Archaeologists estimate the largest of the pyramids at Giza was built between 2600 and 2500 B.C. by a 4th Dynasty pharaoh called Cheops or Khufu. Cheops was not the first to conceive the idea of a pyramid. Cheops simply took the idea and blew it entirely out of proportion. Conservative figures indicate some 100,000 workers labored more than 30 years to build The Great Pyramid. Some of the more than 2.3 million blocks of limestone, granite and marble, which weighed an average of 2.5 tons each, were transported from as far away as Aswan and Tura.
Debates still rage about the laborers who built the pyramids.
No one will ever be able to say for certain. Upon completion, archaeologists believe The Great Pyramid was encased in a glistening, polished layer of white limestone and marble. The top portion of Chephren's pyramid is still partially covered by the casing and combined with its more forward position on the Giza Plateau, therefore, it has the appearance of being bigger than the pyramid of Cheops. Unfortunately, over the years, the casing covering Cheops' pyramid has either been eroded by sand and wind or removed and recycled by man. This no doubt destroyed some of the majesty and grandeur of the Fourth Dynasty's greatest accomplishment, but it could not diminish the lasting effect this architectural wonder has had on the world at large.