Khufu's Pyramid Review

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Khufu's Pyramid

  • Address: Giza

Fodor's Review:

If you choose one pyramid to go into, make it the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The sheer mass of it, pierced by the elegant Grand Gallery leading to the burial chamber, is one of the wonders of the world—ancient and modern. The oldest and largest monument at the Giza site, the Great Pyramid measures 753 ft square and 478 ft high, and it is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world remaining today. Its casing stones, once covered by graffiti dating from pharaonic times, were systematically stripped in the Middle Ages for a variety of Cairene building projects, leaving the structure as you see it today. The pyramid took some 20 years for the pharaoh Khufu to build, and it is one of two pyramids that contains the burial chamber within its body. Five boat pits surround Khufu's Pyramid on the south and the east. Two of these, the southern ones, contain cedar boats that the pharaoh probably used during his lifetime. One of these is in the Boat Museum, and it may even have been used on the pharaoh's last voyage from the capital of Memphis to his tomb at Giza. When found in the 1960s, it lay dismantled in its limestone pit, sealed by 40 roofing slabs. Its 1,200 pieces, originally joined together by halfa-grass ropes and sycamore pegs, were painstakingly reassembled by the late conservationist Hajj Ahmed Yusif over the course of 14 years.

  • Cost: £e40, £e20 additional Boat Museum; additional £e10 to use your camera and £e100 to use your video recorder
  • Open: Daily 8-4
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