pyramids facts

Among the main tourist sites there is only one considered to be the main and on top of the list, it is site of the pyramids and in particular the Pyramids of Giza. Here there are three main pyramids that were built in the time of the 4th dynasty circa 4650 BC.

The Pyramids of ancient Egypt were built as tombs for kings and queens. It was the exclusive privilege of a king or a queen to have a pyramid tomb. However, this tradition was applied in the time of the old and middle kingdoms in the ancient Egypt history. Today there are more than 93 pyramids in Egypt, the most famous ones are those of Giza.

Click here on the winged sun to check here the Pyramid of Mydoum

Click at the winged snake picture to download a 3D panoramic view of the pyramids of Giza and the sphinx.

Click on the serpent.

( NOTE: YOU WILL NEED MOVIE PLAYER TO PLAY THE FILE)

Now let us go together for a little tour around the the site of the pyramid trying to explore the magnificence of the site:

I shall take the great pyramid of Giza here as an example:

The Great pyramid :

The great pyramid is by far the most famous pyramid in Egypt the highest and the most intact. It was considered as one of seven ancient wonders of the ancient world, today it is the only remaining one.

For a period of 4300 years, the pyramid was also considered the highest building on earth and it took until the French built the Eiffel Tower in 1889to become the second.

This pyramid is built entirely of limestone and considered the an architectural masterpiece. It is built on square base that measures from one side to the other about 230 M ( 755 F ), and has a base was estimated to be around 13acres of land! Its four sides face the four cardinal points precisely and the angle at each corner is 52 Degrees.

The height of the pyramid was 146.5 M (488 F) and today it is only 137 M (455 F) high, the nine meters that were lost of the pyramid is due to the lose of the covering or casing stones which was made of fine quality of limestone and was later quarried away by the Ottoman Turks in the 15 century AD to build houses and mosques in Cairo.

The pyramid contains around 1,300,000 blocks of limestone, they range in weight of 2.5 tones as a minimum weight until they reach the maximum weight of 15tones. You will find that the entrance of the pyramid is located at the northern side, and actually you will find this feature in almost every pyramid in Egypt , most of the entrances are located in the northern side of the pyramids.

At the northern side there 2 entrances. One was built originally at the time when the pyramids was built and it is 17 M (55F) above the ground level and the other one is a man forced entrance located below that one, it was opened in the 9th centaury Ad, by Khalif EL-MAMOUN, who sought the treasures that might be kept inside the pyramid. He sent workers to open up an entrance, the stone masons he sent cut the entrance mid way across the centre of the northern side, it goes for almost 35 M deep inside the pyramid and was roughly cut, but at the end it connects with the original inner corridors of the pyramid, nothing was found inside as it was plundered in antiquity.

Nowadays the visitors to the site use the MAMOUN' S entrance to get into the pyramids, as it is considered to be a short cut.

If you attempt to go inside the pyramid you will have to bend down all the way till you reach the burial chamber

From the main entrance of the pyramid there is a long narrow corridor with low roof that goes in descending corridor for more that 330 feet deep and takes you into a chamber located under the ground lever almost 24 M underground, it is an unfinished burial chamber. Today this part is inaccessible, as you are not allowed to go inside. Very little air inside!

Almost 20 M from that descending corridor there is another corridor connected to it, which takes you up into the core of the pyramid. This ascending corridor ends up at one the great parts of the great pyramid, the grand gallery. It is a large rectangular hall which is 49 m long and 15 m height, and at the bottom there is a long tunnel that takes you the second chamber , which was famously known as the queens chamber. It has nothing to do with a queen, and was given this name by the early Arabs who went inside the pyramids and named the chamber. It is believed that it served as a magazine or a store room inside the pyramid.

When you ascend the grand gallery you will find at its end, an entrance to the 3rd chamber, which was the real burial chamber of King Cheops. This is where you will find the stone coffin of the king, made out of one block of granite.

This Chamber is really amazing , it is rectangular in form and has a flat roof, and built out of granite

that was brought from the city of Aswan which is located 1000 KM away from the site of the pyramid. The roof only consists of 9 slabs of granite. Each one was estimated to be around 50 tons in weight.

Above that heavy flat roof of the burial chamber, the ancient Egyptians built 5 small relieving chambers so that the great pressure of the weight above the flat roof of the burial chamber wouldn't easily collapse. These 5 chambers are made of granite and almost 1 m above each other. The roof of the first four is flat and the 5th has a pointed roof to divide the great pressure of weight above the flat roof of the burial chamber.

Both the northern and southern walls of the burial chamber have two small tunnels with rectangular entrances. They are so small but they go all the way through the northern and southern side of the pyramids and are believed to be star shafts serving some certain purpose in an ancient cult connecting the pyramid with the stars.

If you need to know more about these tunnels, and the pyramids in general , it is a long story!! I guess you need to come to one of my tours!!!

Dear traveler before you visit the site of Giza Pyramids you have to know the the following facts:

1- It is forbidden to climb the pyramids. You only allowed to climb the stone steps that lead to the entrance which is 55 feet above ground level.

2-You have to take with you a pair of good walking shoes.

3- There is no government permit you have to collect before you go to visit the pyramids !! You only have to get an entrance ticket like any other tourist site in Egypt, the ticket is costing 20LE. The ticket office is at the entrance of the area.

4- If you wish to take your car through the area entrance you need to get a car parking ticket of 2 LE for small car and 5 LE for minibus, 10 LE for a bus.

5- The best time to go the pyramids is morning time between 8 AM to 12 PM.

6-If you wish to go inside the great pyramid, know that there is an extra ticket for this to buy , that will cost you 100LE, you will find the ticket office for the entrance of great pyramid in front of the north-eastern side of the pyramid.

It is quite difficult to get this ticket sometimes as the amount is limited to a certain number of visitors, as they sell only 300 tickets daily. and they are divided among morning and after noon. They sell 150 in the morning time, and then again at exactly at 1:00 pm the other 150.

7-If you wish to get an entrance ticket make sure you are there at 8:00 am or 1:00 pm. You will find one.

8 - If you wish to go inside the 2nd PYRAMID (Chephern ) you will have to get an extra entrance ticket of 20 LE, in addition that they charge for cameras (10 LE).

As for the 2nd pyramid it is now closed for restoration. The pyramids are opened on a rotational basis, usually a year, so that restoration work can be done.

9- If you want to get a camel ride or a horse ride, the best place for that are stables the foot of the pyramids plateau, it is cheap and safe.

*In order to get rid of the vendors, simply say

“No, thank you ! “ or say “LA SHOKURAN” in Arabic and they will go away, it works!!!! believe it or not.

dont say the word EMSHI, like most of the guide books will advise you, it is simply means get lost. And I don't think you want to offend them, after all they are just trying to make a living.

10- If you dont want to pay the extra entrance ticket for any of these pyramids and still want to have similar experience of being inside one, then go the eastern side of the great pyramid and there you will find three subsidiary pyramids (one was for the daughter of the king, one for his wife and the third one for his mother). Two of those pyramids ( the wifes and the mothers) are opened for visitors, and there is no extra charge to get in. All what you need to do is to show your site ticket to the guard and you will be in!

11 - If you ever feel that you need to go to WC while your conducting your visit, then the best place to go to is the WC at the boat museum of Cheops located in front of the southern side of the great pyramid. Just tell the epeople at the entrance that you only want to use the toilet and they will let you.

I hope this gave you a glimpse of information about the great pyramids of Giza.

if you have any questions, Click here to Ask anything

Click to check here the pyramid of Mydoum

Copyright © 2001- 2004 ask-aladdin ,All rights reserved.