The Chapel of Queen Mersyankh III (photo)

The Chapel of Queen Mersyankh III of the Fourth Dynasty On April 23, 1927 the tomb was discovered and excavated by George Reisner. A few days later, on March 4th, his team entered the chapel, accessible through an entrance with stairs in the middle of the east wall. They found extraordinarily preserved statuary and colorful relief sculpture with a remarkable emphasis on the female figures. Mersyankh’s husband, King Khafre, was not shown in the tomb at all. This indicates the importance of female nobility during the queen`s life. Detail of the Queen andher titles: “king’s daughter of his body, she who sits with Horus, follower of Horus Meresankh”. These are typical titles of a queen in the Old Kingdom. Surprising is the title of the king’s daughter of his body because Meresankh’s father never became king. Possible, this title expresses her relation to her grandfather Khufu, or possibly her royal stepfather adopted her (in this case it would be surprising that she depicted her real father Kawab in her tomb!). The central part of the east wall of the main chamber shows four registers of scenes. The topmost register contains personifications of the funerary estates in the form of men and women bringing offerings. In front of each figure the name of the estate is written, containing the cartouche of Khufu and, in one case, the cartouche of Djedefre. It was from these estates, which the kings established in different parts of Egypt, that offerings for the queen’s funerary cult were brought. The second register shows bird-trapping scene with many different birds caught in the trap in a lotus pool. The third register shows men conducting cattle to the left. In the fourth register we see boats and herdsmen driving a herd of horned sheep. Birds and small and large animals were brought as a part of the funerary offerings for the queen. She – like every Egyptian – wished to have enough meat offered in her afterlife.