The Pyramids of Giza: Engineering Marvels of the Ancient World
The three great pyramids of Giza — the Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure — are the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only ones still standing. Built in the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, between roughly 2580 and 2510 BCE, they are the most massive stone buildings ever constructed by human beings up to the modern era. The largest, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, was the tallest structure on earth for almost 3,800 years. Their construction has been the subject of intense archaeological research, engineering analysis, and (in the popular imagination) a great deal of romantic speculation.
This cluster page is a guided tour of the Giza necropolis. It explains who built the pyramids, how they were built, what they meant to the Egyptians, and how the archaeological study of the site has unfolded. It links out to the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Sphinx of Giza, the Egyptian Pharaohs cluster, and the Mummification and the Afterlife cluster.
The Giza Necropolis
The Giza plateau is a rocky outcrop on the west bank of the Nile, just outside modern Cairo and facing the ancient city of Memphis across the river. The west bank was the traditional place of burial in Egypt, because the setting sun died in the west and the realm of the dead was thought to be in that direction. The Giza plateau was chosen by the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty as the site of their royal tombs.
The three great pyramids dominate the plateau. They are surrounded by a complex of smaller pyramids for queens, mastaba tombs for nobles and priests, causeways, valley temples, mortuary temples, and the famous Sphinx. The modern town of Giza has expanded right up to the edge of the site, and the pyramids are now surrounded by the suburbs of Cairo.
The Pyramid of Khufu (c. 2580–2560 BCE)
The largest of the three, the Pyramid of Khufu (called the Great Pyramid, or in Arabic al-haram al-kabir), was built by the pharaoh Khufu (in Greek, Cheops) of the Fourth Dynasty. It is the largest pyramid ever built, originally 146.6 meters (481 feet) high and 230.3 meters (756 feet) along each side, with a volume of about 2.6 million cubic meters (over 5 million tons of stone).
The pyramid contains three main chambers: the King’s Chamber, the Queen’s Chamber, and an unfinished chamber carved into the bedrock beneath the pyramid. The Grand Gallery, a corbelled passage 8.6 meters high, leads up to the King’s Chamber, which is built of enormous red granite blocks and is the only chamber finished with a high, corbelled ceiling. The whole structure is built of about 2.3 million blocks, averaging about 2.5 tons each, with the heaviest blocks (the granite slabs above the King’s Chamber) weighing as much as 80 tons.
You can read the full architectural and historical analysis in The Great Pyramid of Giza: Construction Theories.
The Pyramid of Khafre (c. 2570–2544 BCE)
The Pyramid of Khafre, son of Khufu, is the second pyramid at Giza. It was built of a darker, harder stone and preserves some of its original smooth casing at the apex, giving it the appearance of being taller than Khufu’s pyramid. In fact it is smaller (136.4 meters / 447 feet high) but appears larger because it stands on higher ground and retains the upper part of its smooth Tura limestone casing.
The complex of Khafre is the best-preserved of the Giza groups, and it includes the famous Sphinx of Giza, a colossal limestone statue of a recumbent lion with a pharaoh’s head, traditionally associated with Khafre though probably older.
The Pyramid of Menkaure (c. 2510 BCE)
The smallest of the three main pyramids, the Pyramid of Menkaure, grandson of Khufu, is only 65 meters (213 feet) high. The lower sixteen courses of the pyramid are clad in red granite from Aswan, and the upper courses were originally cased in white Tura limestone. The pyramid is flanked by three smaller satellite pyramids, possibly for queens, and the causeway leads to a mortuary temple and a valley temple near the Nile.
Who Built the Pyramids?
The pyramids were not built by slaves. The evidence is clear: the workers who built the Giza pyramids were organized, paid, fed, and well-treated, and the labor force was mostly drawn from the peasant communities of the Nile valley during the annual Nile flood, when farming was impossible. The Greek historian Herodotus, who reported the slaving tradition, was wrong; modern archaeology has shown that the workers were organized into two shifts of 10,000 men each, working in three-month rotations, with a permanent core of skilled craftsmen.
The workforce was organized by the vizier and the overseer of works. The vizier of Khufu is known to us as Hemiunu, the architect of the Great Pyramid. The vizier of Menkaure was the son of Khafre, and a number of overseers left inscriptions in the workers’ barracks. The Egyptians called the workforce the friends of the pharaoh or the spirits of the house.
How Were the Pyramids Built?
The construction of the pyramids has been the subject of intense scholarly debate. The basic questions are: how were the stones quarried, how were they transported, and how were they raised into position?
The stones were quarried locally (limestone from the Giza plateau itself), from Tura across the river (for the fine white casing), and from Aswan in Upper Egypt (for the granite). They were cut with copper chisels and dolerite hammer stones, transported by sledges on slipways, and raised by a system of ramps that is still debated.
The older theories of long, single ramps running up one face of the pyramid have largely been replaced by more sophisticated theories involving a combination of internal ramps, external ramps, lever systems, and counterweights. There is no scholarly consensus on the exact method, but it is now clear that the construction was carefully planned and executed.
The Meaning of the Pyramids
The pyramids were royal tombs. They housed the body of the pharaoh, surrounded by the funerary goods, statues, and food he would need in the afterlife. The pyramid was a kind of solar ladder, a stairway by which the dead pharaoh’s soul could climb to join the sun god Ra in the heavens. The pyramid’s smooth, sloping sides may have been meant to imitate the rays of the sun falling on the earth.
The Sphinx of Giza stood guard over the complex, and the mortuary temple was the place where the priests performed the daily rituals for the dead pharaoh. The smaller pyramids of queens, the mastabas of nobles, and the causeways connecting the temples to the Nile all reinforced the meaning of the necropolis as a place where the king would live forever.
The Modern Investigation
The pyramids have been studied since antiquity. The medieval Arab historians preserved many of the ancient stories. Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt in 1798, and the description of the pyramids in the Description de l’Égypte published by the savants who accompanied the army, introduced the modern era of Egyptology. The British general Howard Vyse forced his way into the Relieving Chambers above the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid in 1837. The French archaeologist Auguste Mariette founded the Egyptian Antiquities Service in 1858 and excavated much of the Giza necropolis. The American Egyptologist George Reisner excavated the Giza necropolis for Harvard University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from 1902 to 1930, identifying the builders and the layout of the complex. Modern excavations continue to reveal new tombs and new information.
The Pyramids Today
The pyramids remain the most famous buildings in the world. They were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. The site is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world, with millions of visitors a year. The Egyptian government has undertaken major conservation and restoration projects, and the surrounding suburbs of Cairo are slowly being cleared to provide a buffer zone around the ancient monuments.