Why Khufu Prohibited Statues Making

By Ali Abu Dashish and Salma Yassin

CAIRO, Jan. 14 (SEE)-Dr.Hussein Abdel Basir, the archeologist and director of Antiquity Museum in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, said that King Khufu’s little statue with length extends to few centimeters, is a votive one carved in the late period, 20,000 years after King Khufu’s reign.

The statue was discovered by the British archeologist William Flinders Petrie, the father of Egyptology, and is placed in Abydos area in Sohag governorate in Upper Egypt.

Only the statue’s body was discovered first, and at a later stage, its head was revealed, then the separated pieces were mended and fixed to form a complete statue.

“The main reason behind the statue’s construction was appreciating King Khufu; the great pyramid’s owner”, Abdel Basir added.

Since this time, the statue became one of the most significant monuments, and controversial about the King Khufu’s reign, hence experts are not sure whether the statues belong to him or his family or even for senior officials during his time.

It was alleged that the scarcity of statues was as a result of King Khufu’s decision to prohibit their erection during his reign. What demonstrates this is the lack of hierarchical group’s scenes of King Khufu with different ancient Egyptian goddesses, despite being a common convention for the former Kings, according to the holy property concepts in Pharaonic Egypt.

Instead of constructing statues of graves, nobles from the beginning of King Khufu’s reign till the end of the Fourth Dynasty, were putting alternate headers made of limestone inside their tombs’ basements, in order to refer souls to their dead bodies.

About 33 headers with maximum height of 50 cm were discovered, and they seemed to be carved creatively.

These headers are considered to be the most unique artistic models in Pharaonic Egypt, as they accurately express their origins’ features, and that was such a great effort in the early period of ancient Pharaonic civilization.

Regretfully, through stealing these tombs, the distinct alternate headers were damaged, and had their ears broken.

On the other hand, the bust of Prince Ankh haf, was also carved in an inventive way, and is currently placed in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in the United States.

Also, Prince Ankh haf was the one who constructed the Pyramid of Khafre, besides continuing the King Khufu’s Great pyramid’s building.

Additionally, King Khufu was the one who named his pyramid “Akht Khufu” which means “horizon of Khufu”, considering himself God Ra.

After that, two of his sons; Kings Djedefre and Khafra, got the title of “Sa Ra”, which means “the Son of Ra”, considering that King Khufu is the son God, who was being worshiped by King Khafra in Sphinx Temple in front of Khufu pyramid.