Giza

About Giza

Giza is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and the fourth-largest city in Africa after Lagos, Kinshasa, and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governate with a total population of 8.8 million as of October 2018. It is located on the west bank of the Nile, 4.9 km southwest of central Cairo, and is a core city of the Greater Cairo metropolis.

Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau, the site of some of the most impressive and ancient monuments in the world.

History

Giza is a plateau southwest of modern Cairo which served as the necropolis for the royalty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Most famous for the pyramids of Khufu(completed in c. 2560 BCE) and the Great Sphinx(built 2500 BCE), recent excavations on the plateau have revealed numerous private tomb complexes and workers' quarters. The original necropolis of Giza was laid out with amazing precision and skill but, once it became associated with the great kings of Egypt and their pyramids, attracted the attention of less prominent officials of lower rank. These officials had enough money and prestige to buy their way into burial plots at Giza but had no regard for the symmetry of the original schematics and had their tombs dug wherever they found available space. This resulted in a number of grave complexes throughout Giza which would not have been authorized by the kings who built the famous pyramids which, throughout history, have drawn visitors from around the world.