The Great Pyramid
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What is it?The Great Pyramid is the biggest and most famous pyramid in the world.The Ancient Egyptian built pyramids to house the mummies of their kings or pharaohs. They believed pharaohs could live forever. The Great Pyramid was built for Pharaoh Khufu and completed in 2560 B.C. It's more than 4,500 years-old! |
Where is it?At Giza in Egypt.
Giza is on the edge of the Western Desert, near Cairo. |
How big is it?Enormous!It is over 140 metres high. This may not seem very tall. The Burj Khalifa building in Dubai is 828 metres high! But the base of the pyramid is 230 metres long. That’s bigger than a football stadium. And it’s more than twice as high! Even today the size of the Great Pyramid amazes visitors. |
Who built it?Over 10,000 people worked on building the pyramids over a period of 20 years.Many people believe slaves did the building work. We now know that this is not true. The writing we have found on the walls is by local workers. There are also tombs for some of those building the pyramids. Pharaohs did not share tombs with slaves. |
How did they build it?The great pyramid was one of the biggest projects in history. We still are not certain exactly how they built them.Some people believe that aliens built the pyramids. They say that they arrived in space ships. This is very unlikely. Humans built the pyramids. |
Who was Pharaoh Khufu?
We don't know much about him. There's no surviving mummy - only this tiny statue. We believe Khufu ruled for at least twenty years. He also had over twenty children! According to later stories, Khufu was a mean, unpopular pharaoh. |
