15 Astounding Egyptian Pyramid Facts

The Pyramids of Giza seem like a miraculous event in the history of human architecture. They are among the oldest of the pyramids of Egypt. Paradoxically, they are also the best built, the biggest, the most intricate, and the best preserved and seeming to defy time, the elements and the attempts of men to break in and destroy them.

Most people in the world know about them, but most people do not know that in Egypt there are scores of pyramids discovered so far in various states of preservation, and more keep being found as archaeologists explore the desert. High technology is being used to explore their secrets and find hidden chambers and corridors.

Here are 15 astounding facts of the pyramids of Egypt that might surprise you and make you wonder.

1. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World to survive.

The Great Pyramid, located at Giza,Egypt.

About 225 BC, Philo of Byzantium wrote On The Seven Wonders. The only architecture that he wrote about that has survived is the Great Pyramid of Egypt. It was the oldest monument on his list. It was already ancient and was about 2,300 years old when he made his list if Egyptologists are correct in dating it to about 2589-2566 BC.

Suggested reading: How to Plan a 2-Week Egypt Itinerary: 4 Itinerary Ideas and Where Are the Egyptian Pyramids?

2. The Great Pyramid at Giza was the tallest building for thousands of years.

It was the tallest building built for thousands of years until a building in Britain surpassed it in in the year 1300. Today, the height of the pyramid is about 138.8 meters (455 ft).

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3. The Great Pyramid of Giza is built with very large stones.

Blocks of the Great Pyramid.

The weight of the Great Pyramid is almost 6 and a half million tons. The upper parts were made of blocks that weighed about 1 ton, and the lower parts were made of blocks that weighed 1.5 or 2 tons and are about 1 or 1.5 meters tall.

The blocks in the King's Chamber, on the other hand, are of gigantic red granite and weighed 50 or 70 tons. These were put in place near the geometrical middle of the pyramid, and then smaller stones above were laid on them.

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4. The Great Pyramid is 8 sided, not 4 sided.

A fact that became more widely recognized when planes flew overhead and took pictures, the Great Pyramid is slightly indented so that at the middle of each of the four sides, two planes meet at such a slight angle that this indentation can only be seen at equinoxes when shadows are cast in the evening and morning. Each of the four sides is composed of two planes.

5. There are lots of unusual and surprising facts and measurements about the Great Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid was the tallest building for thousands of years.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is so unlike the others and so intricately built, people wonder whether it was really built by Khufu. The super difficulty of the architecture, coupled with the "coincidences" of various numbers and measurements, makes it especially mysterious.

• The Great Pyramid of Giza is aligned to true north within a tenth of a degree.
• The Great Pyramid is located at the center of the land mass of the earth. The east/west parallel that crosses the most land and the north/south meridian that crosses the most land intersect in two places on the earth. One is in the ocean and the other is at the Great Pyramid.
• The Great Pyramid maybe have been aligned with the constellation Orion.
• According to measurements in 1925, the lengths of the base of the Great Pyramid on each side are 230.252 meters, 230.454 meters, 230.391 meters, and 230.357 meters. The average margin of error on all sides is just 58 millimeters.
• The curvature of the 8 faces of the Great Pyramid of Giza exactly matches the radius of the earth.

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6. The third and fourth tallest and largest pyramids of Egypt are not in Giza but in Dahshur.

The Bent Pyramid in Egypt.

Though people can see three large pyramids in Giza, the smallest of the three is not the third tallest pyramid in Egypt. After the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Khafre, the third and fourth largest pyramids are the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid that are at Dahshur about 40 kilometers or 25 miles south of Cairo.

People think that these two pyramids were built by Sneferu. He built the Bent Pyramid first. These are almost exactly the same height, but the Red Pyramid is taller by about half a foot.

• Bent Pyramid: 104.71 meters (344 feet) tall with a total volume of 1,237,040 cubic meters (43,685,655 cu feet)
• Red Pyramid: 105 meters (344.5 feet), and it has a total volume of 1,694,000 cubic meters (59,823,045 cu feet). It was thought to be the first real pyramid in Egypt.
• Recommended visiting duration: 1 day
• Tour recommendation: Contact us to include Dahshur in your own private tour

7. The pink granite used in the Great Pyramid came from Aswan that is almost 1,000 kilometers or 620 miles away.

The huge granite blocks used in the pyramid came from Aswan that is about 960 kilometers away. It is thought that huge barges were used to float them.

8. About 2.3 million blocks of stone, all weighing at least a ton, were used in the Great Pyramid.

Millions blocks of stone were used in the Great Pyramid.

• 5.5 billion kilograms of limestone: There were a total of 144,000 shiny white limestone casing stones, each about 2 and a half meters thick (over 100 inches) and weighing about 15,000 kilograms, used to overlay the pyramid with a reflective shell. They were cut to perfection. It is thought that there was a margin of error of about 1/4 of a millimeter each (1/100 of an inch).
• 8 million kilograms of Aswan granite blocks were laid to build the inner chambers.
• 5 million kilograms of an undetermined mortar was used as well.

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9. The limestone casing stones were taken away and used for construction.

A huge earthquake loosened the beautiful white blocks in 1303. Over the centuries since then, they were taken away and used around the region for construction.

10. The Kafre pyramid has the greatest base.

The base of the pyramid has some huge granite blocks that weigh approaching 100 tons. The pyramid also sits on a leveled hillock that makes it look taller than the pyramid of Khufu.

11. It is thought that the first pyramid of Egypt was the Stepped Pyramid in Saqqara.

The Stepped Pyramid is the oldest pyramid in Egypt.

Pharaoh Djoser built the Stepped Pyramid about the year 2630 BC. Saqqara is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Cairo. The Stepped Pyramid is 58 meters tall, and its base is 123 meters by 107 meters. Because it is crumbled and broken down, it is difficult to determine its present volume since it no longer has a regular shape. However, originally it was about 62.5 meters (205 feet) tall built in six layers. The pyramid was constructed using 330,400 cubic meters (11.6 million cubic feet) of stone and clay.

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12. Under the Stepped Pyramid, there is a huge pit about 10 stories deep.

The total depth of the pit is perhaps 10 stories, and tunnels branch out. The tunnels beneath the pyramid form a labyrinth at least 3.5 miles (5.5 kilometers) long, but perhaps there are more tunnels yet unknown. People speculate that the tunnel system under the surface in Saqqara may predate the pyramid itself.

For more information about the location of Saqqara and how to go there from Cairo, see: Where Are the Egyptian Pyramids?

For more information of the contents of pyramids at Saqqara, read: What's Inside the Egyptian Pyramids?

• Top sights: The Saqqara pyramid.
• Recommended visiting duration: half a day
• Tour recommendation: Contact us to include Saqqara in your own private tour.

13.A big void space has been found high in the Great Pyramid.

Dark inside the Great Pyramid.

Starting in 2017, advanced particle imaging techniques have been used to discover that there is a big space about 100 feet long and about 10 feet high at about the same height in the pyramid as the King's Chamber. The scientists cannot determine whether this is one big room or a series of rooms. This is the first major inner structure found in the Great Pyramid since the 19th century. As of yet, no one knows what is in it since it has yet to be entered.

Suggested reading: What's Inside the Pyramids of Giza

14. The Great Pyramid of Giza has more secrets.

The Big Void and the rest of the pyramid and the area underneath will continued to be explored with even better equipment as the technology develops, so one day we may know more about things hidden for thousands of years.

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For anyone who is willing to explore more of the Egyptian pyramids, going inside the Great Pyramid of Giza is no doubt an essential experience. With a tailor-made trip, you can enjoy the journey at your own pace as everything is well taken care of.