Hemiunu

Hemiunu, also called Hemon, was an ancient Egyptian prince of the Fourth Dynasty who is believed to have been the architect of the Great Pyramid of Giza, flourishing around 2570 BC. He was a son of Prince Nefermaat and his wife Itet, a grandson of Sneferu and a nephew of Khufu, for whom the pyramid was built. Holding the office of vizier, which he took over after his father and his uncle Kanefer, and the title of the king's seal-bearer, he stood second only to the pharaoh and oversaw all royal building works by Khufu's decree. His mastaba tomb lies in the Giza West Field beside the Great Pyramid. A realistic seated statue found in its sealed serdab in 1912 by Hermann Junker, now in the Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, shows him with unidealised features, and the layout of the surrounding cemetery of ordered mastabas is credited to the architect's planning.