Giza Pyramids

Three pyramids stand on a limestone plateau at the edge of the Western Desert, roughly fourteen kilometres from central Cairo. They were built over roughly eighty years during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, around 2600–2500 BCE, as tombs for three successive pharaohs: Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. The largest, known as the Great Pyramid, originally rose to a height of 146 metres, making it the tallest structure in the world for nearly four thousand years.

The Great Pyramid

The pyramid of Khufu contains three known chambers. The lowest, cut into the bedrock beneath the structure, appears to have been sealed before the pharaoh's burial. The main burial chamber, constructed of red granite blocks, sits roughly halfway up inside the pyramid. Above it, a relieving structure of granite and limestone beams distributes the massive weight of the stone above. A long descending passage leads to these chambers; a second passage, the so-called Grand Gallery, rises steeply to connect them. Most of the casing stones that once gave the pyramid a smooth outer face have been removed over the centuries, leaving the stepped core visible today.

The Second Pyramid and the Sphinx

The pyramid of Khafre appears taller because it sits on higher ground, though it is marginally smaller in base dimensions. Parts of its original casing survive at the top, giving a sense of how the finished monument would have appeared. Directly beside it stands the Great Sphinx: a limestone figure with a human head and a lion's body, some 73 metres long and 20 metres high. It is carved from a single piece of bedrock that the builders left in place when they quarried the surrounding stone for the pyramid complex.

The Broader Necropolis

Beyond the three main pyramids, the Giza plateau holds a complex of smaller pyramids, mortuary temples, valley temples and hundreds of tombs belonging to officials and nobles. The site was in continuous use for burials long after the Fourth Dynasty, and the settlement that grew around it has left layers of evidence spanning thousands of years. Today the plateau sits at the edge of the modern city, with Cairo's suburbs visible on the horizon behind you.