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Concept
Giza pyramid complex
Summary
The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. All were built during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, between 2600 and 2500 BC. The site also includes several temples and cemeteries and the remains of a workers' village.
The site is at the edges of the Western Desert, approximately west of the Nile River in the city of Giza, and about southwest of the city centre of Cairo. It forms the northernmost part of the Pyramid Fields of the Memphis and its Necropolis UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1979. The pyramid fields include the Abusir, Saqqara, and Dahshur pyramid complexes, that were all built in the vicinity of Egypt's ancient capital of Memphis. Further Old Kingdom pyramid fields were located at the sites Abu Rawash, Zawyet El Aryan, and Meidum.
The Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khafre are the largest pyramids built in ancient Egypt, and they have historically been common as emblems of Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination. They were popularised in Hellenistic times, when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is by far the oldest of the Ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Literature on ancient Giza is vast, for an overview with further references, see Manuelian or Lehner and Hawass. Many books and articles, written by the Egyptologists that actually worked at the site, are freely available on the Digital Giza website.
The earliest settlement of the Giza plateau predates the pyramid complexes. Four jars of Maadi culture were found at the foot of the Great Pyramid, likely from a disturbed earlier settlement. Further Maadi settlement near the site was uncovered during work on the Greater Cairo Wastewater Project. Recent reassessment of the radiocarbon dates put the Maadi culture eponymous settlement at Maadi to 3800–3400 BC, which is likely the maximum possible range also for Giza remains.
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