G7530-40, the double-mastaba of Meresankh III and its rock-cut chapel, G7530sub

G7530-40, the double-mastaba of Meresankh III and its rock-cut chapel, G7530sub

The queen's name is sometimes transcribed as Mersyankh, meaning "the Living One loves her". Nevertheless, the version Meresankh, "she loves life", is almost universally adopted.

• Her father was prince Kawab, eldest son of Kheops by the queen Merytytes I, to whom the mastabas G7110+20 is customarily attributed.

• Her mother was Hetepheres II, Her mother was Hetepheres II, a daughter of Kheops, who therefore married her biological brother. Four children of this couple are known: Duaenhor, Kaemsekhem, Mindjedef and Meresankh herself. Kawab should have succeeded Kheops as king, but he predeceased him. Hetepheres II was to become queen by remarriage — to her stepbrother Djedefre, who acceeded to the throne upon the death of Kheops. However, after a reign of only eight years, he died without an heir, and so the throne passed to another son of Kheops, Kephren. The transmission of power seems to have occurred without any difficulty.

Hetepheres II must have been a very important person, to whom her daughter Meresankh probably owed everything, which would explain the allusions to her all over the the chapel of her daughter.

G7530-40, the double-mastaba of Meresankh III and its rock-cut chapel, G7530sub

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