Giza is a plateau southwest of modern Cairo which served as the necropolis for the royalty of the Old Kingdom. Most famous for the pyramids of Khufu (2528 BCE) Khafre (2494 BCE) and Menkaure (2472 BCE) and the Great Sphinx, recent excavations on the plateau have revealed numerous private tomb complexes (called Mastabas) and worker’s quarters. The Great Pyramid of Khufu (also known as the pyramid of Cheops, the pharaoh’s Greek name) is the last remaining of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World.
The original layout of the necropolis at Giza seems to have been very precise and well-ordered but, after the Old Kingdom, other tombs were dug without regard for the original pattern and, sometimes, were dug above existing tombs, making present-day Giza a wealth of archaeological material.
The Pyramids and the Tombs
The Giza plateau is marked by the Great Pyramid, the smaller pyramid of Khafre (also known as Chephren) and the medium-sized pyramid of Menkaure (known to the Greeks as Mykerinos). The Great Sphinx sits on the eastern side of the complex (the head of the Sphinx believed by Egyptologists to be that of the Pharaoh Khafre) and, further on, the great solar barge of Khufu was found buried in a pit in 1954 (a specially built atmospherically-controlled museum has housed the ship, which is the oldest intact ship extant, since 1982). These majestic structures are accompanied on the sands of Giza by a number of smaller structures known as the `Queens Pyramids’ and recent excavations have uncovered even more buildings than were previously thought to be there. Tombs of High Officials, Magistrates, even Supervisors of Building Projects have been found on the Giza plateau as well as monuments honoring Egyptian workers on the pyramids and others buried there. No evidence of Hebrew slave-laborers has been discovered at Giza nor anywhere else in the entirety of Egypt, popular opinion and film-versions of Egyptian history based on the Biblical Book of Exodus to the contrary, of course.
Giza as a Commercial Complex
Largely due to engravings and etchings from the 19th century and early 20th centuries CE (and postcards and calendars of modern times) many people world-wide think of the Giza plateau and the pyramids as resting in a remote, wind-swept desert locale when, in reality, it sits at the very edge of urban sprawl today (Cairo being one of the most populous cities in Africa) and, in its time, would have also been a center of daily activity with many buildings, colonnades, terraces and even shops. The pyramids were, once, encased in polished limestone which, according to ancient writers, reflected the light of the sun brilliantly. The limestone was stripped away over the years for use in other building projects, most notably the mosques of Cairo. Of the three major pyramids, however, only Menkaure's is seen today without any of its original limestone casing; Khafre's Pyramid retains its casing stones at its apex while Khufu's has a smaller remainder at its base. The sides of all three of the Giza pyramids were oriented astronomically to be precisely north-south and east-west within a small fraction of a degree.
Sources:
The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Margaret Bunson, 1991
Living in Ancient Egypt, Don Nardo, 2004
Travels in Egypt and lectures heard there by author
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