The Pharaohs of the Giza Pyramids: Three Kings, Eighty Years

The Giza pyramids belong to three kings, who ruled immediately one after another within the same family: grandfather, son, grandson, over a span of roughly eighty years.

This is remarkable because it casts the site in a different light. It is not a necropolis that grew over centuries, where someone added something here or there at some point, but a family enterprise spanning three generations. The structures stand side by side because the patrons were related.

These three belong to the Fourth Dynasty, which had more than three kings. The others built elsewhere, for reasons that are partly clear and partly mysterious. This too is part of the answer, as it shows that Giza was not an obvious choice.

Then there are the mix-ups. The most famous Egyptian king of all has nothing to do with this site; he lived well over twelve hundred years later and was buried several hundred kilometers away. More on that below.

For context, it is also worth noting that this dynasty was not particularly long. Six kings, totaling about a hundred years, and within this span falls the entire peak of Egyptian pyramid building. Before this, experimentation took place; afterward, smaller structures were built. Thus, the stone mass left behind by the Old Kingdom is concentrated into just a few generations.

A note on names first. The common forms are Greek; the Egyptian ones sound different. Cheops was Khufu, Chephren was Khafre, and Mykerinos was Menkaure. Both forms are in use and refer to the same individuals.

Khufu, and why the attribution is unusually secure

Which pharaoh built the Great Pyramid? Khufu, the second king of the Fourth Dynasty, and the attribution is secured better than usual.

It does not rest on a dedication inscription, as none exists, but on markings by the work gangs in the relieving chambers above the burial chamber. These rooms were never intended for entry, and the red paint notes inside contain his name. A forgery in a place no one was supposed to see would make no sense.

His father was Sneferu, builder of several pyramids at Dahshur and the one under whom the structural form matured. His son Khafre built the middle complex along with the Sphinx, and his grandson Menkaure built the smallest. Thus, the sequence on the site is simultaneously a generational sequence.

Absolute dates vary by decades depending on the chronology used. A common list of rulers places Khufu around 2550 to 2530 BC, while other counts place him slightly earlier. For the sequence and intervals between reigns, this makes no difference; for the date on a sign, it does.

The familial connection itself is well documented, via the officials' tombs surrounding the site. In the mortuary chapels of the court, titles are listed that specify kinship relations and responsibilities, sometimes spanning multiple generations. From this network, the royal succession can be reconstructed independently of the king lists, and both agree. This is why the sequence is considered secure, even if the absolute dates fluctuate.

How long Khufu reigned is also uncertain. Records indicate periods ranging from just over twenty to over thirty years, and a find from 2013 confirms that construction was still underway on the plateau in the 27th year of his reign.

Three Kings of the Dynasty Built Elsewhere

The Fourth Dynasty had six kings, and only three of them built at Giza. The other three are almost as revealing.

Sneferu, the father of the greatest patron, built at Dahshur, about thirty kilometers to the south. Several pyramids are attributed to him, including one with a kink in its flank because the original slope could not be maintained. Thus, he moved more stone volume than his son, distributed across multiple structures, and brought the building form to maturity.

Between Khufu and Khafre reigned Djedefre, who went to Abu Rawash, several kilometers north of the plateau. His structure is now largely dismantled. Something else is noteworthy: He was the first to bear the title Son of the Sun God, and his change of location is frequently linked to this religious shift.

At the end of the dynasty stands Shepseskaf, who broke entirely with the building tradition. He completed his predecessor's complex at Giza but chose not to be buried in a pyramid himself; instead, he was interred in a large rectangular structure at Saqqara. Why remains unknown.

From this distribution, we can read something. The location of a royal complex was apparently not a family tradition but a decision, made anew by each ruler. Only after the plateau already held two large complexes did it become the obvious site, and even then, the last king of the dynasty deviated from it again.

The official overview of the site accordingly lists only three royal complexes. Everything else on the plateau belongs to relatives, officials, and craftsmen.

What We Know About These People

What do we know about these people? Surprisingly little, and the distribution is paradoxical.

Of Khufu, the patron of the largest stone structure on Earth, the only fully preserved round sculpture is an ivory figurine standing seven-and-a-half centimeters tall. It was found in 1903 at Abydos, in two parts, the head arriving only three weeks after the body. That is all.

In contrast, several life-size statues of his son Khafre survive, including a famous seated figure in which a falcon embraces the head from behind. There are also images of Menkaure, including group figures with goddesses. Ironically, the most famous of the three is the least well-documented.

This tells us little about their personalities. Herodotus describes Khufu two thousand years later as a tyrant who closed the temples, but there is no Egyptian evidence for this, and the narrative bears all the marks of a late legend. Egyptian sources from the time itself are administrative texts and titles, not character portraits.

One detail relativizes the image of the omnipotent ruler. The officials' tombs on the plateau show a broad leadership class with their own titles, own burial complexes, and own cult endowments, laid out in sight of the king's tomb. These people are known by name, often better than the kings themselves, because their chapels are decorated and inscribed. Anyone wishing to learn about the Fourth Dynasty will learn mostly from them.

What can be said is organizational: These three reigns possessed an administration capable of allocating, supplying, and coordinating tens of thousands of people over decades. On its own, this is the most telling information about them.

Tutankhamun Has Nothing to Do with Giza

The most frequent mix-up deserves its own paragraph because it persists stubbornly.

Tutankhamun and the Giza Pyramids have nothing to do with each other. He belongs to the Eighteenth Dynasty and ruled in the fourteenth century BC, roughly twelve hundred years after the construction of the Great Pyramid. He was not buried in a pyramid but in a rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, over five hundred kilometers upstream.

The reason for the confusion is obvious. His tomb was discovered in 1922 almost intact, with an assemblage that has since shaped the image of ancient Egypt. The gold mask and the pyramid are the two most recognizable images of this culture, and in the mind they merge, although more time lies between them than between us and the Roman Empire.

Notably, the state of transmission varies greatly. From Tutankhamun we know his face, clothing, furniture, and even his illnesses. Of the three kings whose structures consumed a thousand times more material, we know names, regnal years, and a few statues. Fame in archaeology does not depend on how much someone built, but on whether their tomb remained unlooted.

For visitors, this has a practical consequence: If you want to see the famous gold objects, you must go to the museum, not the plateau. There is nothing like it in the pyramids, nor was there ever anything comparable to see, because royal burial chambers of this era were unadorned.

A second mix-up concerns the sequence of structures. Because the middle pyramid often appears tallest in photos, many consider it the oldest or largest. In fact, the northeast one is the first and largest, the middle one is the second, and the southwest one is the third and smallest. The generational sequence thus runs from northeast to southwest, and once you know this, you read the site in the correct direction.

Conversely: What stands on the plateau, Tutankhamun found as an ancient monument, just as we find a Romanesque church.

Frequently asked questions

For which pharaoh was the Great Pyramid built?

For Khufu, usually called Cheops in English, the second king of the Fourth Dynasty. He commissioned it and was to be buried in it.

How many kings of the Fourth Dynasty built at Giza?

Three out of six. The others built at Dahshur, Abu Rawash, and Saqqara.

Were the three related?

Yes. They were father, son, and grandson, whose reigns followed one another immediately.

Why are the dates different?

Because different chronologies set the absolute dates apart by decades. The sequence and intervals, however, are secure.

Are there portraits of these kings?

Several of Khafre and Menkaure, some life-size. Of Khufu, only a seven-and-a-half-centimeter ivory figurine survives.