Pyramid of Menkaure (Mykerinus Pyramid)

The third and smallest of the great pyramids at Giza is credited to the pharaoh Menkaure (Mycerinus in Greek). It is thought to have been completed at the end of the 26th century BC. Menkaure, like the builders of the other pyramids at Giza, ruled Egypt during the 4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom Period of Ancient Egypt.The pharaoh Menkaure died before the structure was finished – around the bottom are several courses of granite facing that were never properly smoothed. Inside, you descend into three distinct levels – the largest surprisingly vast – and you can peer into the main tomb.

Outside the pyramid you’ll see the excavated remains of Menkaure’s Funerary Temple and, further east, the ruins of his valley temple. To the south is a set of Queens’ Pyramids. If you hike this far, horse and camel touts will want to lure you out into the desert for better photo ops of all three pyramids. If you go, keep your general-admission ticket handy in case police ask for it when you return.The pyramid had an original height of 215 feet, but stands at 204 feet today as a result of the removal of its outer casing and capstone. The lower section of the pyramid was encased in pink granite and the upper portions in white Tura limestone, as with the other pyramids at Giza and in other pyramid fields.