Giza pyramid complex — necropolis
Ricardo Liberato · CC BY-SA 2.0

Giza pyramid complex

  • Elevation27 m
  • 2 min read
  • 29.976° N 31.133° E

Interesting facts

  • The three great pyramids are aligned to the cardinal directions with an error of only about one-fifteenth of a degree.
  • Papyri found in 2013 at Wadi el-Jarf include the logbook of an inspector named Merer, whose crew shipped white Tura limestone to Giza for the Great Pyramid.
  • Building the Great Pyramid took an estimated 5.5 million tonnes of limestone and 8,000 tonnes of granite, most of it quarried on the plateau itself.
  • Workers cut the softer limestone with copper tools, but wore down hard granite with abrasive sand and powders before finishing it with copper.
  • The pyramid builders' town had bakeries, breweries, a copper workshop and even a hospital; the workers' diet included bread, beef and fish.
  • Archaeologists describe the workers' town, laid out under Khafre and Menkaure, as one of the earliest examples of urban planning in the world.
  • Some skeletons in the builders' cemetery show injuries typical of building-site accidents, and the workers were buried with bread and beer for the afterlife.
  • Herodotus was told that 100,000 men at a time laboured for 20 years on the Great Pyramid, a figure far higher than modern estimates.
  • People lived on the plateau long before the pyramids: pottery jars of the Maadi culture, roughly 3800–3400 BC, were found at the foot of the Great Pyramid.
  • In 1903 Mary Reisner drew names from a hat to split the West Field cemetery between Italian, German and American excavation teams.

Why it is worth it

The Giza plateau, on the edge of the Western Desert above modern Giza, holds the most famous group of monuments on Earth: the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the Great Sphinx, and the temples, causeways and cemeteries that served them. All were built during Egypt's Fourth Dynasty, roughly 2600 to 2500 BC. Giza is the northernmost part of the Memphis necropolis, a World Heritage Site since 1979 that extends south through Abusir, Saqqara and Dahshur.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one still standing. It originally rose 146.6 metres — the tallest structure made by humans for more than 3,700 years — and now stands about 138.5 metres after losing most of its smooth white limestone casing. It contains an estimated 2.3 million blocks, with granite from Aswan for the King's Chamber. Khafre's pyramid looks taller because it stands on higher ground and is steeper; it still keeps a cap of original casing stones near its tip. Menkaure's pyramid, much smaller, stands farther to the southwest. Each king's complex had its valley temple, causeway and mortuary temple, and Khufu's pyramid has three small queens' pyramids beside it.

Around the pyramids lie cemeteries of tombs for the royal family, courtiers and officials, and the boat pits where Khufu's funerary ship was found dismantled; that ship, reassembled, has been moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum nearby. South of the plateau wall, excavations have uncovered a town where the builders lived, with bakeries, breweries and workshops, and a cemetery of workers' tombs. Their location and care suggest the pyramids were built by organised, paid labour rather than slaves — Egyptologists estimate a rotating workforce of around 10,000.

The plateau is large, and the distances between the pyramids and the Sphinx are greater than photographs suggest.

Getting there

The plateau lies about 9 km west of the Nile and about 13 km southwest of central Cairo, with the village of Nazlet el-Samman — built over Khufu's buried valley temple — at its eastern foot. Sphinx International Airport (SPX), which serves Giza and western Cairo, is about 27 km away. The Grand Egyptian Museum, which houses the complete Tutankhamun collection and Khufu's ships, is about 2 km from the plateau.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Giza 6The Most Beautiful Places in Egypt 35The Most Mystical Places in Egypt 5The Most Mystical Cemeteries 10The Most Mystical Archaeological Sites 11The Most Remarkable Archaeological Sites in Egypt 13The Greatest Archaeological Wonders in Egypt 15The Most Remarkable Necropolises 18The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Egypt 18The Most Beautiful Cemeteries 26The Most Mystical Sacred Places 49The Most Mystical Archaeological Wonders 73The Most Mystical Places 138The Most Remarkable Archaeological Sites 193The Greatest Archaeological Wonders 306The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

The Giza pyramid complex in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. All were built during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, between c. 2600 – c. 2500 BC. The site also includes several temples, cemeteries, and the remains of a workers' village.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

29.97611, 31.13278per Wikidata