Great Pyramid of Giza

The one that stayed standing

The Great Pyramid went up in the Fourth Dynasty as Khufu's tomb, over roughly two decades, rising 481 feet. It held the record for the tallest structure ever made by people until the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages took it. Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World it is the only one still standing.

How it was built is less mysterious than it is usually sold as being. Worker settlements, bakeries, and cemeteries have been excavated beside the plateau, and quarry marks name the gangs who cut the blocks. The Diary of Merer, papyri recovered at Wadi al-Jarf and published in 2016, records a boat crew ferrying limestone from Tura to Giza during Khufu's reign, which is the closest thing to a foreman's logbook that survives from the job.

Two voids

The interior is another matter. In November 2017, the ScanPyramids team published in Nature the detection of a large cavity above the Grand Gallery. They found it by recording cosmic-ray muons passing through the stone and noting where fewer arrived than solid rock would allow. They called it the Big Void. It was seen first on nuclear emulsion film in the Queen's Chamber, confirmed with scintillator detectors in the same room, then confirmed a third time with gas detectors outside the pyramid.

A second structure behind the chevron blocks on the north face was characterized in Nature Communications in 2023 as a corridor about 30 feet long and roughly 6 feet square. Neither space has been entered. What either is for stays unsettled: a construction void that relieved weight off the chambers below, an unopened room, or a by-product of how the builders worked.

The plateau changed in 2025

The Grand Egyptian Museum opened in full on November 1, 2025, after more than 20 years of construction, holding over 100,000 objects within sight of the pyramids. The plateau was reorganized under a private operator at the same time. Tour buses no longer drive up to the monuments; visitors arrive at a new entrance and transfer to electric shuttles.

The passage into the Great Pyramid is capped at 150 people a day. The Big Void above the Grand Gallery is not on that route, and there is no plan to cut into it.

General admission to the plateau runs 700 Egyptian pounds for adults and 350 for students in 2026. Going inside the Great Pyramid is a separate 1,500 pound ticket capped at 150 people a day, and it sells out early between October and April. Khafre's pyramid is 280 pounds and Menkaure's is 200, and both interiors are usually quieter.

Tour buses no longer enter the plateau. Visitors come in at a new entrance and transfer to electric shuttles that stop at the three pyramids and the Sphinx. The Grand Egyptian Museum has been open in full since November 1, 2025, and is close enough to pair with the site, though most people find the two together make a long day.

The passage into Khufu is steep, low, and unventilated, with a long stretch that has to be taken bent double, so anyone with claustrophobia or bad knees is better served by Khafre.