Khufu (in Greek known as Χέωψ, Cheops, ; according to Manetho, Σοῦφις, Suphis) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 B.C. Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . Khufu's full name was "Khnum-Khufu" which means "the god Khnum protects me."

Life

Khufu was the son of King Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres. Unlike his father, Khufu is remembered as a cruel and ruthless pharaoh in later folklore. Khufu had nine sons, one of whom, Djedefra, was his immediate successor. He also had fifteen daughters, one of whom would later become Queen Hetepheres II.

Khufu came to his throne in his twenties, and reigned for about 23 years, which is the number ascribed to him by the Turin King List. Other sources from much later periods suggest a significantly longer reign: Manetho gives him a reign of 63 years, and Herodotus states that he reigned fifty years. Since 2000, two dates have been discovered from his reign. An inscription containing his highest regnal year, the "Year of the 17th Count of Khufu", first mentioned by Flinders Petrie in an 1883 book and then lost to historians, was rediscovered by Zahi Hawass in 2001 in one of the relieving chambers within this king's pyramid. Secondly, in 2003, the "Year after the 13th cattle count" of Khufu was found on a rock inscription at the Dakhla Oasis in the Sahara. See this photo which contains Khufu's name enclosed in a serekh and the aforementioned date.1

He started building his pyramid at Giza, the first to be built there. Based on inscriptional evidence, it is also likely that he led military expeditions into the Sinai, Nubia and Libya.

The Westcar Papyrus, which was written well after his reign during the Middle Kingdom or later, describes the pharaoh being told magical tales by his sons Khafra and Djedefra. This story cycle depicts Khufu as mean and cruel, and as being ultimately frustrated in his attempts to ensure that his dynasty survives past his two sons. Whether anything in this story cycle is based on fact is unknown, but Khufu's negative reputation lasted at least until the time of Herodotus, who was told further stories of that king's cruelty to his people and to his own family in order to ensure the construction of his pyramid. What is known for certain is that his funerary cult lasted until the 26th Dynasty, which was one of the last native-Egyptian royal dynasties, almost 2,000 years after his death.

Funerary monuments

An empty sarcophagus is located in the King's Chamber inside the pyramid though it is unclear if it had ever been used for such a purpose as burial. While his mummy has never been recovered, his impressive and well preserved solar barge--or Khufu ship--was discovered buried in a pit at the foot of his great pyramid at Giza in 1954 by Egyptian archaeologists. It has been reassembled and placed in a museum for public viewing.