Mastaba of Hemiunu

Our first stop on our tour will begin with the Mastaba (or tomb) of Hemiunu. Hemiunu was the nephew of the first builder of the pyramids Khufu. Not many people outside of the immediate rulers usually got their own mastaba, so what was so special about Hemiunu? He was the architect behind building the first Great Pyramid for his uncle Khufu! Khufu had the idea in head that he wanted to build a pyramid and he enlisted his Hemiunu to design the buildings and get it erected. When modern day archeologists opened his tomb they found that it had already been ransacked and a life size statue of Hemiunu had the right arm and head broken off, but today it is put back together and sitting at a museum in Germany. The historical relevance of this stop is because had he not been around to design the pyramids, they may not have ever been built or might look different than they do. The way he designed the first one for Khufu set the standard for the way to build the subsequent ones.