Pyramids and the Great Sphinx

A long, long time ago, kings called pharaohs ruled Egypt. While a pharaoh ruled, workers built a huge pyramid of stone to be his tomb. When he died, they laid his body inside it. A tomb is a special place to keep a body safe. The people believed the pharaoh needed his body for the next life. So the pyramid had to be very strong to guard it. The most famous pyramids stand at a place called Giza. They were once counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. That means people long ago thought they were the most amazing things ever built. Most of those wonders are gone now. But the pyramids at Giza are still standing. You can visit them today. They stayed the tallest buildings in the world for thousands of years. No one built anything higher for a very long time.

The biggest pyramid at Giza is called the Great Pyramid. A pharaoh named Khufu had it built for his tomb. It is about 146 meters tall. That is as tall as a very big skyscraper. It is made of millions of heavy stone blocks. People stacked them up in layers, and each layer got smaller. That is how they made the pointy shape. This pyramid was finished about 4,500 years ago. For a very long time, it was the tallest thing people had ever built. Nothing taller was made until the year 1221. That is more than 3,000 years later! And the Great Pyramid is still standing today.

The second pyramid at Giza was built by a pharaoh named Khafre. He was the son of Khufu. It looks bigger than his father's pyramid, but it is really a little smaller. It only looks taller because it was built higher up on the hill. Near Khafre's pyramid sits the Great Sphinx. The Sphinx is a giant statue carved from stone. It has the body of a lion and the head of a person wearing a royal head cloth. It lies there guarding the pyramids, like a watchful pet. Long ago, the pyramids were covered in smooth white stones that shone in the sun. A few of those stones are still on top of Khafre's pyramid. The Sphinx has watched over Giza for thousands of years.

There are three big pyramids at Giza. The third one belonged to a pharaoh named Menkaure. It is the smallest of the three. It is about 65 meters tall. That is still taller than most buildings you see. Even so, people who built it did beautiful work. They filled Menkaure's pyramid area with wonderful statues. Some of the finest stone statues from all of ancient Egypt were found there. Inside, the rooms twist and turn like a puzzle. So at Giza there are three pyramids side by side. The biggest was for Khufu. The middle one was for his son Khafre. And the smallest was for Menkaure. Together they make the most famous view in all of ancient Egypt.