Giza Plateau
View Larger Map | Khufu | Khafre | Menkaure
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Status: Open to the public: 9:00am – 5:00pm. LE60 to enter the plateau.
Three kings of the 4th Dynasty built their pyramids on the Giza plateau:- Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.
The ‘Giza diagonal’ formed by the alignment of the south-east corners of these three pyramids has received much attention. Some of the speculations over the impulse of this line have included the theory of Robert Bauval that the three pyramids were laid out to mimic the arrangement of the three stars in ‘Orion’s belt’. Others, such as Mark Lehner have suggested that it may have been intended to point to Heliopolis. Another theory is that each successive pyramid used the preceding pyramid as a basis to align the next.
Khafre’s pyramid base is about 10 metres higher than Khufu’s which makes it appear as the larger of the two though it is actually the smallest.
Menkaure’s pyramid, though much smaller than that of both Khafre and Khufu, was an ambitious undertaking with granite casing for the lower few courses. The pyramid was never completed but it is assumed that he intended the entire pyramid to be cased in granite.
The Giza plateau is also home to the Sphinx, a human headed recumbant lion carved from a single peice of limestone outcrop. Thought to be carved in the likeness of Khrafre the Sphinx is located on the eastern edge of the plateau at the end of Khafre’s causeway.
Click & drag and zoom in on the aerial image above or explore the plateau from the ground with the interactive panoramas below. Click on the thumbnail images at the bottom of the page to visit each pyramid’s own page.
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Click and drag to pan around. Best viewed in full screen mode.
Click on any of the three pyramids for more information.
Photo: Satellite photograph of Giza
Tags: giza, khufu, khafre, menkaure
External Sites:
Giza Archives
Giza Plateau Mapping Project
