Great Pyramid of Khufu

Who built the Great Pyramid, and how?

The Great Pyramid was built for Khufu, second king of the Fourth Dynasty, over roughly 20 years around 2560 BC, by a skilled, paid and well-fed workforce rather than slaves. Khufu's vizier Hemiunu, buried in a mastaba just west of the pyramid, is usually credited as the overseer of works. Builders cut most of the core limestone on the plateau itself, quarried the fine white casing stone at Tura across the river, and floated the granite for the King's Chamber about 800 km down the Nile from Aswan.

Two discoveries changed how we picture the project. South of the plateau, excavations led by Mark Lehner uncovered the workers' town of Heit el-Ghurab, with bakeries, breweries and cattle bones, while Zahi Hawass excavated the tombs of the workers on the slope above it. At Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea, archaeologists found in 2013 the papyrus logbook of an inspector called Merer, who recorded his crew shipping Tura limestone to Giza in Khufu's 27th year: the oldest inscribed papyri yet found. For the engineering debates (ramps, levers, sledges on wetted sand) see our guide to how the pyramids were built.

Facts and figures worth knowing

Around 2.3 million blocks, sides aligned to true north within a fraction of a degree, and a height not exceeded by any building until the 14th century: the numbers are the point of the place.

• Height: about 146 m when finished (280 Egyptian cubits). The capstone and top courses are gone, leaving about 138 m.
• Base: about 230 m per side, laid out almost perfectly square.
• The missing casing: polished Tura limestone once made the faces smooth and bright. Most was stripped in the medieval period, especially after a major earthquake in 1303, and reused in Cairo's mosques and walls; a few casing blocks survive at the base of the north face.
• Weight of the blocks: core blocks average around 2.5 tonnes, but the granite beams over the King's Chamber are estimated at 25 to 80 tonnes each.
• Still revealing secrets: the ScanPyramids project, using cosmic-ray muon imaging, announced a large void above the Grand Gallery in 2017 and in 2023 confirmed a sealed corridor about 9 m long behind the chevron blocks over the original entrance.

What do you see inside the Great Pyramid?

You climb a narrow, low passage, then the tall, sloping Grand Gallery, and finish in the King's Chamber: a bare room of polished red granite holding Khufu's lidless sarcophagus. There are no paintings or inscriptions anywhere on the route; the experience is architecture, scale and atmosphere.

1. The Robbers' Tunnel: visitors enter on the north face through a rough tunnel traditionally attributed to the Caliph al-Ma'mun around AD 820, a few metres below the original entrance with its great gabled blocks.
2. The Ascending Passage: about 1.1 m high and nearly 40 m long, climbed bent double on a slatted wooden ramp with handrails. At its lower end you pass the granite plugging blocks that still seal the original route.
3. The Grand Gallery: suddenly the roof lifts to about 8.6 m, with seven corbelled courses stepping inwards overhead.
4. The King's Chamber: about 10.5 by 5.2 m and 5.8 m high, entirely lined in granite. The sarcophagus is slightly wider than the passage, so it must have been placed during construction. Above the ceiling are five stacked relieving chambers (not open) where in 1837 explorers found builders' graffiti naming work gangs of Khufu.

The horizontal passage to the so-called Queen's Chamber and the descending passage to the unfinished subterranean chamber have been closed to the public for long periods; ask on the day what is open.

Is it worth the extra ticket if you're claustrophobic?

If tight spaces genuinely frighten you, skip the interior: the Ascending Passage is the only way up and down, it is shared in both directions, and you cannot stand upright for several minutes. Mild unease is usually fine, because the Grand Gallery opens out just when you need it.

• Heat and air: the interior stays warm and humid all year, often noticeably hotter than outside on a winter morning. It is stuffy, and you will sweat.
• Fitness: expect a crouched climb of a few minutes each way. People with bad backs, knees or heart conditions should think twice.
• Timing: go first thing, before tour coaches arrive, when the passage has fewer people coming the other way.
• Bags and cameras: carry as little as possible. Photography rules inside have changed several times; follow the guards.
• Alternatives: Khafre's pyramid has a shorter, simpler interior (see Khafre and Menkaure), and the Red Pyramid at Dahshur is usually much quieter.

What else surrounds the Great Pyramid?

Khufu's pyramid sat at the heart of a whole funerary complex: three small queens' pyramids on the east side, cemeteries of officials' mastabas to the east and west, and five boat pits.

Facing the east face you see the three queens' pyramids, the southernmost traditionally linked to Queen Henutsen, and the bedrock floor of Khufu's mortuary temple with patches of its black basalt paving. Beyond lies the Eastern Cemetery of royal family tombs; to the west, the grid of mastabas for court officials. On the south side, the pit that held Khufu's cedar boat is empty: the reassembled boat is now displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum, and a second dismantled boat from the neighbouring pit has been moved there for conservation and reassembly. For the life of the king himself, see our profile of Khufu.

How do tickets and timing work?

Entry to the interior needs its own ticket, bought on top of the general Giza plateau ticket, and the number sold per day has at times been limited, so buy early in the day. At the time of writing tickets can be bought at the visitor centre and through the official portal at egymonuments.gov.eg; prices are revised regularly, so check before you go.

Allow an hour in total around the pyramid: 20 to 30 minutes inside, plus time for queues and a walk along the east side to the queens' pyramids. For entrances, shuttle buses, viewpoints, camels and touts across the whole plateau, read our Pyramids of Giza guide rather than repeating it here.