The three great pyramids of Egypt have stood tall for some 4,500 years. By the late 1800s erosion on the Giza plateau raised fears among scholars that the grand structures were threatened. Illicit digging in the area was the suspected cause, and a team of scholars knew that a solution was necessary.

In 1902 a group of them met at a Cairo H๏τel to come up with a plan. In attendance were German Ludwig Borchardt, who would discover the Neferтιтi bust in 1912; Italian Ernesto Schiaparelli, who in 1904 would find the tomb of Nefertari, queen of Ramses II; and George Reisner—known as the “American Flinders Petrie” because his cautious methods were compared to that of the celebrated British Egyptologist. The group decided to divide up the plateau among them so that teams could organize and conduct their own excavations.

Standing on the veranda, they drew lots from a hat. Borchardt won the Pyramid of Khafre, and Schiaparelli part of the cemetery to the north. Reisner picked the funerary complex of the pharaoh Menkaure, a section that would yield some of the most iconic artworks from the Old Kingdom.

Buried Treasure

Menkaure, the sixth ruler of Egypt’s 4th dynasty, was buried in the smallest of the three great pyramids. His father Khafre and his grandfather Khufu (Cheops in Greek) rested in the other two. Built between 2550 and 2490 B.C., the Giza Pyramids stand as an eternal symbol of Egypt.

This fate, however, was not shared by Menkaure’s mortuary temples, which Reisner believed to be located on the pyramid’s eastern side. These temples would be the center of a cult to worship the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ pharaoh. Evidence suggests that Menkaure’s temples operated for nearly three centuries after the pharaoh’s death. After his cult declined, so did the temples, and they disappeared beneath the sands.