Statue of King Menkaure and Queen Khamerernebty II

At twilight on January 10, 1910, a young boy beckoned George Reisner to the Menkaure Valley Temple. There, emerging from a robbers’ pit into which they had been discarded were the tops of two heads, perfectly preserved and nearly life-size. This was the modern world’s first glimpse of one of humankind’s artistic masterworks, the statue of Menkaure and queen Khamerernebty II.



Fifth king of 4th Dynasty. Son of Khafre. Husband of Khamerernebti II. Builder of the Third Pyramid at Giza. Known two thousand years later by the Greeks as King Mycerinus. Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty, ca. 2532-2503 BC. Now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Images: The Giza Project at Harvard University