The Great Pyramids

Overview: 

One of the orig­i­nal and the last remain­ing Sev­en Won­ders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyra­mids stands as not only ever-last­ing mon­u­ments to the Glo­ry of Ancient Egypt but as the proud Nation­al Sym­bol of Egypt and as stun­ning archi­tec­tur­al and beau­ti­ful won­ders of the world.  

 While there are over 150 Pyra­mids dot­ted around Egypt, the Nine pyra­mids of the Great Pyra­mid Com­plex – which includes the stun­ning Great Pyra­mid of Khu­fu – which once served as the great Pharos final rest­ing place – and the two main pyra­mids con­struct­ed for the Pharaoh Khafra (Khu­fu Son) and the Pharaoh Menkau­ra as well as six ‘queen’ pyra­mids that once housed the loved ones of the Pharaohs – stand as the largest in the world, with the high­est the Great Pyra­mid clock­ing in at 481 feet and being con­struct­ed out of 2.3 mil­lion lime­stone blocks – a tru­ly unique archi­tec­tur­al feet giv­en the pyra­mids began con­struc­tion in 2550 BC. 

Cre­at­ed as shrines to the ancient Pharaohs, who at the time of con­struc­tion were believed to be Gods who would live for­ev­er and would use the Pyra­mids as pas­sage­ways to the next life when they were enshrined beneath them, the pyra­mids have sur­vived loot­ing, deple­tion, and the pas­sage of time to still remain incred­i­bly acces­si­ble with all of the Pyra­mids afford­ing explor­ers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to jour­ney with­in them and to wit­ness where the Sar­coph­a­gus of the great Pharos once lay.  

Along­side this, the incred­i­ble sun­rise and sun­set that greets the pas­sage of time at the Great Pyra­mids each day, com­bined with the Great Sphinx that guards the Pyra­mids and the sto­ried and incred­i­ble his­to­ry con­tained with­in the icon­ic Pyra­mids, helps make the Great Pyra­mids a true won­der of both the ancient and mod­ern world and an absolute must vis­it for any trav­eller.  

 Where: 

The Great Pyra­mids can be found in the stun­ning cap­i­tal of Egypt in Cairo – with the pyra­mids them­selves rest­ing just on the edge of the town and reach­able down the pyra­mid road which takes you to the main Giza Plateau – from where you can begin to explore the won­der.   

 Getting there:

Hav­ing reached Cairo – which is eas­i­ly done by Plane to the inter­na­tion­al air­port of Cairo – or by train, bus or cruise from just about any­where in Egypt, you’ll see the great pyra­mids on the hori­zon from just about any­where in Cairo – and get­ting there can be done as sim­ply as tak­ing a Taxi or Uber or Pri­vate Car for around $30 USD down the pyra­mids road to the Giza Plateau and straight to the entrance to the won­der.  

For those who don’t want to put their faith in a pri­vate Car, you also have the option of mul­ti­ple day tours from just about any­where in Cairo – and for which you can expect to pay $100 USd for a full day trip – or get on either bus 355 or 357 from any­where in the city which will drop you off at the pyra­mids for as lit­tle as $1 USD – although giv­en that both options will see you arrive with poten­tial­ly hun­dreds of tourists, we real­ly would rec­om­mend a pri­vate car or Uber for a much more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence.  

Once at the Giza Plateau you have a choice of two tick­et offi­cers, one bt the Great Pyra­mid and one by the Sphinx, and we’d real­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing the Great Pyra­mid, the Khafra Pyra­mid and the Sphinx in on foot, and then flag­ging an uber or Camel to vis­it the Menkau­ra Pyra­mid and the panoram­ic views that the pho­to spot of the entire won­der of the world of the Great Pyra­mids that the Menkau­ra Pyra­mid offers.  

Best time to Visit:

Egypt can be very hot, so much so that it can make vis­it­ing the great pyra­mids regard­less of their beau­ty a lit­tle uncom­fort­able if you go dur­ing the peak heat sum­mer months. As Win­ter and Christ­mas (Decem­ber — Jan­u­ary) are con­sid­ered the tourist sea­son if you can time your vis­its for Octo­ber and Novem­ber or Feb­ru­ary and March you should get the best of both worlds – just be sure to avoid Fri­days as the Pyra­mids get par­tic­u­lar­ly packed as Fri­days are con­sid­ered a holy day in Egypt.   

For vis­it­ing the pyra­mids them­selves, it’s a tru­ly unique expe­ri­ence to watch the sun­rise over the pyra­mids, and despite the pyra­mids not open­ing offi­cial­ly till 8am, you can grab a cof­fee and ear­ly break­fast and watch the sun rise.  

It’s also advised to go straight from sun­rise straight into the pyra­mids at 8am when they open – as you’ll find the won­der begins to pre­dictably fill up with tourists from 10:30am on – with most of them clear­ing out by 2 – for those who wish to explore the won­der with min­i­mal crowds ‑addi­tion­al­ly get­ting there at the open­ing will put you at the front of the queue for tick­ets to enter the pyra­mids, as only 300 are sold each day.  

While the Pyra­mids offi­cial­ly close at 4pm- it’s again worth hang­ing round in the evening and tim­ing your evening meal with sun­set before catch­ing the 7pm laser and night show at the pyra­mids which is a fan­tas­tic way to cap off a great day spend explor­ing one of the true won­ders of the world.  

Explore:  

The incred­i­ble Great Pyra­mids are found in the heart on the edge of the city of Cairo – in fact a lot of vis­i­tors are sur­prised by just how close the city tails off into the won­ders, with clev­er­ly angled pho­tos giv­ing the impres­sion they lie in the vast Egypt­ian desert.  

In fact you can stroll or uber your way down the pyra­mids road to the Giza Plateau with the great pyra­mids stand­ing and loom­ing over the city of Cairo. Giv­en their pop­u­lar­i­ty, we’d advise to get their ear­ly – both so you can wit­ness the stun­ning sun­rise over the ancient won­ders, but also so you can have as qui­et a time as pos­si­ble to explore the won­ders.  

After pur­chas­ing your tick­ets from the main tick­et office – which opens at 8am you’ll enter both the Giza Plateau and the offi­cial Pyra­mid com­plex, where you will see the great pyra­mids before you: 

The Great Pyra­mid (Khu­fu Pyra­mid)

Undoubt­ed­ly the biggest and best of the nine pyra­mids, the Great pyra­mid stands at 481 feet and is asso­ci­at­ed with and some­times called the Khu­fu pyra­mid, on account of the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh who was embalmed inside it and con­ceived its con­struc­tion in around 2540 B.C. 

As soon as you approach the Great Pyra­mid, you’ll be struck by both its sheer size and beau­ty – and we’d rec­om­mend either walk­ing or tak­ing a camel around it to grab some stun­ning pho­tos of the 2.3 mil­lion sand­stone blocks and their unique for­ma­tion con­struct­ed by 100,00 men that make up the mag­nif­cient won­der. 

As you pass round the incred­i­ble pyra­mid you’ll also notice three addi­tion­al small­er queen pyra­mids, which them­selves are stun­ning and which are known as the east­ern ceme­tery and believed to have at one point housed the wives and daugh­ters of Khu­fu. 

Along­side the out­er beau­ty of the great pyra­mid, you have the option to jour­ney inside, with the dark and nar­row cor­ri­dors giv­ing you a feel for what lies inside the heart the Great pyra­mid – with a grand gallery and the incred­i­ble Tomb Cham­ber – which con­tains the emp­ty sar­coph­a­gus of what was once Khu­fu’s mum­my being found inside.  

Unfor­tu­nate­ly most of the inside of the Great Pyra­mid has been loot­ed, so inside it can be a lit­tle emp­ty, but we’d also rec­om­mend check­ing out the solar boat muse­um – which fea­tures five long boats believed to be from the time of con­struc­tion of the pyra­mids that sit in a small muse­um next to the great pyra­mid and which were uncov­ered dur­ing exca­va­tion – and also head­ing to the area known as the west­ern ceme­tery, where the Tomb of Senegemib-Inti lies which gives an incred­i­ble insight into the mum­mi­fi­ca­tion process of the great Egyp­tians.   

Pyramid of Khafra

Clock­ing in at 136 m the great Pyra­mid of Khafre that lies close to the great pyra­mid hous­es the son of Khu­fu – Khafre and was clev­er­ly con­struct­ed to sit on a high­er piece of land than the Great Pyra­mid mak­ing it seem larg­er in both pho­tos and at first view­ing.  

As you again approach the pyra­mid you’ll get a sense of it’s sheer size and beau­ty, as well as the again incred­i­ble archi­tec­tur­al feat that led to its con­struc­tion, with there being a notable flat top to the pyra­mid with an indent­ed cen­tre – that it is believed once housed a jew­el, before it was loot­ed.  

While the Khafre pyra­mid lacks the queen tem­ples of the oth­er main two pyra­mids, its con­struc­tion also includ­ed the great sphinx (below) which is believed to have been cre­at­ed to stand guard over Khafre after his embalm­ment, with the pyra­mid being espe­cial­ly of inter­est for those who want to see what they pyra­mids were like at their orig­i­nal con­struc­tion – as some of the orig­i­nal lime­stone remains in an incred­i­bly well pre­served con­di­tion.  

Like the Great Pyra­mid the Khafre pyra­mid can be entered for an addi­tion­al fee – although be warned that the pyra­mids oper­ate on a 2 on 1 off rota­tion to allow for restora­tion work to be under­tak­en inside. With the great Khafre pyra­mid fea­tur­ing incred­i­ble but nar­row walls which open up into a large space that is believed to have been sued for offer­ings, before descend­ing down into the depths of the Pyra­mid where the bur­ial cham­ber and what was once the final rest­ing place of Khafre lies. 

The Menkaura Pyramid

The small­est of the pyra­mids, also a bit of a trek from the main site the Menkau­re pyra­mid sits at 62 metres – less than half of the great pyra­mid and the Khafre pyra­mid and is believed to have been built by the Pharaoh Menkau­re in 2480 BC – who want­ed his own pyra­mid and viewed him­self as an equal to both the pharaohs Khu­fu and Khafra.  

Of note from an archae­o­log­i­cal per­spec­tive is that the Menkau­re Tem­ple is made from dif­fer­ent lime­stone blocks than the pre­vi­ous two tem­ples, but there are also three queen pyra­mids for the wives and daugh­ters of Menkau­re lying near­by – although por­tions of them are deplet­ed and are believed to have nev­er been com­plet­ed.  

As with the pre­vi­ous two tem­ples – it’s pos­si­ble to enter inside the Menkau­re tem­ple and despite it’s small­er size a trip inside is a real treat, as the nar­row path­ways open out into mor­tary tem­ple and then down into what was intend­ed to be the rest­ing place of Menkau­re. 

While the Menkau­re Pyra­mid is small­er and per­haps not as grand as the first two Pyra­mids – it does have once incred­i­ble fea­ture, it’s posi­tion towards the far end of the Giza Plateau and it’s ele­vat­ed stance means that it makes for great panoram­ic pho­tos of the whole of the incred­i­ble won­der that is the Great Pyra­mids of Egypt.  

The Sphinx

While not offi­cial­ly part of the Great Pyra­mids, the Great Sphinx sits in the heart of the Pyra­mid Com­plex, and is believed to have been con­struct­ed and designed by Khafre to watch over his final rest­ing place – with the Great Sphinx stand­ing along­side the pyra­mids as one of Egypt’s nat­ur­al and incred­i­ble won­ders. 

Carved out of nat­ur­al Gran­ite, the incred­i­ble Sphinx sits 20 metres high and 73 metres wide and has the head and cloth of a man – and the body of a lion, in what is believed to be the form of a sun god (which is very fit­ting for Egypt) known as Ra-Horakhty, with the great sphinx designed to face the ris­ing sun to absorb its pow­er dur­ing the day.  

While like some of the pyra­mids the Sphinx has suf­fered from van­dal­ism and deple­tion – with the nose and beard famous­ly removed in 1378 after invaders found locals wor­ship­ping it, it sill stands today as a debat­ed archae­o­log­i­cal mys­tery with some even sug­gest­ing it con­tains a secret pas­sage­way into the Pyra­mids – what is clear though is that it stands as a great and proud sym­bol of the Egypt­ian Empire and encap­su­lates and guards the incred­i­ble won­ders of the world in its midst.  

The nightly pyramids Sound and Light Show:

Along­side explor­ing and see­ing the mys­ter­ies and beau­ty of the Pyra­mids at sun­rise, dur­ing the day and at sun­set, we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing time for the night­ly 7pm sound and light show at the Giza pyra­mids – which allows you to see the great won­ders lit up and pro­ject­ed upon as the Sphinx recalls their his­to­ry, con­struc­tion and splen­dour.   

While anoth­er thing that you’ll have to pay for sep­a­rate­ly as you explore the won­ders, the night­ly light and sound show allows spec­ta­tors to sit in front of the Pyra­mids and have the key parts of the pyra­mids design high­light­ed to them, mak­ing for an incred­i­ble way to top off a vis­it to this ancient, his­tor­i­cal and beau­ti­ful won­ders of the world.  

How long to stay:

While you can cov­er the whole of the Giza Pyra­mids in a cou­ple of hours – we’d rec­om­mend allo­cat­ing a full day to explore the won­der – begin­ning with a sun­rise over the great pyra­mids and giv­ing your­self enough time to explore the whole of the three pyra­mids – includ­ing ven­tur­ing inside – and the Great Sphinx and the Giza plateau – before grab­bing a bite to eat and tak­ing in both the incred­i­ble sun­set over these stun­ning won­ders of the world and stay­ing to watch the always enter­tain­ing Sound and Light Show from 7pm. 

Top Tip:

Along­side mak­ing sure you get there for sun­rise, and avoid vis­it­ing on the peak days – it’s an unfor­tu­nate shame that while the Pyra­mids are a true won­der, they also attract a lot of tourists – which in turn attracts a lot of ‘helpers’ – which can be either scam­mers, fake guides or pick­pock­ets.  

 While there are tourist police that patrol the site of the won­der – eas­i­ly iden­ti­fied by there black or white police gear – you will undoubt­ed­ly find your­self offered a camel ride, offered a pho­to or offered an ill-informed tour at an extor­tion­ate price – so it’s advised to stay well away from them.  

It’s also advised – and espe­cial­ly for solo female explor­ers – to be extra care­ful about both accept­ing advice and assis­tance from helpers and keep­ing an eye on both your belong­ings and your­self.  

Yet despite this, as long as you have your wits about you – the great pyra­mids are a tru­ly unique won­der – and we’d advise as a fur­ther top tip to ensure you soak in every sec­ond explor­ing these incred­i­ble ancient won­ders of the world.  

Cost: 

Hav­ing made you way to Cairo – we’d rec­om­mend hop­ing in an Uber for a day tour and being fer­ried between the pyra­mids to make your life and expe­ri­ence there as eas­i­er as pos­si­ble – with the cost for a full day Uber at the pyra­mids like­ly com­ing in at around 250 Egypt­ian Pounds – rough­ly #15 USD.  

From there and hav­ing made your way to the pyra­mids and the Giza Plateau – which are open from 8 – 4 every day, you can expect to pay 120 Egypt­ian pounds rough­ly $8 for entry to the whole pyra­mid com­plex which includes the Great Sphinx stat­ue which makes a per­fect pho­to spot.  

With access to each of the three pyra­mids inte­ri­ors – depend­ing on which one’s are open ‑com­ing in at 100 Egypt­ian pounds ($6 USD) for the Great Pyra­mid, 40 Egypt­ian pounds ($3) for the Pyra­mid of Khafre and 25 Egypt­ian pounds (rough­ly $1.50 usd) for the Pyra­mid of Menkau­re – just be sure to get your tick­ets ear­ly as only 300 are sold each day to enter the pyra­mids.  

As a quick tip – be sure to that when you buy your ini­tial entry tick­ets you also get your tick­ets to the inte­ri­ors as well, as it can be a con­fus­ing sys­tem as to what you buy when giv­en the tick­et­ing sys­tem — you don’t want to find your­self queu­ing in the heat again for inside tick­ets as it can take the shine off your vis­it.  

 Fun Fact: 

Despite pop­u­lar belief there are actu­al­ly 9 pyra­mids that can be seen in Giza – with the Khu­fu pyra­mid and the Menkau­ra hav­ing three small­er queen pyra­mids, which com­bined with the stun­ning Pyra­mid of Khafra – gives you a myth bust­ing and fun fact of 9.  

For those not impressed by the num­ber of pyra­mids at the won­der, you can also take in a panoram­ic view of the Pyra­mids and wit­ness both the old­est and only remain­ing won­der of the world from the near­by Piz­za Hut.

Best photo spot:

There’s two great pho­to spots to get the panoram­ic views of the Pyra­mids – the first and unques­tion­ably best is at the Giza plateau – at the apt­ly named Giza Panora­ma pho­to spot, where you can soak in all of the beau­ty of the great pyra­mids – and we’d rec­om­mend get­ting there for a sun­rise – when crowds are at a min­i­mum and at sun­set – where the sun set­ting makes and incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty – with their being plen­ty of great spots for pho­tos – with the fur­ther you walk down the plateau the bet­ter the view.  

Along­side the Giza panoram­ic spot – we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing some time at the Sphinx as well where you can get a full pyra­mid pho­to of the Great Pyra­mid – com­plete with all the nec­es­sary nov­el­ty pho­tos hold­ing the pyra­mids and kiss­ing the sphinx.  

As soon as you head to the two pho­to spots, don’t be put off by the crowds – the fur­ther away you walk from them the bet­ter the views and the thin­ner the crowd, and we’d real­ly rec­om­mend keep­ing you cam­eras away from ‘helpers’ – both of which can detract from giv­ing you both the per­fect pho­to and from your expe­ri­ence as you soak in one of the great­est won­ders of the world.