National Geographic: Egypt--Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza WONDER OF THE WORLD Khufu, son of Snefru and second ruler of the 4th dynasty ( time line ) moved the royal necropolis to Giza, north of modern-day Cairo. According to ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Khufu (aka Cheops) enslaved his people to build his pyramid. But archaeologists have since disproved his account ( see "Who Built the Pyramids?" ). On the Giza Plateau, Khufu's builders oriented his pyramid almost perfectly north. The largest pyramid ever built, it incorporates about 2.3 million stone blocks, weighing an average of 2.5 to 15 tons each. It is estimated that the workers would have had to set a block every two and a half minutes. The pyramid has three burial chambers. The first is underground, carved into bedrock. The second, aboveground chamber was called the queen's chamber by early explorers. We now know it was never intended to house one of Khufu's wives but perhaps a sacred statue of the king himself.

The third is the king's chamber, which held a red granite sarcophagus placed almost exactly at the center of the pyramid. The king's chamber is accessed via the 26-foot-high (8-meter-high) Grand Gallery, which was sealed off from thieves by sliding granite blocking systems. The Great Pyramid was the centerpiece of an elaborate complex, which included several small pyramids, five boat pits, a mortuary temple, a causeway, a valley temple, and many flat-roofed tombs for officials and some members of the royal family. CLASSIC FACT: Several mystery shafts extend from the king's and queen's chambers. Neither airshafts (they were sealed) nor hallways (they are too narrow), they may have been designed to allow Khufu to travel to the stars in his afterlife. A blocked shaft from the queen's chamber was penetrated in 2002. Archaeologists discovered another stone blocking their way ( read more in National Geographic News ).

Guardian's Egypt - The Pharaoh Khufu Builder of the Great Pyramid Founder of the Giza Plateau Khufu (2589-2566 BC) was the 4th Dynasty (2613-2498) pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid of Giza . Originally, the Great Pyramid stood 481 feet (146.6 m) tall. Although commonly called Cheops (and also Suphis) because of the late Greek influence on Egypt, the name Khufu is the original ancient Egyptian name for this king as demonstrated by his own cartouche. He reigned for approximately 24 years. Although the Great pyramid has such fame, little is actually known about its builder, Khufu. Ironically, only a very small statue of 9 cm has been found depicting this historic ruler. This statue, pictured above and below, was not found in Giza near the pyramid, but was found to the south at the Temple of Osiris at Abydos, the ancient necropolis. According to various inscriptions, Khufu probably did lead military into the Sinai, and raids into Nubia and Libya.

Khufu was the son of another great pyramid builder, King Sneferu. Khufus mothers name was Hetepheres. Although King Sneferu was remembered as a benevolent and beneficent ruler, Khufu is believed by some to have been a more ruthless and cruel despot. He was rumored in later times to have been prone to enjoying the fantastic stories of the reigns of his predecessors, as well as tales of magic and the mystical. His fame lasted throughout Egyptian history and he still had a funerary cult as late as the Saite Dynasty (26th Dynasty). Of course, whether or not he was a cruel ruler, he did command a tremendous ability to organize and mobilize worker. There was an extremely large amount of manpower necessary to build the Great pyramid and its surrounding complex and tombs. Certainly Khufu would have had the benefit of witnessing the previous pyramid projects of his father, Sneferu. The Great Pyramid stands witness to the ability of Khufu to lead and coordinate his people. Current theories espouse that the building of the Great Pyramid was not achieved by slave labor.

Instead, the project defrayed taxes, which were paid in the form of goods and services as there was no monetary system. Also, due to the annual inundation of the Nile there was always a yearly segment of the population that had some time that they could not spend in their homes. Curiously, although his father was probably buried in Dahshur, Khufu chose the Giza plateau to situate his pyramid, temples, and perhaps, his tomb. Also curiously, he did not choose the highest spot on the plateau, which was later used by his son and successor, Khafre. This gave Khafre's pyramid the illusion of being taller, when in fact the Great Pyramid is the actually the taller pyramid. In addition to the splendor of the Great Pyramid, an exciting ancient wooden boat was found sealed in a pit at the base of the Great pyramid. This boat was interred in pieces and has since been reassembled, restored and housed in a climate controlled museum over the site of the original pit. Khufu had several sons and his immediate successor was his son Djedefre (Radjedef). Curiously, Djedefre also chose to build his pyramid at a location other than that of his fathers.

Instead Djedefre was buried to the north at a site now known as Abu Roash . A remaining son of Khufu - Khafre, was to join his father building his pyramid at the higher spot in on the Giza plateau. Although Khufu's pyramid is actually bigger than Khafre's, the higher ground provides the illusion that Khafre's pyramid is taller. After the death of Khafre, his son Menkaure built his smaller pyramid at Giza, eventually completing the last of the famous pyramids at Giza. By Andrew Bayuk Supreme Council of Antiquities - Sites Giza is located west and south of modern Cairo, in the vast desert imagined by the ancient Egyptians to be the land of the dead. Guarded by the Great Sphinx, the plateau is dominated by the massive pyramids of Khufu (Gr. Cheops), Khafre (Gr. Chephren), and Menkaure (Gr. Mycerinus), all of whom ruled Egypt during the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC).

The royal pyramid complexes, which include temples, causeways, and satellite pyramids, are surrounded by tombs of the elite-members of the royal family, the nobility, and the priesthood. At the foot of the plateau, south of the Great Sphinx, lie the Cemetery and Town of the Pyramid Builders, where the men and women who constructed the royal and elite tombs on the main plateau lived, worked, and were buried. Probably the most famous site in Egypt, Giza has fascinated the world for millennia. Although the archaeological and historical evidence proves without a doubt that the Great Pyramid of Khufu and its companions are royal tombs built during the Old Kingdom, alternative theorists continue to argue that they were built by aliens or people from the mythical land of Atlantis. The pyramids are indeed remarkable feats of engineering: the Great Pyramid is aligned to the cardinal directions to within 1 degree of arc. However, this was within the engineering capabilities of Egypt's early kings, and there is no need to create outlandish theories to explain its construction. Giza remained important through the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, and on into the Late Period.

Significant monuments from these later eras include a New Kingdom temple to the Sphinx and a Temple of Isis (an expansion of the mortuary chapel of one of the queens' pyramids next to the Great Pyramid). HOURS OF OPERATION: Seven Wonder of the Ancient World: Khufu's Great Pyramid Khufu's Great Pyramid The Great Pyramid and its surrounding complex soon after its completion (Copyright Lee Krystek, 2010) It's 756 feet long on each side, 450 feet high and is composed of 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each averaging 2 1/2 tons in weight. Despite the makers' limited surveying tools, no side is more than 8 inches different in length than another, and the whole structure is perfectly oriented to the points of the compass. Even in the 19th century, it was the tallest building in the world and, at the age of 4,500 years, it is the only one of the famous " Seven Wonders of the Ancient World " that still stands. Even today it remains the most massive building on Earth. It is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt.

Seven Quick Facts Size: Height 480 ft. (146m) Made of: Mostly limestone Other: Tallest building in the world till 1311 AD and again from 1647 to 1874. Some of the earliest history of the Pyramid comes from a Greek the historian and traveler Herodotus of Halicanassus. He visited Egypt around 450 BC and included a description of the Great Pyramid in a history book he wrote. Herodotus was told by his Egyptian guides that it took twenty years for a force of 100,000 oppressed slaves to build the pyramid (with another 10 years to build a stone causeway that connected it to a temple in the valley below). Stones were lifted into position by the use of immense machines. The purpose of the structure, according to Herodotus's sources, was as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu (whom the Greeks referred to as Cheops). Herodotus, a Greek from the democratic city of Athens, probably found the idea of a single man employing such staggering wealth and effort on his tomb an incredible act of egotism.

He reported that even thousands of years later the Egyptians still hated Khufu for the burden he had placed on the people and could hardly bring themselves to speak his name. The three large pyramids at Giza: From left to right, Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu. The far pyramid is the "Great Pyramid" and the largest structure on the site. The middle one may look larger, but only because it is built on higher ground. However, Khufu's contemporary Egyptian subjects may have seen the great pyramid in a different light. To them the pharaoh was not just a king, but a living god who linked their lives with those of the immortals. The pyramid, as an eternal tomb for the pharaoh's body, may have offered the people reassurance of his continuing influence with the gods. The pyramid wasn't just a symbol of regal power, but a visible link between earth and heaven. Indeed, many of the stories Herodotus relates to us are probably false. Engineers calculate that fewer men and less years were needed than Herodotus suggests to build the structure. It also seems unlikely that slaves or complicated machines were needed for the pyramid's construction .

It isn't surprising that the Greek historian got it wrong, however. By the time he visited the site, the structure was already 20 centuries old, and much of the truth about it was shrouded in the mists of history. Certainly the idea that it was a tomb for a Pharaoh, though, seems in line with Egyptian practices. For many centuries before and after the construction of the Great Pyramid, the Egyptians had interned their dead Pharaoh-Kings, whom they believed to be living Gods, in intricate tombs. Some were above-ground structures, like the pyramid, others were cut in the rock underground. All the dead leaders were outfitted with the many things it was believed they would need in the afterlife to come. Many were buried with untold treasures. The Pyramid Complex The Giza complex as it looked in 1904 from Eduard Spelterini's balloon. If we were to visit the location of the great pyramid when it was just finished, it would look very different than we see it today. Originally, the pyramid itself was encased in highly polished white limestone with a smooth surface which is now gone. At the very top of the structure would have been a capstone, which is also now missing.

Some sources suggest that the capstone might have been sheathed in gold. Between the white limestone and the golden cap the pyramid would have made an impressive sight shining in the bright Egyptian sun. Around the base of the great pyramid were four smaller pyramids, three of which still stand today. On the east side of the pyramid stood a now missing Funerary temple. Running down the hill into the valley was a stone causeway, which linked the Funerary temple with a temple in the valley. Around the pyramid were six boat shaped pits that may have contained the hulls of vessels that belonged to the pharaoh. Parts of one of these have been found and reconstructed into a 147 foot long boat that today is enclosed next to the pyramid in its own museum. The other two large pyramids at Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre (Khufu's son) and the Pyramid of Menkaure had not yet been built, so the Khufu's pyramid and its associated structures stood alone, though surrounded by the dwelling places and the graves of many of those that helped construct it. A cross-section of the Great Pyramid showing the passageways.

(Copyright Lee Krystek 1997) Opening the Pyramid Even in ancient times, thieves breaking into the sacred burial places were a major problem and Egyptian architects became adept at designing solutions to this problem. They built passageways that could be plugged with impassable granite blocks; created secret, hidden rooms and made decoy chambers. No matter how clever the designers became, however, robbers seemed to be even smarter and with almost no exceptions, each of the great tombs of the Egyptian Kings was plundered. In 820 A.D. the Arab Caliph Abdullah Al Manum decided to make his own search for the treasure of Khufu. He gathered a gang of workmen and, unable to find the location of a reputed secret door, started burrowing into the side of the monument. After a hundred feet of hard going they were about to give up when they heard a heavy thud echo through the interior of the pyramid. Digging in the direction of the sound, they soon came upon a passageway that descended into the heart of the structure. On the floor lay a large block that had fallen from the ceiling, apparently causing the noise they had heard.

Back at the beginning of the corridor they found the secret hinged door to the outside they had missed. Working their way down the passage they soon found themselves deep in the natural stone below the pyramid. The corridor stopped descending and went horizontal for about 50 feet, then ended in a blank wall. A pit extended downward from there for about 30 feet, but it was empty. When the workmen examined the fallen block they noticed a large granite plug above it. Cutting through the softer stone around it they found another passageway that extended up into the heart of the pyramid. As they followed this corridor upward, they found several more granite blocks closing off the tunnel. In each case they cut around them by burrowing through the softer limestone of the walls. Finally, they found themselves in a low, horizontal passage that led to a small, square, empty room. This became known as the "Queen's Chamber," though it seems unlikely that it ever served that function. The secret entrance missed by the Caliph's men when searching for treasure. (Courtesy Olaf Tausch and Wikipedia Creative Commons). Back at the junction of the ascending and descending passageways, the workers noticed an open space in the ceiling.

Climbing up they found themselves in a high-roofed, ascending passageway. This became known as the "Grand Gallery." At the top of the gallery was a low, horizontal passage that led to a large room, some 34 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 19 feet high. It became known as the "King's Chamber." In the center was a huge granite sarcophagus without a lid. Otherwise the room was completely empty. The Missing Treasure The Arabs, as if in revenge for the missing treasure, stripped the pyramid of its fine white limestone casing and used it for building in Cairo. They even attempted to disassemble the great pyramid itself, but after removing the top 30 feet of stone, they gave up on this impossible task. So what happened to the treasure of King Khufu? Conventional wisdom says that, like so many other royal tombs, the pyramid was the victim of robbers in ancient times. If we believe the accounts of Manum's men, though, the granite plugs that blocked the passageways were still in place when they entered the tomb. How did the thieves get in and out?

In 1638 an English mathematician, John Greaves, visited the pyramid. He discovered a narrow shaft, hidden in the wall that connected the Grand Gallery with the descending passage. Both ends were tightly sealed and the bottom was blocked with debris. Some archaeologists have suggested this route was used by the last of the Pharaoh's men to exit the tomb after the granite plugs had been put in place and by the thieves to get inside. Given the small size of the passageway and the amount of debris it seems unlikely that the massive amount of treasure, including the huge missing sarcophagus lid, could have been removed this way, however. Construction Scientists have long argued about how this massive structure was built, but the most likely theory seems to be that the Egyptians built a huge ramp that allowed them to drag the blocks into position. Because a single straight ramp (as seen in the recent movie 10,000B.C.) would have to be over a half mile long to reach the top and would need to contain as much material as the pyramid itself, engineers have suggested that the ramp was in the shape of a spiral running around the outside of the pyramid.

Alternately the Egyptians may have combined a straight ramp that ran part way up the pyramid with a spiral ramp to the very top levels. Blocks were probably dragged up the ramp by a team of men and put into their final position through the use of levers (For more information on the construction of the Great Pyramid, see our page How to Build a Pyramid ). French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin advanced the theory that a spiral ramp was used on the inside of the pyramid to move the stone blocks. According to Houdin a straight external ramp was used to get materials to the 140 foot level. From there workers dragged the stones through a set of gently rising tunnels just inside the outer walls. The last tunnel would exit on the monument's top. A 1986 microgravity survey of the pyramid discovered a peculiar anomaly: a less-dense structure in the form of a spiral within the pyramid that may turn out to be what is left of Houdin's tunnels.

A project management group that studied the problem of building the Great Pyramid estimated that the project, using material and methods available at the time, might have required less than ten years to complete: Two or three years site preparation, five years of actual construction and two years to remove the ramps and put on the finishing touches. This could have been done with an average work force of less than 14,000 laborers and a peak force of 40,000. By examining the ruins of dwellings and workshops in the area, archeologists have estimated between 4,000 and 5,000 of these men were full-time workers committed to the project through most of the construction. Workers complete one of the smaller pyramids on the eastern side of the Great Pyramid (Copyright Lee Krystek, 1999). Egyptian records indicate that the laborers, while being drafted against their will, were actually well cared for by ancient standards. Regulations have been found covering the maximum amount of work allowed per day, the wages received and holidays each worker was entitled to.

Also, by scheduling most of the work to be done during annual flood periods, the Pharaoh could get a lot done without impacting the normal Egyptian economy. Was the Pyramid a Tomb? Some have suggested that the pyramid was never meant as a tomb, but as an astronomical observatory. The Roman author Proclus, in fact, states that before the pyramid was completed it did serve in this function. We can't put too much weight on Proclus words, though, remembering that when he advanced his theory the pyramid was already over 2000 years old. Richard Proctor, an astronomer, did observe that the descending passage could have been used to observe the transits of certain stars. He also suggested that the grand gallery, when open at the top during construction, could have been used for mapping the sky. Many strange (and some silly) theories have arisen over the years to explain the pyramid and its passageways. Most archaeologists, however, accept the theory that the great pyramid was just the largest of a tradition of tombs used for the Pharaohs of Egypt. Khufu's pyramid as it appeared in 2005.

(Courtesy Nina Aldin Thune and Creative Commons) So what happened to Khufu's mummy and treasure? Nobody knows. Extensive explorations have found no other chambers or passageways. Still one must wonder if, perhaps in this one case, the King and his architects outsmarted both the ancient thieves and modern archaeologists and that somewhere in, or below, the last wonder of the ancient world, rests Khufu and his sacred gold. Egyptian Pyramids - Ancient History - HISTORY.com Egyptian Pyramids A+E Networks Introduction Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids—especially the Great Pyramids of Giza—are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their massive scale reflects the unique role that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century A.D., the peak of pyramid building began with the late third dynasty and continued until roughly the sixth (c. 2325 B.C.).

More than 4,000 years later, the Egyptian pyramids still retain much of their majesty, providing a glimpse into the country’s rich and glorious past. Google The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society During the third and fourth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Egypt enjoyed tremendous economic prosperity and stability. Kings held a unique position in Egyptian society. Somewhere in between human and divine, they were believed to have been chosen by the gods to serve as mediators between them and the people on earth. Because of this, it was in everyone’s interest to keep the king’s majesty intact even after his death, when he was believed to become Osiris, god of the dead. The new pharaoh, in turn, became Horus, the falcon-god who served as protector of the sun-god, Ra. Did You Know? The pyramid's smooth, angled sides symbolized the rays of the sun and were designed to help the king's soul ascend to heaven and join the gods, particularly the sun god Ra. Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit (known as “ka”) remained with his body.

To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death. Their riches would provide not only for him, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him. The Early Pyramids From the beginning of the Dynastic Era (2950 B.C.), royal tombs were carved into rock and covered with flat-roofed rectangular structures known as “mastabas,” which were precursors to the pyramids. The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around 2630 B.C. at Saqqara, for the third dynasty’s King Djoser. Known as the Step Pyramid, it began as a traditional mastaba but grew into something much more ambitious. As the story goes, the pyramid’s architect was Imhotep, a priest and healer who some 1,400 years later would be deified as the patron saint of scribes and physicians.

Over the course of Djoser’s nearly 20-year reign, pyramid builders assembled six stepped layers of stone (as opposed to mud-brick, like most earlier tombs) that eventually reached a height of 204 feet (62 meters); it was the tallest building of its time. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by a complex of courtyards, temples and shrines, where Djoser would enjoy his afterlife. After Djoser, the stepped pyramid became the norm for royal burials, although none of those planned by his dynastic successors were completed (probably due to their relatively short reigns). The earliest tomb constructed as a “true” (smooth-sided, not stepped) pyramid was the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, one of three burial structures built for the first king of the fourth dynasty, Sneferu (2613-2589 B.C.) It was named for the color of the limestone blocks used to construct the pyramid’s core. The Great Pyramids of Giza No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza, located on a plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo.

The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is the only surviving structure out of the famed seven wonders of the ancient world. It was built for Khufu (Cheops, in Greek), Sneferu’s successor and the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty. Though Khufu reigned for 23 years (2589-2566 B.C.), relatively little is known of his reign beyond the grandeur of his pyramid. The sides of the pyramid’s base average 755.75 feet (230 meters), and its original height was 481.4 feet (147 meters), making it the largest pyramid in the world. Three small pyramids built for Khufu’s queens are lined up next to the Great Pyramid, and a tomb was found nearby containing the empty sarcophagus of his mother, Queen Hetepheres. Like other pyramids, Khufu’s is surrounded by rows of mastabas, where relatives or officials of the king were buried to accompany and support him in the afterlife.

The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu’s son Khafre (2558-2532 B.C). A unique feature built inside Khafre’s pyramid complex was the Great Sphinx, a guardian statue carved in limestone with the head of a man and the body of a lion. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring 240 feet long and 66 feet high. In the 18th dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.) the Great Sphinx would come to be worshiped itself, as the image of a local form of the god Horus. The southernmost pyramid at Giza was built for Khafre’s son Menkaure (2532-2503 B.C.). It is the shortest of the three pyramids (218 feet) and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone (averaging about 2.5 tons each) had to be cut, transported and assembled to build Khufu’s Great Pyramid.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and required the labor of 100,000 men, but later archaeological evidence suggests that the workforce might actually have been around 20,000. Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor, skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the land nearby. The End of the Pyramid Era Pyramids continued to be built throughout the fifth and sixth dynasties, but the general quality and scale of their construction declined over this period, along with the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, beginning with that of King Unas (2375-2345 B.C), pyramid builders began to inscribe written accounts of events in the king’s reign on the walls of the burial chamber and the rest of the pyramid’s interior. Known as pyramid texts, these are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt.

The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepy II (2278-2184 B.C.), the second king of the sixth dynasty, who came to power as a young boy and ruled for 94 years. By the time of his rule, Old Kingdom prosperity was dwindling, and the pharaoh had lost some of his quasi-divine status as the power of non-royal administrative officials grew. Pepy II’s pyramid, built at Saqqara and completed some 30 years into his reign, was much shorter (172 feet) than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepy’s death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed, and Egypt entered a turbulent phase known as the First Intermediate Period. Later kings, of the 12th dynasty, would return to pyramid building during the so-called Middle Kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the Great Pyramids. The Pyramids Today Tomb robbers and other vandals in both ancient and modern times removed most of the bodies and funeral goods from Egypt’s pyramids and plundered their exteriors as well.

Stripped of most of their smooth white limestone coverings, the Great Pyramids no longer reach their original heights; Khufu’s, for example, measures only 451 feet high. Nonetheless, millions of people continue to visit the pyramids each year, drawn by their towering grandeur and the enduring allure of Egypt’s rich and glorious past. Tags Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | October 9, 2014 09:24pm ET MORE Credit: Dan Breckwoldt | Shutterstock Constructed between 2589 and 2504 B.C., the Egyptian pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, built in that order, are a testament to ancient planning and engineering. How these pyramids were built is a source of speculation and debate. Many researchers believe that a ramp system of some form was used to move the blocks into place during construction. When the pyramids were completed they were encased in white limestone, most of which is lost today .

Recent research suggests that when the blocks were being moved across the desert, a small amount of water was put on the sand in front of them, making them easier to move. Additionally, archaeologists have found new evidence that Giza had a bustling port , allowing goods to be shipped to the site from across Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. Despite the differences among the three pyramids (Khufu’s pyramid, the "Great Pyramid," is several times the mass of Menkaure’s) the southeast tips of each pyramid align together almost precisely. Each pyramid had a mortuary and valley temple, with a causeway connecting them. They also had smaller pyramids referred to as satellite or queens' pyramids. The Sphinx, an enigmatic monument usually associated with king Khafre, stands watch near his valley temple. In addition, tombs sprawling to the east and west of Khufu’s pyramid contain the remains of officials, royal relatives and others who had the privilege to be buried there. To the south of the Sphinx is the “Wall of the Crow,” which is 656 feet (200 meters) long and 32 feet (10 m) thick.

South of the wall is a settlement that archaeologists sometimes refer to as “the lost city.” This city has barracks that may have housed troops . Recently, archaeologists have discovered a mansion in the city that would have been used by senior officials. The pyramid workers may have lived in simpler housing located by the pyramids themselves. Recent research has also revealed evidence for a massive catering operation that kept people at Giza fed. Khufu’s pyramid When it was completed by Khufu, the Great Pyramid rose 481 feet (146 m), approximately the height of a modern, 30-story office building. Today, with the loss of the some of the stone, the pyramid is slightly shorter, measuring 455 feet (138 m). It was the tallest building in the world until the 14th century, when the Lincoln Cathedral was completed in England. Three smaller pyramids, often referred to as queens’ pyramids, are located adjacent to Khufu’s pyramid. It’s difficult to say for sure for whom they were built, but one of them may have been for Khufu’s mother, Hetepheres.

In addition, a smaller satellite pyramid, located between the queens’ pyramids and Khufu’s, was discovered in the 1990s. Seven boat pits have been found at Khufu’s pyramid, two on the south side, two on the east side, two in between the queens’ pyramids and one located beside the mortuary temple and causeway. The best preserved boat, carefully reassembled from more than 1,200 pieces, is 142 feet (43 m) long, with wooden planks and oars. The purpose of these boats is a mystery. [Related: Natural Disasters in Ancient Egypt Revealed ] Khufu’s pyramid held three chambers. A grand gallery lead up to the king’s chamber, a red granite room that contains a now-empty royal sarcophagus. In the center of the pyramid is the so-called queen’s chamber, although it probably never held a queen. Beneath the pyramid is a subterranean chamber, its purpose, like the queen’s chamber, a mystery. Both the king’s chamber and the queen’s chamber contain two “air shafts” (it’s doubtful they were ever used as such).

The shafts from the king’s chamber now lead outside, while the two from the queen’s chamber stop after a distance. Robot exploration of the shafts reveal that they lead to doors with copper handles and hieroglyphs. Recently, archaeologist Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian minister of state for antiquities, told Live Science that he believes these shafts lead to Khufu’s real burial chamber. "There is no pyramid of the 123 pyramids in Egypt that have these type of doors with copper handles," Hawass said. "Really, I believe they're hiding something." The construction of Khufu’s pyramid complex was a massive undertaking. Archaeologist Mark Lehner, who excavates at Giza, estimates that — assuming Khufu reigned for about 30 years — an estimated 251 cubic yards (230 cubic meters) of stone per day had to be put down.

That’s “a rate of one average-size block every two or three minutes in a ten-hour day,” he writes in his book " The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries " (Thames & Hudson, 2008), adding that estimates for the average size of these pyramid stones are as high as 2.5 tons. Khafre’s pyramid Khufu’s successor, Djedefre, built his pyramid off-site at Abu Roash. The person who succeeded Djedefre, Khafre, returned to Giza and built a pyramid that, although smaller than Khufu’s, was on a slightly higher elevation. Only one satellite pyramid sits outside Khafre's pyramid. Inside, the pyramid's architecture is simpler than Khufu’s. It has two entranceways, both on the north side, one located 38 feet (12 m) above the base of the pyramid and another on ground level. Both entrances lead to passageways that ultimately lead to the burial chamber.

Robbed long ago, this chamber contains a black granite sarcophagus that, when found in the 19th century, contained the bones of a bull, an animal loaded with religious symbolism in ancient Egypt; the body of the king himself was gone. Menkaure’s pyramid With a height of 215 feet (65 m) and a base of 335 by 343 feet (102 by 105 m), Menkaure’s is by far the smallest of the three pyramids. Lehner notes that its building mass is about one-tenth that of Khufu’s pyramid. Its complex includes three queens’ pyramids on its south side. The entranceway for Menkaure’s pyramid is located just above ground level, its passages leading to an antechamber and burial chamber. An ornate sarcophagus was found in the 19th century by Howard Vyse but it was lost when the ship that was taking it to England, the Beatrice, sank. It’s a mystery as to why Menkaure’s pyramid is so much smaller than the other two.

It could simply be that there wasn’t room at Giza for another large pyramid or perhaps events during Menkaure’s reign prevented him from building another large structure. No future pharaoh would ever build a pyramid as large as those built by Khufu and Khafre. The Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt are pictured here. USGS and University of Pennsylvania research shows that ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt's Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt's Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time. Credit: Benjamin P. Horton , University of Pennsylvania The Sphinx All three of Giza’s pyramids had mortuary temples connecting to valley temples through a causeway. However, in the case of Khafre’s pyramid, his valley temple also has an enigmatic monument nearby known as the Sphinx, with an uncompleted temple dedicated to it. The Sphinx is a 241-foot (74 m) long monument carved out of the limestone bedrock of the Giza Plateau. It has the face of a man and the body of a lion.

The mythical creature is seen in art throughout the ancient Middle East, as well as in India and Greece. The word "sphinx" is, in fact, a Greek word meaning "strangler," according to Tour Egypt . The face of the giant statue at Giza may have been based on that of Khafre. Efforts at conserving and restoring the Sphinx go back at least as far as 3,400 years. What purpose did the pyramids have? The simplest explanation for the use of the pyramids is that they were places of burial for their respective kings; the discovery of a sarcophagus in all three pyramids back this idea up. The pyramid complexes, and the grave goods once located inside them, helped the king ascend to the afterlife. In addition to being used to bury the pharaoh numerous mastaba tombs were built near the pyramids. These were used to bury royal family members and senior officials. Recently, an elaborate wall painting was discovered in one of these tombs. Interestingly, the spiritual importance of Giza appears to cross the ages.

In late 2010, archaeologists announced the discovery of about 400 malnourished people, buried with few grave goods, located near the Wall of the Crow. They date to between 2,700 and 2,000 years ago, two millennia after the pyramids had been built, their burial location suggesting they had a desire to be near Giza. Additional resources UNESCO's World Heritage List , which recognizes sites with cultural, historical and natural significance, includes the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Take a tour of the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx at Tour Egypt. Author Bio Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor Owen Jarus writes about archaeology and all things about humans' past for Live Science. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University. He enjoys reading about new research and is always looking for a new historical tale.

Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor on Latest on Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: The Great Pyramid: Gateway to Eternity Print this page Egyptian world of the dead For ancient Egyptians, it was of key importance that when someone died their physical body should continue to exist on earth, so they could progress properly through the afterlife. Consequently, providing proper eternal accommodation for their body after they had died was very important to them. The afterlife they wanted to attain was thought of as a bigger and better version of the earthly Egypt - and in it they were to live close to their family and friends. The Pyramid Texts © There was one exception to this rather homely vision of the next world. This was for the king, already a divine being on earth, who would complete his apotheosis on death. According to the earliest set of texts dealing with the next world, the Pyramid Texts, which were inscribed inside the royal tombs of 2500-2300 BC, the king would dwell with his fellow gods in the entourage of the sun-god, Re.

He would spend eternity traversing the sky and underworld: one might be tempted to regard the fate of his subjects as more desirable. The sun god Re on his nocturnal journey, from the tomb of Ramesses I in the Valley of the Kings © The spiritual part of the dead person was believed to have a number of aspects, including the ba, the akh, the ka and the 'shadow'. Of these, the ba was depicted as a human-headed bird, in which form the spirit could travel around and beyond the tomb, able to sit before the grave, taking its repose in the 'cool sweet breeze'. The deceased, in whatever ethereal form, however, required sustenance for eternity... The concept of the akh was somewhat more esoteric, being the aspect of the dead in which he or she had ceased to be dead, having been transfigured into a living being: a light in contrast to the darkness of death, often associated with the stars. The notion of the ka was even more complex, being an aspect of the person created at the same time as the body, and surviving as its companion. It was the part of the deceased that was the immediate recipient of offerings, but had other functions, some of which remain obscure.

The deceased, in whatever ethereal form, however, required sustenance for eternity, and it was with this basic fact in mind that the Egyptians' tombs were built. Top Golden age of the pyramids King Djoser's Step Pyramid © Perhaps the greatest manifestation of the Egyptians' beliefs in the afterlife is the Great Pyramid, built at Giza by King Khufu around 2500 BC. Just over a century before this, the first ever pyramid, King Djoser's Step Pyramid, had been built, superseding the previous types of royal tomb. These early tombs were essentially made up of an underground burial complex in one location - with a large rectangular enclosure half a mile or so away, where ceremonies for the dead were carried out. Most of then had lain at Abydos, in the southern part of Egypt, but a few had been built at Saqqara, just south of modern Cairo. It was at this northern site that Djoser built his Step Pyramid, which in many ways combined the old separate elements in one location - and placed a pyramid of stepped form, towering above them, to form a 'stairway to heaven'.

...for sheer unique mass, Khufu trumped them all with the Great Pyramid at Giza... Pyramids became straight-sided under Khufu's father, Seneferu, the new form apparently representing the rays of the sun. Seneferu's accession marked the beginning of the golden age of the pyramids. The greatest builder of them all, he erected three examples, with bases ranging from 144 to 220m (472 to 721ft) square. His multiple pyramids seem to have resulted both from a rapid evolution of religious concepts during his long reign, and a structural failure that led to the abandonment of the 'Bent' pyramid at Dahshur. The 'Red' pyramid, at the same site, became his eventual resting place. However, for sheer unique mass, Khufu trumped them all with the Great Pyramid at Giza, 230m (754ft) square and 146m (479ft) high.

Top Into the magical machine A reconstruction of Khufu's Valley Building © It is important to realise that the actual pyramid was only one part of the overall magical machine that transferred the dead king between the two worlds of the living and the dead. The pyramid complex began on the edge of the desert, where the Valley Building - now lost under a Cairo suburb - formed a monumental portal. From here, the burial cortege, priests and visitors would pass through ceremonial halls onto a causeway that ascended the desert escarpment to the mortuary temple, built against the east face of the pyramid. Here, behind a great colonnaded courtyard, lay the sanctuary in which offerings were made to the king's spirit. Either side of the mortuary temple lay a buried boat - perhaps a souvenir of a funeral flotilla, or put there to allow the king to voyage in the heavens - and to the south was a miniature pyramid. Such so-called subsidiary pyramids are of uncertain purpose: they are generally classified as 'ritual' - archaeologists' code for 'obviously important to the ancient people, but we have absolutely no idea why'. ...it was decided that a stone sarcophagus - not previously used for kings - should be installed.

An offering place was one of the two immutable parts of an Egyptian tomb. The other was the burial place. In the Great Pyramid - and in most other pyramids - this was reached from a narrow, low, opening in the north face. The interior of the Great Pyramid is complex, almost certainly resulting from a number of changes of plan. At first, the burial chamber was to be placed deep underground, with a descending passage and an initial room being carved out of the living rock. It seems, however, that it was decided that a stone sarcophagus - not previously used for kings - should be installed. Such an item would not pass down the descending corridor, and since the pyramid had already risen some distance above its foundations, the only solution was to place a new burial chamber - uniquely - high up in the superstructure, where the sarcophagus could be installed before the chamber walls were built. The architects of later pyramids ensured that there was adequate access to underground chambers by using cut-and-cover techniques rather than tunnelling.

Top The eternal royal abode Two successive intended burial chambers were constructed in the body of the pyramid, the final one lying at the end of an impressive corbel-roofed passage, which seems originally to have been intended simply as a storage-place for the plug-blocks of stone that were made to slide down to block access to the upper chambers after the burial. Corbel-roofing, where each course of the wall blocks are set a little further in than the previous one, allowed passages to be rather wider than would have been felt to be safe with flat ceilings, and are a distinctive feature of the earliest pyramids and tombs of the Fourth Dynasty, to which Khufu belonged. At the west end of the chamber lay the sarcophagus, now lidless and mutilated. The burial took place in that final burial chamber, nowadays dubbed the King's Chamber. An impressive piece of architecture, this granite room was surmounted by a series of 'relieving' chambers that were intended to reduce the weight of masonry pressing down on the ceiling of the burial chamber itself. At the west end of the chamber lay the sarcophagus, now lidless and mutilated.

The furniture of Hetepheres, from her tomb © It is unclear when the pyramid was first robbed, although some Arab accounts suggest that human remains were found in the sarcophagus early in the ninth century AD. As for what else may have been in the chamber when Khufu was laid to rest, there will have been a canopic chest for his embalmed internal organs, together with furniture and similar items. Examples of such simple, but exquisite, gold-encased items were found in the nearby tomb of Khufu's mother in 1925. The canopic chest of Hetepheres © So-called airshafts, only 20cm (8in) square, leave the north and south walls of the chamber and emerge high up on the corresponding faces of the pyramid. These also were found in the original high-level burial chamber, and seem to have been aimed at particular stars, implying a stellar aspect to the king's afterlife - although as we have seen he was later more closely associated with the sun. Interestingly, the pyramid for Khufu's immediate successor, Djedefre, bore a name that described the king as a 'shining star'.

Top The passing of giants The Great Pyramid was the hub of a huge complex of cemeteries intended for members of the royal court. To the east, three of the king's wives had their own small pyramids, with streets of mastaba - bench-shaped tombs - for his sons and daughters. West of Khufu's pyramid was an even larger cemetery for the great officials of state. All these tombs had been laid out to a single design, a unified architectural conception of the king surrounded by his court, in death as in life. It is a concept that has been without direct parallel before or since. ...another son of Khufu, Khaefre, built the last of the truly gigantic pyramids... After Khufu's death, he was succeeded by his son, Djedefre, who built his own pyramid about four miles to the north, at Abu Rowash. He made no attempt to match his father's monument for size - its area is less than a quarter that of the Great Pyramid - but instead built it atop a towering cliff.

Djedefre's obscure probable successor, on the other hand, began another giant pyramid, 200m (650ft) square, south of Giza at Zawiyet el-Aryan. This never got as far as the foundations, but another son of Khufu, Khaefre, built the last of the truly gigantic pyramids, back at Giza. His 215m (705ft) square 'Second' pyramid was then followed by Menkaura's 'Third' pyramid, only half the size. Later generations settled for even smaller examples - although with much larger and more lavishly decorated temples: the era of the giants had passed.

Read on The Complete Pyramids by M Lehner (Thames and Hudson, 1997) The Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipment for Eternity by S Ikram and AM Dodson (Thames and Hudson; American University in Cairo Press; 1998) The Pyramids by A Silotti (Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1997) The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments by M Verner (Atlantic Books, London; Grove Press, New York; 2001) A History of the Giza Necropolis, I, by GA Reisner (Harvard University Press, 1942) Links The British Museum . Great Russell Street, London. Tel: 0207 323 8299. The British Museum is free to everybody and opens at 10am every day. Top About the author Dr Aidan Dodson is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Bristol, where he teaches Egyptology. A specialist in Egyptian funerary archaeology, he has lectured widely and written extensively.

Some of his most recent works include The Hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt (Barnes & Noble, 2001) and The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt: A Handbook (New Holland), released in 2003.

Question: The Great Pyramid of Giza was built for King Khufu as a what?
Answer: Tomb