Greek and the priests of the dead and temple could not explain the impressive monuments and statues of Cheops any better than the result of a megalomaniac character. These views and the resulting stories were eagerly collected by the Greek historians and so they made their no less negative reviews of Cheops, since the contemporary population was more easily entertained with scandalous stories than with positive (and therefore boring) stories.

Other Egyptologists attribute the negative assessment by the Greek writers to Egyptian traditions, for example: “The memory of Cheops was kept alive in the royal house, and his tomb was probably also included in the preservation of monuments. In the 'people', however, to which priesthoods can of course belong, in addition to a complete lack of relationships, there have also been unfriendly traditions. The latter drew Herodotus and Hecataus of Abdera for their representations. ”“ That kings are by no means always fondly remembered in popular tradition, is made clear by the stories told by Greek writers about the pyramid builders and other kings. Despite the doubts expressed, they are certainly based on local traditions ... The cult of Cheops also survived into the Persian era. However, that does not rule out the possibility that he was condemned in other circles. In other words, we cannot expect a unanimous glorification or condemnation of a ruler in all levels of tradition. "

Modern reception

Because of his fame, King Cheops is the subject of numerous documentaries , novels and films , just like other kings and queens - such as Akhenaten , Nefertiti and Tutankhamun . As early as 1827, Jane C. Loudon , a science fiction pioneer , published her novel The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century . It describes the English society of the 22nd century, which is technically advanced but no longer knows any morals. Only the revived mummy of Cheops can lead people back on the right path. There are also works such as Cheops by Nagib Mahfuz (1939), which is based on the stories in the Westcar papyrus; Herta von Auers King Dedefré. The Stranger from the North (1974), in which a northern European prince's son averts a famine during Cheops' reign, is adopted by him and ruled after him under the name Djedefre, or the science fiction novel The Second Coming of the Star Gods by Page Bryant (2004), which is about Cheops' supposedly divine ancestry. The French writer and archaeologist Guy Rachet published five novels about the pyramid builders of the 4th Dynasty in 1997 and 1998. The first two volumes, The Pyramid of the Sun and Stone Dream, revolve around Cheops.

Known movies that revolve around Cheops and the construction of his pyramid, or at least allude to the Great Pyramid, are Howard Hawks ' Land of the Pharaohs ( Land of the Pharaohs ) from 1955 and Roland Emmerich's Stargate , 1994.

Cheops and his Great Pyramid at Giza are also the subject of numerous pseudoscientific hypotheses, according to which the pyramid was built with the participation of extraterrestrials and Cheops only reused it, whereby the archaeological finds are either falsified or simply ignored (see also pyramidology ).

A near-Earth asteroid discovered in 1984 bears Cheops' name in English: (3362) Khufu .

literature

General

• JH Breasted : History of Egypt. Reprint of the 1957 edition. Parkland, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-89340-008-7 .
• Peter A. Clayton: The Pharaohs. Rulers and Dynasties in Ancient Egypt. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-8289-0661-3 , pp. 45-49.
• Martin von Falck, Susanne Martinssen-von Falck: The great pharaohs. From the early days to the Middle Kingdom. Marix, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-7374-0976-6 , pp. 101–110.
• Alan Gardiner , Eckart Kißling: History of Ancient Egypt. An introduction (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 354). Kröner, Stuttgart 1965, DNB 451433629 , pp. 4, 41, 83 ff., 87, 93, 106, 116, 467, 470.
• Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , pp. 100-102.
• Karlheinz Schüssler (Ed.): Pharao Cheops and the Magician - Ancient Egyptian Fairy Tales and Stories , Manesse Verlag, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-7175-2022-9 .

About the name

• Michel Baud: Une épithète de Rêdjedef et la prétendue tyrannie de Chéops. Études sur la statuaire de Rêdjedef, II. In: Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. Volume 98, 1998, ISSN  0255-0962 , pp. 15-30, online (PDF; 1.4 MB) .
• Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbook of the Egyptian king names (= Munich Egyptological studies. Volume 49). 2nd, improved and expanded edition of the first edition from 1984. von Zabern, Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6 , pp. 52–53, 178.
• Alan H. Gardiner, Thomas Eric Peet, Jaroslav Černý : The Inscriptions of Sinai Volume 1: Introduction and plates (= Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Volume 45, ISSN  0307-5109 ). 2nd edition, revised and augmented by Jaroslav Černý, Cumberlege u. a., London 1955.
• Auguste Mariette : Monuments divers recueillis en Égypte et en Nubie. Librarie A. Franck, Paris 1872, p. 53.

To the pyramid

• Georges Goyon: The Great Pyramid of Cheops. Mystery and story. Weltbild, Augsburg 1990, ISBN 3-89350-080-4 .
• Michael Haase : The legacy of Cheops. The story of the Great Pyramid. 3rd, updated and revised edition. Herbig, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2346-2 .
• Michael Haase: A place for eternity. The pyramid complex of Cheops from a structural, architectural and cultural-historical point of view. von Zabern, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3105-3 .
• Zahi Hawass : The Treasures of the Pyramids. Weltbild, Augsburg 2003, ISBN 3-8289-0809-8 , pp. 122–129.
• Mark Lehner: Secrets of the pyramids in Egypt. Approved special edition. Orbis, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-572-01261-9 , pp. 108-119.
• Rainer Stadelmann : The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 30). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1142-7 , pp. 105-126.
• Rainer Stadelmann: The great pyramids of Giza. Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1990, ISBN 3-201-01480-X , pp. 103-174.
• Miroslav Verner : The pyramids (= rororo non-fiction book volume 60890). Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-499-60890-1 , pp. 218–247.

For further literature on the pyramid see under Pyramid of Cheops .

Questions of detail

• Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronology of the pharaonic Egypt. The timing of Egyptian history from prehistoric times to 332 BC BC (= Munich Egyptological Studies. Volume 46). von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2310-7 , pp. 26, 33-34, 39, 56, 156-159, 175, 188.
• Aidan Dodson , Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2004, ISBN 977-424-878-3 .
• Zahi Hawass : The Khufu Statuette: Is it an Old Kingdom Sculpture? In: Paule Posener-Kriéger (Ed.): Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar Volume 1 (= Bibliothèque d'étude. Volume 97, 1). Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, Cairo 1985, ISBN 2-7247-0020-1 , pp. 379–394, panels I – III, ( PDF; 8.9 MB ).
• Peter Jánosi: Giza in the 4th dynasty. The building history and occupancy of a necropolis in the Old Kingdom. Volume 1: The mastabas of the core cemeteries and the rock graves (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Memoranda of the entire academy 30 = investigations by the Cairo branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 24). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3244-1 .
• Siegfried Morenz : Traditions around Cheops. In: Journal for Egyptian Language and Antiquity. Volume 97, 1971, ISSN  0044-216X , pp. 111-118.
• Bertha Porter , Rosalind LB Moss : Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings. Volume 3: Memphis. Volume 1: Abû Rawâsh to Abûṣîr. 2nd edition, revised and augmented by Jaromír Málek. Griffith Institute u. a., Oxford 1974, ( PDF 30.5 MB ).
• Matthias Seidel: The royal statue groups. Volume 1: The monuments from the Old Kingdom to the end of the 18th Dynasty (= Hildesheim Egyptological contributions, Volume 42). Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1996, ISBN 3-8067-8136-2 .
• William Stevenson Smith: A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom. Oxford University Press, London 1946.
• Miroslav Verner: Archaeological Remarks on the 4th and 5th Dynasty Chronology. In: Archives Orientální. Volume 69, 2001, ISSN  0044-8699 , pp. 363-418, ( PDF; 31 MB ).
• Dietrich Wildung : The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity. Volume 1: Posthumous sources on the kings of the first four dynasties (= Munich Egyptological Studies. Volume 17). Hessling, Berlin 1969, pp. 152-192 (at the same time: Munich, Univ., Diss., 1967).

Web links

Commons : Cheops  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Cheops  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Zahi Hawass: Khufu - Builder of the Great Pyramid
• The statues of Cheops
• Cheops profile
• The Ancient Egypt Site

Remarks

1. ↑ Term of office: 63 years.
2. ↑ ^{a b Duration of} government: not specified.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} von Beckerath: Handbook of Egyptian royal names. Pp. 17, 52.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Transliteration and transcription according to Rainer Hannig
3. ↑ The reading and pronunciation “Khnum” is known from the Greek ( Adolf Erman , Hermann Grapow (Ed.): Dictionary of the Egyptian Language . Volume 3. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1929, p. 381). Every language also has historical writings that have little to do with logic . Here just "Chnum" instead of "Chenemu", although the 'w' of the transcription is clearly at the end of the word and here the actually written hieroglyphs are actually assigned as "Chenem- (u)" if G43 to W9 ( Gardiner list ) are omitted would be read.
4. ^ Alan H. Gardiner: The royal canon of Turin. Griffith Institute, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-900416-48-3 , illustration 2.
5. ↑ Herodotus Historien Bücher 124–129 (the name appears there only in the accusative Χέοπα and in the genitive Χέοπος )
6. ↑ ^{a b} Flavius ​​Josephus, Folker Siegert: About the originality of Judaism (Contra Apionem) (= About the originality of Judaism. Volume 1, Flavius ​​Josephus. From: Writings of the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum . Westphalia Institutum Iudaicum Delitzschianum Münster). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-54206-4 , p. 85.
7. ^ Alan B. Lloyd: Herodotus, book II. P. 62 ff.
8. ↑ Year numbers according to: Schneider: Lexikon der Pharaonen.
9. ^ Wilhelm Gemoll : Greek-German school and hand dictionary . G. Freytag Verlag / Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Munich / Vienna 1965.
10. ↑ cf. about: Breasted: History of Egypt. P. 85.
11. ↑ Silke Roth: The royal mothers of ancient Egypt from the early days to the end of the 12th Dynasty (= Egypt and Old Testament 46). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-447-04368-7 (also: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 1997).
12. ↑ Peter Jánosi : The pyramids of the queens. Investigations into a grave type of the Old and Middle Kingdom (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Memoranda of the whole academy 13 = investigations of the Cairo branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 13). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7001-2207-1 , p. 73 ff.
13. ^ Jánosi: Giza in the 4th dynasty. P. 62.
14. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs. P. 100.
15. ^ Jánosi: Giza in the 4th dynasty. Pp. 101-103.
16. ^ Roman Gundacker: A contribution to the genealogy of the 4th dynasty. In: Sokar. Volume 16, 2008, ISSN  1438-7956 , pp. 22-51.
17. ^ Dodson, Hilton: Complete Royal Families. Pp. 56, 60.
18. ↑ Herodotus : Histories . Ed .: Hans Wilhelm Haussig . 4th edition. Alfred Kröner, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-520-22404-6 , II, 127, pp. 155 . ( Herodotus, On Egypt. Histories 2, 35-99. ( Memento of December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )).
19. ↑ see: Verner: Archaeological Remarks.
20. ↑ carlo-bergmann.de: Wilkinson's second Zerzura
21. ↑ Gregory Marouard: Un port de la IVe Dynastie au Ouadi al-Jarf (mer Rouge). In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale (BIFAO). Volume 112, 2012, pp. 399-446 (online) .
22. ^ Pierre Tallet: Les "ports intermittents" de la mer Rouge à l'époque pharaonique: caractéristiques et chronologie. In: Bruno Argémi and Pierre Tallet (eds.): Entre Nil et mers. La navigation en Égypte ancienne (= Nehet. Revue numérique d'Égyptologie Volume 3). Université de Paris-Sorbonne / Université libre de Bruxelles, Paris / Brussels 2015, p. 60, tab. 1 (online)
23. ^ Pierre Tallet: Les papyrus de la mer Rouge (ouadi el-Jarf, golfe de Suez). In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (CRAIBL). Volume 2013, 2013, pp. 1020-1021 (online)
24. ↑ Rudolf Anthes: The rock inscriptions from Hatnub (= studies of the history and antiquity of Egypt. (UGAÄ) Volume 9). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1928, pp. 1-8.
25. ↑ Ian Shaw: Quarrying and landscape at Gebel el-Asr in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. In: Francesco Raffaele, Massimiliano Nuzzollo, and Ilaria Incordino (Eds.): Recent Discoveries and Latest Researches in Egyptology. Proceedings of the First Neapolitan Congress of Egyptology, Naples, June 18th-20th 2008. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 293-312 (online) .
26. ↑ Anna Maria Donadoni Roveri: I sarcofagi egizi dalle origini alla fine dell'Antico Regno (= Series Archeologica 16, ZDB -ID 975597-4 ). Istituto di Studi del Vicino Oriente, Rome 1969, p. 104 ( PDF; 46.5 MB ).
27. ↑ discovery channel: Pharaonic Boat to Be Excavated, Reassembled ( memento of July 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), July 25, 2008.
28. ↑ ^{a b} Rainer Stadelmann: Formal criteria for dating the royal sculpture of the 4th dynasty. In: Nicolas Grimal (ed.): Les critères de datation stylistiques à l'Ancien Empire (= Bibliothèque d'étude 120). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1998, ISBN 2-7247-0206-9 , pp. 353-387 ( PDF; 18.6 MB ).
29. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 189-190.
30. ↑ Hawass: The Khufu Statuette. Pp. 379-394.
31. ^ Porter, Moss: Topographical Bibliography. P. 12; Dagmar Stockfisch: Investigations into the cult of the dead of the Egyptian king in the Old Kingdom. The decoration of the royal cult complexes (= Antiquitates. Volume 25, ISSN  1435-7445 ). Kovač, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-8300-0857-0 (also: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 1994).
32. ^ Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Khufu sculpture fragment
33. ^ Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Feet and base of statuette of Khufu
34. ^ Porter, Moss: Topographical Bibliography. P. 12; Smith: A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom.
35. ↑ Sakuji Yoshimura, Nozomu Kawai, Hiroyuki Kashiwagi: A Sacred Hillside at Northwest Saqqara. A Preliminary Report on the Excavations 2001-2003. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute Cairo Department (MDAIK). Volume 61, 2005, pp. 392-394; Sakuji Yoshimura (Ed.): Sakuji Yoshimura's Excavating in Egypt for 40 Years. Waseda University Expedition 1966-2006. Project in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of Waseda University. Waseda University, Tokyo 2006, pp. 134-137, 223 (No. 174-75).
36. ^ Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Fragment of Statue, probably King Khufu
37. ^ Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Fragments of a royal head, Khufu, with falcon
38. ^ Porter, Moss: Topographical Bibliography. William Kelly Simpson: The mastabas of Qar and Idu. G7101 and 7102 (= Giza Mastabas 2). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA 1976, ISBN 0-87846-093-4 , p. 12, p. 19, Fig. 43, plate XIV d, ( PDF; 58.6 MB ); Smith: A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom. P. 20, plate 5a.
39. ^ Smith: A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom.
40. ↑ Seidel: The royal statue groups. P. 10 ff.
41. ↑ Seidel: The royal statue groups. P. 13 ff.
42. ↑ Edna Russmann: Two Heads of the Early Fourth Dynasty. In: Art of the Old Kingdom (= German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. Special publication 28). Symposium at the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo on October 29 and 30, 1991. von Zabern, Mainz 1995, ISBN 3-8053-1710-7 , pp. 111-118.
43. ^ Richard A. Fazzini, Robert S. Bianchi, James F. Romano, Donald B. Spanel: Ancient Egyptian Art in the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn Museum u. a., Brooklyn NY 1989, ISBN 0-87273-118-9 .
44. ^ Sylvia Schoske, Dietrich Wildung (ed.): State Collection of Egyptian Art, Munich. (= Zabern's illustrated books on archeology . Volume 31 = Ancient World . 26, 1995 = 26). von Zabern, Mainz 1995, ISBN 3-8053-1837-5 , p. 43 f.
45. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 152-156.
46. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 105-106.
47. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. P. 193.
48. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 200-202.
49. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 156-158.
50. ↑ Svetlana Hodjash , Oleg Berlev: The Egyptian reliefs and stelae in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Aurora Art Publishers, Leningrad 1982, pp. 93-94.
51. ^ Aidan Dodson, Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Pp. 50-61.
52. ↑ WM Flinders Petrie : Koptos. Quaritch, London 1896, pp. 4, 23, plates 21, 3, (online)
53. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 164-165, 174.
54. ^ Adolf Erman: Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar I. Introduction and Commentary. Pp. 52-56.
55. ↑ ^{a b} Verena M. Lepper: Investigations on pWestcar. Pp. 308-310.
56. ↑ ^{a b} Miriam Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian literature. P. 211.
57. ↑ Friedrich Lange: The stories of Herodotus. Volume 1, pp. 188-190.
58. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Dietrich Wildung: The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity. Pp. 105-205.
59. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 168, 206-207.
60. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. P. 170.
61. ↑ Herodotus: Histories. II, 125.
62. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 171-173.
63. ↑ cf. Breasted: History of Egypt. P. 85; Pierre Montet : Géographie de l'Égypte Ancienne. 2nd part: To-chemâ. = La Haute Egypte. Librairie C. Klincksieck u. a., Paris 1961, p. 160, online (PDF; 11 MB) .
64. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 177-184.
65. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 185-186.
66. ↑ WM Flinders Petrie: Scarabs and Cylinders with Names (= Publications of the Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archeology in Egypt 29, ZDB -ID 991516-3 ). School of Archeology in Egypt, London 1917, Plate VIII, (online) ; Gunnar Sperveslage: Cheops as savior in the late period. In: Sokar. Volume 19, 2009, pp. 15-21.
67. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 186-187.
68. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. P. 188.
69. ↑ Wildung: role of Egyptian kings. Pp. 190-192.
70. ↑ Wildung: Role of Kings. Pp. 187-188.
71. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Siegfried Morenz: Traditions around Cheops. In: Journal for Egyptian Language and Antiquity. vol. 97, Berlin 1971, ISSN  0044-216X , pp. 111-118.
72. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Wolfgang Helck: History of Ancient Egypt. Pp. 23-25, 54-62.
73. ↑ ^{a b} Daniel Tenner: The water castle of the Pharaoh. Pp. 40-42.
74. ↑ Erhart Graefe: The good reputation of the king "Snofru". In: Studies in Egyptology Presented to Miriam Lichtheim Volume 1, 1990. pp. 257-263; similar: Haase: A place for eternity. 127.
75. ↑ Jane C. Loudon: The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century . Henry Colburn, London 1827.
76. ↑ Najib Mahfuz (Author), Raymond T. floor (translator): Khufu's Wisdom. 2003.
77. ↑ Herta von Auer: King Dedefré. The stranger from the north. Grabert, Tübingen 1974.
78. ^ Page Bryant: The Second Coming of the Star Gods. 2004.
79. ↑ Philip C. DiMare: Movies in American History. P. 891.
80. ↑ Stargate. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 . 
81. ↑ see Erich von Däniken: Memories of the future. P. 118.
82. ↑ Ingo Kugenbuch: Why the spoon bends and the Madonna cries. Pp. 139-142.
83. ↑ 3362 Khufu in the Internet database of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (English).

predecessor	Office	successor
Sneferu	Pharaoh of Egypt 4th Dynasty	Radjedef

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on March 10, 2008 in this version .