Menkaure the sixth king of the 4th dynasty. Each side measures 356 1/2 feet and the structure's completed height was 218 feet.Each monument originally consisted of not only the pyramid itself, which housed the body of the deceased king, but also an adjoining mortuary temple and a sloping causeway temple near the Nile. Close to each pyramid were one or more subsidiary pyramids used for the burials of members of the royal family.To the south of the Great Pyramid near Khafre's valley temple lies the Great Sphinx. Carved out of a knoll of rock, the Sphinx has the facial features of King Khafre, but the body of a recumbent lion; it is approximately 240 feet long and 66 feet high. The sphinx guards Khafu's vallytemple and causeway.Around 2465 B.C.- halfway through the Old Kingdom-pyramids suddenly became less important. No one knows why, but many scholars have suggested that after Khufu's pyramid, which took roughly 23 years to buil, the kingdom grew weary with each pharaoh's effort to outdo his predecessor. Several pharaohs died before their pyramids were completed, perhaps a cause of embarrassment or even horror among the populace.Never agian would a king build his pyramid on a truly colossal scale. Instead the religious focus shifted from the pyramid itself toward the mortuary temple that stood just east of it. The funerary culture was growing more sophisticated, even as the pharaoh's unlimited power was beginning to erode.The pyramids will always be a constant reminder of, the vast architecturial accomplishments of Egypt's Old Kingdom. A mystical gateway for a pharaoh's leap to immortality, a pyramid drew resourses from throughout the king's domain and beyond...
