Half-Day Great Pyramid and Sphinx Tour with Camel Ride from Cairo

We pick you up from the hotel in Cairo and go to the Giza Pyramids where we visit the Great Pyramids of Cheops, Chephren & Mykerinos.

The Great Pyramid, the only wonder that still exists, stood as the world’s tallest human-made structure for nearly 4,000 years. Erected around 2560 B.C.E. on the west bank of the Nile River, the Great Pyramid served as the tomb of the fourth-century pharaoh Khufu (Cheops). It is the largest of the three Pyramids at Giza.

The second great pyramid of Giza was built by Khufu’s second son Khafre. At the very top, a section of outer casing stones like those that would have originally covered all three of the Great Pyramids still survives. Although this monument appears larger than that of his father, it is actually slightly smaller but was constructed 10 meters (33 feet) higher on the plateau.

The third of the major pyramids at Giza belongs to Menkaure. This is the smallest of the three, rising to a height of 65 meters (213 feet), but the complex preserved some of the most stunning examples of sculpture to survive from all of Egyptian history. Menkaure’s pyramid chambers are more complicated than those of Khafre and include a chamber carved with decorative panels and another chamber with six large niches. The burial chamber is lined with massive granite blocks. His black stone sarcophagus, also carved with niched panels, was discovered inside, but was lost at sea in 1838 as it was being transported to England.

It’s a vast statue some 73 metres long, 20 metres high and 19 metres wide, and has dominated the imaginations of all who have gazed upon it for millennia, including Napoleon Bonaparte – legend has it that L’empereur’s men used the Sphinx for target practice during his campaign in Egypt, hence its disfigured face and missing nose (they did not – and Asterix and Obelix didn’t break it off either). It’s so old that cultures we consider ancient conducted archaeological digs on it – Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius had it excavated in 160 A.D.