What Were Khufu’s Accomplishments?
Khufu’s main accomplishment was that he had the Great Pyramid of Giza built, which is now considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Khufu, also called Khnum-Khufwy, became the Egyptian pharaoh during the Fourth Dynasty in Egypt.
Khufu was born to Queen Hetepheres I and Sneferu. Although he was responsible for building the Great Pyramid of Giza, scholars do not have much information on Khufu himself. There is only one statue left over from his rule, which is 3 inches tall and made out of ivory. Scholars think that Khufu was married to three women, and inherited the Egyptian throne somewhere in his 20s.
It is thought that Khufu began commissioning the pyramid as soon as he took over the throne. It is known that the pyramid building project took a grand total of 23 years to finish, and used more than 2.3 million blocks in its construction. Khufu asked his nephew, Heminu, to oversee all of the pyramid construction during this time.
Due to the sheer number of blocks used, scholars typically say that Khufu had to be a great leader, at least in the sense that he was able to command his people to move substantial resources and spend a significant amount of time pursuing his vision of the Great Pyramid. Herodotus, a historian from Greece, wrote that Khufu was a terrible, vicious leader, while the Westcar Papyrus says that he was kind to others and was curious about magic.
