Autobiography pharaoh khufu summary

Khufu or Cheops died c. Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , but many other aspects of his reign are poorly documented.

How did khufu become pharaoh

The only completely preserved portrait of the king is a small ivory figurine found in a temple ruin of a later period at Abydos in All other reliefs and statues were found in fragments, and many buildings of Khufu are lost. Everything known about Khufu comes from inscriptions in his necropolis at Giza and later documents. Most documents that mention king Khufu were written by ancient Egyptian and Greek historians around BC.

As a result, an obscure and critical picture of Khufu's personality persists. Khufu's name was dedicated to the god Khnum , which might point to an increase of Khnum's popularity and religious importance. In fact, several royal and religious titles introduced at this time may point out that Egyptian pharaohs sought to accentuate their divine origin and status by dedicating their cartouche names official royal names to certain deities.

Khufu may have viewed himself as a divine creator, a role that was already given to Khnum, the god of creation and growth. As a consequence, the king connected Khnum's name with his own. Khufu's full name Khnum-khufu means "Khnum protect me". The pharaoh officially used two versions of his birth name: Khnum-khufu and Khufu. The first complete version clearly exhibits Khufu's religious loyalty to Khnum, the second shorter version does not.

It is unknown as to why the king would use a shortened name version since it hides the name of Khnum and the king's name connection to this god. It might be possible though, that the short name was not meant to be connected to any god at all.