Pyramid of Khafre
| Pyramid of Khafre | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Khafre | |
| Coordinates | 29°58′34″N 31°07′51″E / 29.97611°N 31.13083°ECoordinates: 29°58′34″N 31°07′51″E / 29.97611°N 31.13083°E |
| Ancient name | Great is Khafre |
| Constructed | c. 2570 BC (4th dynasty) |
| Type | True pyramid |
| Height | 136.4 metres (448 ft) (Originally: 143.5 m or 471 ft) |
| Base | 215.28 metres (706 ft) |
| Volume | 2,211,096 cubic metres (78,084,118 cu ft) |
| Slope | 53°10' |
The Pyramid of Khafre or of Chephren is the second-tallest and second-largest of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids of Giza and the tomb of the Fourth-Dynasty pharaoh Khafre (Chefren), who ruled from c. 2558 to 2532 BC.
The pyramid has a base length of 215.5 m (706 ft) and rises up to a height of 136.4 metres (448 ft) The pyramid is made of limestone blocks weighing more than 2 tons each. The slope of the pyramid rises at a 53° 10' angle, steeper than its neighbor, the Pyramid of Khufu, which has an angle of 51°50'40". The pyramid sits on bedrock 10 m (33 ft) higher than Khufu’s pyramid, which makes it appear to be taller.
The pyramid was likely opened and robbed during the First Intermediate Period. During the Eighteenth Dynasty, the overseer of temple construction took casing stone from it to build a temple in Heliopolis on Ramesses II’s orders. Arab historian Ibn Abd al-Salam recorded that the pyramid was opened in 1372 AD.
On the wall of the burial chamber, there is an Arabic graffito that probably dates from the same time.
It is not known when the casing stones of the pyramid were robbed; however, they were presumably still in place by 1646, when John Greaves, professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford in his "Pyramidographia," wrote that, while its stones weren't as large or as regularly laid as in Khufu's, the surface was smooth and even free of breaches of inequalities, except on the south.
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