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The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and The Great Pyramid consists of an estimat-
largest of the three pyramids in the Giza ed 2.3 million blocks which most believe to-
pyramid complex bordering present-day have been transported from nearby quar-
Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt. It is the oldest ries. The Tura limestone used for the casing
of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was quarried across the river. The largest
and the only one to remain granite stones in the

largely intact. pyramid, found in the
Based on a mark in an in- “King’s” chamber,
terior chamber naming the weigh 25 to 80 tonnes
work gang and a reference to The Great and were transport-
the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian Pyramid of ed from Aswan, more
pharaoh Khufu, Egyptologists than 800 km (500 mi)
believe that the pyramid was GIZA away. Ancient Egyp-
built as a tomb over a 10- to tians cut stone into
20-year period concluding rough blocks by ham-
around 2560 BC. mering grooves into
There are three known natural stone faces, in-
chambers inside the Great serting wooden wedg-

Pyramid. The lowest cham- es, then soaking these
ber is cut into the bedrock upon which the with water. As the water was absorbed, the
pyramid was built and was unfinished. The wedges expanded, breaking off workable
so-called Queen’s Chamber and King’s chunks. Once the blocks were cut, they
Chamber are higher up within the pyramid were carried by boat either up or down the
structure Nile River to the pyramid. It is estimated
that 5.5 million tonnes of limestone, 8,000
tonnes of granite (imported from Aswan),

and 500,000 tonnes of mortar were used
in the construction of the Great Pyramid.

Today tourists enter the Great Pyramid
via the Robbers’ Tunnel, a tunnel purport-
The main part of the Giza complex is a set edly created around 820 AD by Caliph al-
of buildings that included two mortuary Ma’mun’s workmen using a battering ram.
temples in honour of Khufu (one close to The tunnel is cut straight through the ma-
the pyramid and one near the Nile), three sonry of the pyramid for approximately 27
smaller pyramids for Khufu’s wives, an metres (89 ft), then turns sharply left to en-
even smaller “satellite” pyramid, a raised counter the blocking stones in the Ascend-
causeway connecting the two temples, and ing Passage.

small mastaba tombs for nobles surround-
ing the pyramid.