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Sometimes they bear the forms of Egyptian gods, as Horus, or Thoth, or Anubis; sometimes cartouches with the names of kings as Menkara, Thothmes III., Amenophis III., Seti I., &c.; sometimes mere sacred emblems, as the winged uraeus, the disk between two uraei, and the like.
For an account of the necropolis of Medûm, see W.M.F. Petrie's Medum. The sarcophagus of Menkara, unfortunately lost at sea when on its way to England, was of this type. This wall scene is from the tomb of Nenka, near Sakkarah.
This mummiform type of sarcophagus is rarely met with under the Memphite dynasties, though that of Menkara, the Mycerinus of the Greeks, affords a memorable example. Under the Eleventh Dynasty, the mummy-case is frequently but a hollowed tree-trunk, roughly sculptured outside, with a head at one end and feet at the other.
Thanks to this device, the central pressure was thrown almost entirely on the side faces, and the chamber was preserved. The pyramids of Khafra and Menkara were built on a different plan inside to that of Khûfû. Khafra's had two entrances, both to the north, one from the platform before the pyramid, the other fifty feet above the ground.
A usual plan in early times was to dress the joint faces of the block in the quarry, leaving its outer face with a rough excess of a few inches; the excess still remains on the granite casing of the pyramid of Menkara, and the result of dressing it away may be seen in the corners of the granite temple at Gizeh.
The Gizeh group contains nine, including those of Khûfû, Khafra, and Menkara, which were anciently reckoned among the wonders of the world. The ground on which the pyramid of Khûfû stands was very irregular at the time of construction. The pyramid itself was 481 feet high and 755 feet wide, dimensions which the injuries of time have reduced to 454 feet and 750 feet respectively.
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