Giza, Egypt

On a fifty mile stretch of the Nile Valley, West of the river Nile, near the ancient Memphis, over seventy pyramids were built as tombs for Egyptian Kings. It took over a thousand years to build them. Of these, three great pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure at Giza are of gigantic proportions. They are the largest largest pyramids and world famous. Hence "The Pyramids of Egypt" are also called "The Pyramids of Giza". These three great pyramids were built for the three pharoahs - Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus.

The largest of the three Giza Pyramids is the Pyramid of Cheops or Pyramid of Khufu and it is called, "The Great Pyramid". It has a base area of 570,000 square feet (53,000 square meters). It contains 2,300,000 lime stone blocks each weighting 2.5 tonnes and measuring about three feet in each direction.

     The construction of the great pyramid is also famous for its accuracy. At the base the average length of the four sides is 755 feet (230.12 meters). The difference between the shortest baseline is just eight inches (20 centimeters), and the four corners make almost perfect right angles to within a fractions of one degree. By observing the stars, the builders of the Great Pyramids were able to align its sides to face the cardinal points of the compass, also to within fractions of a degree. With an angle of elevation of 52⁰ the Great Pyramid rises to a height of nearly 490 feet (150 meters).