Mankaure's Sarcophagus "virtually" restored

The link to the Hall of Ma'at

In 1839 Howard Vyse wrote about the discovery of the empty sarcophagus of Menkaure in the tomb chamber of his pyramid at Giza. Vyse wrote that "...as the sarcophagus would have been destroyed, had it remained in the pyramid, I resolved to send it to the British Museum" and so he removed it. Whether it was actually at risk is hard to say and it was a extremely difficult job to remove it as he had to cut through parts of the pyramid to get it out. Maragioglio & Rinaldi mention several times the damage that is evident inside the pyramid today that was caused by this removal.

The virtually reconstructed sarcophagus



But the best source is other surviving sarcophagi from the 4th Dynasty of course. And the best example that I'm aware of is the sarcophagus of an unnamed courtier that was discovered at Giza by Riesner in 1939. It's in the Cairo Museum.

Ironically his "rescue" was short lived as he goes on to write that "It was embarked at Alexandra in the autumn of 1838, on board a merchant ship, which was supposed to have been lost of Carthagena, as she never was heard of after her departure from Leghorn on 12th of October in that year, and as some parts of the wreck were picked up near the former port." So only one small piece of the sarcophagus survives which he'd sent in advance to the British Museum (a piece of the lid, presumably, though he doesn't say so.) There have been persistent rumours over the years that the wreck has been found but, so far at least, there's no sign of the sarcophagus.