The Ancient Egypt Pyramids at Giza
The
Giza pyramids are located some eight km inland into the desert from
the old town of Giza on the Nile, some 20 km southwest of Cairo
city center.
Of the three principal Giza pyramids, only Khafre's pyramid retains
part of its original polished limestone casing, towards its apex.
It is interesting to note that this pyramid appears larger than
the adjacent Khufu pyramid by virtue of its more elevated location,
and the steeper angle of inclination of its construction it is,
in fact, smaller in both height and volume.
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Private
Tour - Giza Pyramids, Sphinx, Memphis, Saqqara
Sound
and Light Show with Transport
Tip
from INFOHUB:
There are three ways of getting to the pyramids. The first is by
the new air-conditioned bus No. 355. Pick it up from Midan Tahrir
at the Egyptian Museum, and take the 20-minute bus ride for 2 Egyptian
pounds (= 0.35 USD). You can also take a minibus, which leaves from
Oberoi Mena House Hotel. Ask for the bus to "Haram". It costs EP
25 (4.5 USD), and you will be dropped off short of the pyramids.
The third option is a taxi, that will cost you about EP 30 one way.
The
most active phase of construction here was in the 25th century BC.
The ancient remains of the Giza necropolis have attracted visitors
and tourists since classical antiquity, when these Old Kingdom monuments
were already over 2,000 years old. It was popularized in Hellenistic
times when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as
one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Today it is the only one
of the ancient Wonders still in existence.
Due largely to nineteenth-century images, the Giza pyramids are
generally thought of by foreigners as lying in a remote, desert
location, even though they are located in what is now part of the
most populated city in Africa. Consequently, urban development reaches
right up to the perimeter of the antiquities site, to the extent
that in the 1990s a Pizza Hut and KFC restaurant opened across the
road.
Tip from
INFOHUB: The Giza Pyramids' Sound and Light Show is definitely
worth the $7 USD that you pay for your ticket to sitting area in
front of Cheops’ pyramid. It is not recommended that you view it
from the Pizza Hut window seats for free, as one guidebook suggests,
since the view is inadequate, and you get a better feel for the
story when you're up close to the Sphinx, so that you can hear everything
told about Egyptian history and other things. It's already cheap!
So, don't cheat yourself by trying to save a few dollars. Also,
there's an extra $ 3-4 fee if you want to use a tripod during the
show, which is a must in order to achieve incredible pictures. The
show is about 45 minutes and is given in three different languages.
So, if you're in Cairo for only a couple days, arrange to see it
right away, so as not to miss out on your language of choice.
The ancient sites in the Memphis area, including those at Giza,
together with those at Saqqara, Dahshur, Abu Ruwaysh, and Abusir,
were collectively declared a World Heritage site in 1979.
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Orion
Correlation
Although hypotheses put forward by Robert Bauval are universally
regarded by mainstream archaeologists (Lehner 1997) and Egyptologists
as a form of pseudoscience, Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert (1994)
proposed that the three main pyramids at Giza form a pattern on
the ground that is virtually identical to that of the three belt
stars of the Orion constellation. Using computer software, they
wound back the Earth’s skies to ancient times, and witnessed a ‘locking-in’
of the mirror image between the pyramids and the stars at the same
time as Orion reached a turning point at the bottom of its precessional
shift up and down the meridian. This conjunction, they claimed,
was exact, and it occurred precisely at the date 10,450 BC.
Source:
Wikitravel
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