23 Facts About Menkauhor Kaiu

Menkauhor Kaiu was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Old Kingdom period.

Menkauhor Kaiu was the seventh ruler of the Fifth Dynasty at the end of the 25th century BC or early in the 24th century BC.

Beyond the construction of monuments, the only known activity dated to Menkauhor Kaiu's reign is an expedition to the copper and turquoise mines in Sinai.

Menkauhor Kaiu ordered the construction of a sun temple, called the "Akhet-Ra", meaning "The Horizon of Ra".

Figure of Menkauhor Kaiu was at the centre of a long lasting funerary cult until the end of the Old Kingdom period, with at least seven agricultural domains producing goods for the necessary offerings.

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Menkauhor Kaiu is attested by three hieroglyphic sources, all from the much later New Kingdom period.

Menkauhor Kaiu is mentioned on the Saqqara Tablet and on the Turin canon, both of which were written during the reign of Ramesses II.

Relatively few attestations dating to Menkauhor Kaiu's reign have survived compared to the other kings of the Fifth Dynasty.

Nonetheless, Menkauhor Kaiu's name is well attested in the names and titles of priests and officials of the Fifth Dynasty as well as in the names of the agricultural estates associated with his funerary cult.

Only secure depiction of the king dating to the Old Kingdom that has survived to this day is a rough, possibly unfinished, alabaster statuette showing Menkauhor Kaiu enthroned and wearing the tight-fitting ceremonial robe of the Heb-sed.

Berlandini bases her hypothesis on stylistic grounds, noting the resemblance with Menkauhor Kaiu's seated statue, as well as the location of the second statue, which was uncovered east of Teti's pyramid, in close proximity to Menkauhor Kaiu's pyramid.

Monumental attestations of Menkauhor Kaiu are limited to a rock inscription at the Wadi Maghareh in Sinai, showing his titulary and a rough stele inscribed with his cartouche from Mastaba 904 at Saqqara.

Name of Menkauhor Kaiu is a departure from those of other kings of the Fifth Dynasty.

The name of Menkauhor Kaiu instead finds its peers among the princes of the Fifth Dynasty with, for example, prince Khentykauhor "The forces of Horus are at the fore", a son of Nyuserre Ini, and prince Neserkauhor, a son of Djedkare Isesi.

The similarity of Khentykauhor's name to that of Menkauhor Kaiu led the Egyptologists Miroslav Verner and Vivienne Callender to propose that the two are the same person, with Khentykauhor taking the name "Menkauhor Kaiu" upon ascending the throne.

Queen Meresankh IV has been suggested as a consort for Menkauhor Kaiu based on the dating and location of her tomb in Saqqara.

Two sons have been suggested for Menkauhor Kaiu based on the dating and general location of their tombs in Saqqara: princes Raemka and Kaemtjenent, both believed to be children of Meresankh IV.

The small seated statue of Menkauhor Kaiu wearing the robe of the Sed festival might suggest a longer reign, since this festival was typically celebrated only after a ruler had spent 30 years on the throne.

Menkauhor Kaiu sent an expedition to Sinai to exploit the mines of turquoise and copper in the Wadi Maghareh.

Menkauhor Kaiu is known to have ordered the construction of two major monuments during his reign: a sun temple for the veneration of Ra and a pyramid for his burial, known today as the "Headless Pyramid".

Menkauhor Kaiu built a pyramid in North-Saqqara, thereby abandoning the royal necropolis of Abusir, where kings of the Fifth Dynasty had been buried since the reign of Sahure, some 80 years earlier.

At this point Menkauhor Kaiu had been deified as a local god of the Saqqara necropolis acting as a divine intercessor, and qualified of "Strong Lord of the Two Lands, Menkauhor Kaiu the Justified".

An inscribed block dating to the later Ramesside period and now in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, was uncovered by Lepsius in a house in Abusir and shows Menkauhor Kaiu enthroned beside four other deified kings of the Old Kingdom: the name of the first, partially lost, but probably Sneferu is then followed by Djedefre, Menkaure, Menkauhor Kaiu and finally Neferkare.