MWW Artwork of the Day (11/10/22) Fourth Dynasty (Egyptian, 2613–2494 BCE) Head of King Menkaura (Mycerinus)(c. 2532–2503 BCE) Travertine sculpture, 29.2 x 19.6 x 21.9 cm. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Menkaure (also read as Menkaura), was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th dynasty during the Old Kingdom, who is well known under his Hellenized names Mykerinos (by Herodotus) and Menkheres (by Manetho). According to Manetho, he was the throne successor of king Bikheris, but according to archaeological evidences he rather was the successor of king Khafre. Menkaure became famous for his pyramid tomb at Giza and his beautiful statue triads, showing the king together with goddesses and his wife

So, you though the Pyramids were out in the desert, far away from settlements. When driving up to the pyramidal area you realize. Above the roofs the two largest pyramids rise up. From some angles you feel like they're coming down from the sky, just about to land on the houses of Giza. The truth is not far from this. The residents area ends, then there is a border of shacks, before the bedrock carrying the pyramids rise some five meters above everything else.

Even if the photos lie, the photographers did not. Just 2 minutes walk up the hill to the middle pyramid, makes you forget all about the metropolis lying behind you. Hustlers here are just as they have been for centuries. A bit aggressive, and all set on leading you away from what you set out for. Shun them, they're okay, but they don't seem to comprehend those 4,500 years old pyramids are more interesting when you can touch them, than they are from the hills a kilometer away.

Unknown, Menkaure and Khamerernebty, ca. 2490 - 2472 BCE, Graywacke, Egyptian Art from Old Kingdom

The statue of the pharao Menkaure and his queen is a great example of Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty royal sculpture. The statue was found in a hole dug earlier by treasure-hunters below the floor of a room in the Valley Temple of the pyramid of Menkaure at Giza during excavations in 1908-10.

It is a high-relief sculpture that portraits the pharao and most likely his wife Khamerernebty in frozen gestures. These frozen, frontal poses with arms hanging straight down and close to his well-build body are stereotypic for Egyptian statues of the Old Kingdom. The only emotion shown between the couple is the right arm of the queen encircling the the king´s waist and her left resting on his arm. The historians interpretation is that the artist´s aim was not "to portray living figures but to suggest the timeless nature of the stone statue that was designed to provide an eternal substitute home for the ka." (Kleiner 63)

The forms of the sculpture with the artificial poses, the overall idealized anatomical shapes of the bodies, the stiff are seen to represent the fundamental character of the Egyptian culture reflecting a highly regulated, hierarchical structure of Ancient Egyptian society.  

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At a site in Tel Hazor National Park, north of the Sea of Galilee, archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have unearthed part of a unique Sphinx belonging to one of the ancient pyramid-building pharaohs.

The Hazor Excavations are headed by Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor, the Yigael Yadin Professor in the Archaeology of Eretz Israel at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, and Dr. Sharon Zuckerman, a lecturer at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology.