60 Fun Facts About Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid was built as the tomb of which pharaoh?

The Greeks called him Cheops; he ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

Roughly how long did the Great Pyramid take to build?

It was built around 2600 BC; Herodotus later claimed 100,000 labourers in three-month shifts for 20 years.

What was the Great Pyramid's original height?

Loss of the casing and the tip has lowered it to 138.5 metres today.

For how long was the Great Pyramid the tallest human-made structure on Earth?

That record ran from about 2600 BC into the Middle Ages.

How long is each side of the Great Pyramid's base?

That is 440 royal cubits; the volume is roughly 2.6 million cubic metres including an internal hillock.

How tall was the pyramid in royal cubits, by design?

The base was 440 cubits, and the perimeter-to-height ratio of 1760/280 comes within 0.05 percent of 2π.

Roughly how many large blocks were quarried to build the Great Pyramid?

Together they weigh about 6 million tonnes.

The white limestone for the pyramid's casing came from which quarries?

They lie about 10 km south-east of the plateau, and the stone was ferried across the Nile by boat.

The granite for the King's Chamber came from Aswan, roughly how far south?

The largest granite beams weigh 25 to 80 tonnes.

How many chambers are known inside the Great Pyramid?

The lowest was cut into bedrock and left unfinished; the Queen's and King's Chambers sit above ground.

Which vizier of Khufu is believed by some to have been the architect of the Great Pyramid?

He was buried in the West Field cemetery beside the pyramid.

How many smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives stand in the funerary complex?

There is also an even smaller satellite pyramid and five buried solar barques.

Which son and successor of Khufu carried out his burial, as shown by cartouches on the boat-pit blocks?

His name appears eleven times on the second boat pit's stones, Khufu's four times.

In 1837, four relieving chambers found above the King's Chamber bore red-paint graffiti naming whom?

One gang called itself 'The white crown of Khnum-Khufu is powerful'; the names appear over a dozen times.

The Diary of Merer, found in 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, documents what?

It refers to the pyramid dozens of times by its original name, Akhet Khufu, 'Horizon of Khufu'.

What was the Great Pyramid's original name?

It means 'Horizon of Khufu'.

Radiocarbon dating of the pyramid's mortar was possible because the builders added what to it?

Forty-six samples taken in 1984 and 1995 calibrated to 2871-2604 BC.

A cedar plank found in a shaft in 1872 and refound in a museum in 2020 was radiocarbon dated to when?

Waynman Dixon opened the Queen's Chamber air shafts; the plank was misfiled in Aberdeen for decades.

Herodotus claimed how many labourers worked on the pyramid in three-month shifts?

He also described an inscription recording the radishes, garlic and onions the workers ate.

A 1999 construction management study estimated the average workforce at about how many people?

The peak was roughly 40,000; modern finds show conscript labourers, not slaves.

Worker graffiti show haulers were organized in groups of 40 men called what?

Each za had four sub-units led by an 'Overseer of Ten'.

Stonemason Franck Burgos found that cutting a 2.5-tonne block sped up six times when what was done?

He extrapolated that 3,500 quarrymen could have produced the needed 250 blocks a day.

Who made the first precise measurements of the pyramid in 1880-82?

He found casing joints averaging only 0.5 mm wide.

How wide, on average, are the joints between the pyramid's casing stones?

Core blocks, by contrast, were roughly shaped with rubble in the gaps.

What was the Egyptian unit describing slope, of which the pyramid had five and a half palms?

It measures how much horizontal run per cubit of rise, giving 51°50'40".

The pyramid's sides are aligned to the cardinal directions with an average error of about how much?

That is 3 minutes 38 seconds of arc, aligned to true rather than magnetic north.

Which star was the polar star during the Old Kingdom, proposed for aligning the pyramid?

Another theory uses the simultaneous transit of Mizar and Kochab.

How many courses of stone remain on the Great Pyramid?

The first layer is the tallest at 1.49 metres; upper courses are barely half a metre.

Which Bahri sultan is said to have carted off casing stones in 1356 to build Cairo?

Earthquakes had already loosened many of the outer stones.

What is a pyramidion?

The Great Pyramid's was lost by classical antiquity; all known 4th-dynasty examples are plain white limestone.

Roughly how much shorter is the pyramid than when intact, thanks to the missing tip?

About 1,000 tonnes of material are missing from the top.

Which Scottish astronomer installed a mast on the summit in 1874 after observing a transit of Venus?

His survey of the pyramid was accurate to within 1 mm; a trespasser damaged the mast in 2019.

Which Abbasid caliph is said to have tunnelled into the pyramid in 832 AD?

Legend says he found an emerald jar of coins that exactly covered the cost of the digging.

How many entrances are there into the Great Pyramid?

They meet at a junction from which one passage descends and another climbs to the Grand Gallery.

What are the dimensions of the Grand Gallery?

Its walls are corbelled inward by 6-10 cm per course above a base four cubits wide.

What is the only surviving object in the King's Chamber?

The chamber's ceiling is formed of granite beams weighing up to 80 tonnes.

Which German engineer explored the Queen's Chamber shafts in 1993 with the robot Upuaut 2?

After 65 metres he found a limestone 'door' with two eroded copper handles.

In 2017 the ScanPyramids project found a large cavity above the Grand Gallery using what technique?

They named it the 'ScanPyramids Big Void'.

Who cleared the rubble from the Descending Passage in 1817, rediscovering the Subterranean Chamber?

Vyse later sank the shaft to 50 feet in 1837 hoping to find Herodotus's water-encircled chamber.

What did Egeria and other late-antique Christians misinterpret the pyramids as?

The pilgrim recorded the idea on her visit between 381 and 384 AD.

Which classical author wrote that the pyramid builders' names were lost as memorials of their 'vanity'?

He also reported a well 86 cubits deep inside, thought to communicate with the river.

Which Greek visiting Egypt c. 25 BC described a removable stone opening onto a passage to the tomb?

His remark suggests the pyramid could still be entered in Roman times.

Herodotus wrongly placed Khufu's reign after which era?

Manetho, two centuries later, correctly assigned him to the 4th dynasty under the name Souphis.

In 1646 John Greaves concluded that Khufu's reign began in what year?

He relied on Herodotus's faulty account because he did not recognize Khufu in Manetho's list.

The 43-metre cedar boat found in a pit at the pyramid's south foot in 1954 holds what record?

Kamal el-Mallakh discovered it; it is 43.4 metres long and made largely of Lebanon cedar.

The Khufu ship was moved in August 2021 to which new home?

It had been displayed in the Giza Solar Boat Museum beside the pyramid.

Who was Khufu's father and predecessor?

He is the earliest pharaoh alluded to in personal names at Giza.

The only complete surviving portrait of Khufu is what?

It was found in 1903 in the ruin of a later temple.

Under what Hellenized name did Manetho record Khufu?

Herodotus and Diodorus called him Cheops; Diodorus also used Chemmis.

How long is the Great Sphinx from paw to tail?

It stands 20 metres high; whether its face is Khufu, Djedefre or Khafre is still disputed.

Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still survives?

Remains of the Lighthouse, the Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum exist in situ or in museums.

The Giza pyramids belong to which UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1979?

The Pyramid Fields cover 16,000 hectares.

How many boat pits were discovered at the south foot of the pyramid in 1954?

The second pit was examined in 1987 and excavation began in 2010.

Al-Maqrizi reported that treasure hunters found what inside the pyramid, according to Arab legend?

The pyramid was probably looted as early as the First Intermediate Period.

Why are the pyramid's chambers uninscribed?

Only work-gang graffiti with Khufu's names break the rule.

Petrie noted the pyramid's four faces are slightly what?

Laser scans show the concavity comes from the removal of casing stones, not an intentional eight-sided design.

The mortuary cult that operated in the temples for hundreds of years suggests what?

His son Djedefre's cartouches on the boat-pit blocks confirm he oversaw the burial.

What kind of fossils can be seen in the pyramid's nummulitic limestone blocks?

Fossilized shark teeth have also been found on the site.

Roughly how much mortar went into the Great Pyramid?

Alongside 5.5 million tonnes of limestone and 8,000 tonnes of granite.

Lepsius's expedition carved a hieroglyphic text at the entrance in 1842 honouring whom?

It is the most notable of the modern inscriptions on the pyramid.