I have a theory. This theory is totally mine and not held (as far as I know) by any responsible Egyptologists or archaeologists. But I reckon it’s got merit. My proposition (a big word for “this idea is mine … so hands off!”) is that during some of Egyptian history, at least the generations around the time of the pharaoh this cache celebrates (they think he died in 2566 BC … think of that! Further back in years B.C. than we are A.D. by half a millennium! Wow!) … oh yes, the theory. It’s no secret that the ancients in this part of the world saw a special potency in the air we breathe. So, for example, in ancient Hebrew, they used the same word (ruach) for “breath”, “wind”, and “spirit”. The ancient Greeks did the same (but the word was pneuma). I reckon the Egyptians of this era thought of breath as pretty magical … and they saw SNEEZING as a particularly potent form of that magic. That’s why they gave their kids names that all sound like sneezes! Honest. Say this pharaoh’s name “K-K-K-K-Khufu!!” It sneezes right off the page. And when you find out that his full name was actually “Khnum-Khufwy”! (I’m not making that up! Check it out … that’s what his folks called him.) well … grab me a papyrus (old Egyptian for “Kleenex”) … quick! And … wait for this … the Pharaoh before him (good ol’dad) was named “Snefru” (“bless you!”) and his mum, the queen, “He-TE-pheres”. This kid wasn’t born, he was sneezed out! One of the “reserve grade” queens (the pharaohs always kept a few extras up their sleeve) whose name we know, was “He-NUT-sen”, and Khufu’s son, who had second biggest pyramid on the block at Giza was “Khafre”. It must have been diabolical when the family all went down with a cold. I don’t know why nobody has noticed this before.
On to the bits that sensible people generally agree on … Khufu is the king credited with responsibility for building (well, for making a whole lot of OTHER PEOPLE build) the great pyramid on the Giza plateau, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (and the only one remaining in modern times) It was built as a tomb for the pharaoh.
Which is probably why the historians have to scratch around a fair bit to find MUCH ELSE Khufu did. Yes … he lived a long time ago. Yes … there were squads of pharaohs after him who all graffiti’d the Egyptian landscape with their own “Hey everyone, look at me” paraphernalia, which for significance overwhelmed and buried anything smaller than a pyramid. But if you’re going to build something as big as that, with primitive methods and materials, and have it ready to kick off before you do (kick off, that is … and in those days, even a pharaoh’s life span could be pretty short), then you’re probably not going to have time for much else, anyway. Most YouTube clips about Khufu are understandably brief, but there’s one documentary, “Khufu, Builder of the Great Pyramid”, which goes for 56 minutes. Curious, I gave it a look. And it’s all padding! 10 minutes to talk about the possible year he may have been born. Ancient historians who wrote about him. The development of pyramids. Where the stone for the Great Pyramid came from. You get the idea. (No mention of sneeze-culture tho) Which, ultimately, only serves to underline the fact that we know precious little about the guy.
But he has given us a good giggle. It’s best imaged for us with the Smithsonian Channel’s piece (also on YouTube), lasting about two and a half minutes (that’s about right) called “The Pharaoh With the Biggest Ego”. Remembered because of this whacking great pyramid (that was a total failure in protecting his mortal remains or his wealth that was buried with him), the only actual image we have of the guy is the smallest pharaoh-image of them all. Plenty of other pharaohs have left BIG images of themselves behind … look at Rameses II at Abu Simbel, for example. But Khufu has left us nothing more than a cute little pip-squeak statue, 7.5 cm in height. Roughly the size of your index finger. It is him. It bears his cartouche (an ancient Egyptian version of a coat-of-arms)
I guess there’s a life lesson in all of this. I’ll let you work it out.
Britannica online; BBC history online; Ancient Egypt online.
*** You will not need to have done much geocaching in this area for this type of cache to look familiar. I'm grateful to the CO most will usually associate with these for his assistance in putting together this one (and any others like it) ***
Tis a scurvy FTF fer 'Jaybeem!' again. Aaaarh!
There will be a Bonus Cache associated with this series. The information needed to locate the cache can be found on the logs of selected caches on the Oran Park side of Camden Valley Way. This section of the series is still being completed.