gizeh Photos

GIZEH is a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Gizeh Plateau is one of the masterpieces of ancient civilization, a colossal achievement of the ancient Egyptians. It is the site of three great pyramids – Khufu’s Great Pyramid, Khafre’s Pyramid and Menkaure’s Pyramid – as well as of the Sphynx.

Khufu’s Great Pyramid (“Khufu’s Splendor,” Akhet Khufu) is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only surviving one. It is the best-known ancient monument in the world and for millenia it was the tallest construction on the planet. Most historians estimate it was finished around 2500 BC, but there are also some who claim it is much older than that.

The Great Pyramid was 147 m high when it was finished (the tip is missing now). It consists of an estimated 2.5 million limestone blocks, the average weight of each stone being 2.5 tons, and the maximum one 15 tons. Proof of the architectural, engineering, mathematical and astronomic genius of ancient Egypt, the pyramid astounds through size, proportions, the extremely high precision of block placement and the astronomical alignments.

Khafre’s pyramid (or Khefren, 2589-2566 BC) is the second largest of the Egyptian pyramids of Gizeh and the most complete of the three pyramids, as it preserves part of its limestone tip.

Alongside the pyramids on the plateau is the famous Great Sphynx, the largest monolith statue in the world (73 meters long, 6 meters wide and 20 meters high) and the world’s oldest known monumental sculpture. The Sphynx has a lion’s body and Khafre’s face which was sculpted supposedly over the original face of the Sphynx.

The Gizeh plateau and ancient Egyptian monuments in general are the most vastly studied monuments in the world. Countless archeologists, historians, writers and others have attempted to understand as much as possible from the vast history of this old and advanced civilization.

Ancient Egyptian monuments, of a majestic beauty rarely reached by monuments in later millenia, are proof of the genius and power of this collosal human civilization.