Talking Pyramids

The names of ancient Egyptian places, gods and kings are often obscured by the fact that they’ve come down to us via the Greeks, who had a habbit of making up their own versions of the words. And so Iunu became ‘Heliopolis’, Heru became ‘Horus’, … and Khufu, became ‘Cheops’.

Khufu’s full birth name, however, was Khnum-Khufu, meaning ‘Khnum protects me’.

'Khnum protects me'

To complicate matters further, in addition to thier birth name, kings of ancient Egypt also had a Horus name. Khufu’s Horus name was Medjedu and is seen here contained in a serekh.

Khufu's Horus name, 'Medjedu'

This granite slab with Khufu’s Horus name was found in Bubastis and can now be viewed in the British Museum. It is thought that it may have originally been part of Khufu’s mortuary temple, located on the east side of his pyramid.

Photo of the Granite Slab With Name Of Khufu by CaptMondo, some rights reserved.

Further reading: Studies in the Archaeology of the Near East II: Some Fact Concerning the Great Pyramids of El-Giza and their Royal Constructions, by Alan Rowe.

Related posts:

1. Friday Photo: Khufu and the Gold Ring Last week we looked at Khufu’s Horus name, Medjedu. This...
2. Friday Photo: Khufu’s Boat Pit Beside the pyramid of Khufu there are five boat pits....
3. Friday Photo: Khufu’s Mortuary Temple The black basalt pavement on the east side of the...
4. Friday Photo: Statue of Horus at Edfu Located at Edfu is the temple of Horus, the second...
5. Photo of the Week – Khufu’s Sarcophagus This week’s photo is of the granite sarcophagus inside the...

Tags: Khufu

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