The pyramids of Egypt 

The pyramids of Giza were built to last forever. These monumental tombs are vestiges of the time of the Old Egyptian Empire and were built about 4,500 years ago.

Egyptian pharaohs expected to become gods in the afterlife. To prepare for the world to come, they erected temples to the gods and massive pyramidal tombs for themselves, filled with everything they would need to guide themselves and survive in the afterlife.

Pharaoh Cheops began the first Giza pyramid project around 2,550 BC. His great pyramid is the largest in Giza and culminates at 147 meters above the plateau. Its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons.

The son of Cheops, Pharaoh Khephren, built the second pyramid of Giza, around 2,520 BC. His necropolis also included the Sphinx, a mysterious limestone monument with a lion's body and a pharaoh's head. The Sphinx could be the sentinel of the entire pharaoh's funerary complex.

The third pyramids of Giza is considerably smaller than the first two. Built by Pharaoh Mykerinos around 2,490 BC, it had a much more complex mortuary temple.

The exploits of ancient engineering in Giza are so impressive that even today, scientists do not know exactly how the pyramids were built. On the other hand, they learned a lot about the people who built them and about the political power needed to achieve them.

The builders were skilled and well-fed Egyptian workers who lived in a nearby temporary city. Archaeological excavations conducted on this fascinating site revealed a highly organized community, rich in resources, which had to be supported by a strong central authority.

It’s principally around the second millennium before JC that the majority of the egyptian pyramids were built. The most famous among them were built by the pharaons Khéops, Khéphren and Mykérinos. They were the tomb of a lot of pharaohs and for some of their relatives in some cases. The shape of the pyramid was supposed to represent the sun rays and stairs which were meant to help the pharaohs to get to the sky where they could find their gods. Even though the pharaohs were buried there with everything precious they had, it’s rare nowadays to even find bodies in these structures as a lot of them got pillaged long before.