Timeline › 4th Dynasty

Hemiunu c. 2589–2566 BC

Builder of the Great Pyramid

Khufu's vizier and a prince of the royal family, thought to have run the building of the Great Pyramid. His tomb stands right beside it, and his life-size seated statue, plump and confident, is in the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim.

Only kings and queens wrote their names in a cartouche, so Hemiunu's name is written without one.

Names of gods (Ra, Amun, Ptah) are written first out of respect, even when they are read later. Dates are approximate; we follow Ian Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000).