Starts with pickup from your hotel in either Cairo or Giza By Tour guide and transfer to Giza Pyramids to Start your half day tour visiting Giza Pyramids Where you Visit the Great Pyramids - Cheops, Chephren & Mykerinos The pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx are among the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and indeed already were even in Roman times. Each of these spectacular structures served as the final resting place of a king of the 4th Dynasty (c.2613–2494 BC). The Great Pyramid of Giza was built for king Khufu (c.2589–2566 BC), and the other two for Khafre and Menkaure, his son and grandson. Khufu’s pyramid is both the oldest and largest of the three, and the first building to exceed it in height would not be built for another 3,800 years! Although the three pyramids dominate the plateau, they are in fact surrounded by many other monuments. Every king’s pyramid was just one element albeit the most important of a larger complex.

The Great Pyramid, the tomb of King Khufu (c.2589–2566 BC), with its original height of 146.5 meters, was the tallest structure in the world for 3,800 years. It remains the last surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and took an estimated 10 to 20 years to build. To this day, it is not entirely certain how this was done. The Great Pyramid is made of local limestone, but its exterior was once entirely covered with high quality limestone. These casing stones were brought from Turah, south of Maadi, by ship. On the inside, the pyramid has three chambers, one cut into the bedrock underneath, and two high up within the masonry itself, a feature that no other pyramid possesses. The sarcophagus in which Khufu was once laid to rest can still be seen in the upper of these two rooms, the King’s Chamber. This room is accessed through the Grand Gallery, a majestic corbelled ascending passage, and a masterpiece of ancient engineering and architecture.

Khafre (c.2558–2532 BC), whom the ancient Greeks knew as Khefren, was a son of King Khufu (Cheops), the builder of the Great Pyramid. He built the second pyramid complex at Giza, and constructed his tomb on slightly higher ground, making it appear just as tall as his father’s. At 143.5 meters in height, however, his pyramid is only slightly shorter, and a tremendously impressive monument. Its core masonry is made of blocks of local limestone. The top of the pyramid still preserves the beautifully polished blocks of high-quality limestone that once encased the majority of the structure’s towering height. This white stone was quarried in Turah, south of Maadi, and transported here by ship. The mortuary temple of Khafre at the foot of his pyramid and the valley temple at the end of the causeway are larger than any of those of older pyramids, and also among the best preserved of the Old Kingdom.

Menkaure (Mykerinos to the ancient Greeks; c.2532–2503 BC) is the builder of the third of the three large Giza Pyramids. He was most likely the son of Khafre (Khefren), and grandson of Khufu (Cheops). With a base area that is less than a quarter of their pyramids’, and with an original height of 65 meters, Menkaure’s is by far the smallest of the three. This reduction in size is due to several factors, including the limited amount of space left on the Giza Plateau. The material used for the outer casing of Menkaure’s pyramid is another. Whereas his predecessors had used limestone for this purpose, Menkaure employed granite, which was quarried in Aswan, over 800 km away. In addition to the logistics involved in transportation of the granite blocks, the material itself is much harder than limestone. However, only the bottom quarter of the casing stones are made of granite however, the rest being limestone.

Colossal statues are one of the hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, and the Great Sphinx of Giza is the most famous. It was carved directly out of the bedrock during the 4th Dynasty (c.2613–2494 BC), which also makes it the oldest. Ancient Egyptian sphinxes represented the king with the body of a lion, in a clear demonstration of his power. The evidence points to the Great Sphinx having been carved during the reign of Khafre (Khefren to the ancient Greeks; c.2558–2532 BC), the builder of the second of the Giza pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the temple in front of it, called the Sphinx Temple, lie directly next to Khafre’s valley temple and the lower portion of the causeway leading up to his mortuary temple and pyramid. Careful archaeological analysis has revealed that the valley temple was finished before work was begun on the Great Sphinx and its temple. After the tour is finished you will be transferred back to your Hotel.