This was my first view of the Pyramids in the fog. I had been standing near the gate, waiting for the place to open, when I realized, hey, I bet I should be able to see one of the Pyramids from here, and I turned around and there it was!

The Great Pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops to the Greeks). It is the tallest and first one built.

I paid an extra $10 to go inside the Khufu Pyramid, you climbed up and up into the Main gallery. I was surprised that all the interior surfaces were smooth, in Luxor and Aswan they put hieroglyphics and paintings on every available space.

This is a closeup of the edge of the pyramid. When they were originally built they were much smoother and overlaid with limestone to be completely smooth.

The top of Khufu.

The three (main) pyramids of the Giza plateau, Khufu (the largest) in the foreground, then his son’s Khaphre (Chephren) in the middle, and Menkaure (Mycerinus) in the far back. Khaphre’s is built on a higher elevation and sometimes can appear larger, but Khufu is actually the largest.

The surrounding desert. Looking in the other direction you would see Cairo, the Giza plateau is just on the edge of the city.

This is a close up of individual blocks if you are just standing in front of the pyramid. They say these were built before the invention of the wheel, and they were cut to fit into each other.

What do you think this is?

This is my favorite picture of it.

The Sphinx.

It was built quite close to the pyramids

The Pyramid of Khafre from a distance.

Because the angle of Khafre’s pyramid was much steeper than Khufu, the people who stole building materials were not able to get at the very top where limestone still covers it.

Pyramid of Menkaure, much smaller than the others, and closed (as with many of the ancient sites in Egypt, they close them on a rotating basis)