The Giza Plateau

The Giza Plateau

The Giza Plateau sits majestically on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, a silent guardian to this area of nearly 18,000,000 people. In this shot that I took while visiting in October of 2007, the Great Pyramid of Khufu sits on the far left, the pyramid of Khafre sits in the middle (it’s original limestone casing still visible near the top), and the smaller pyramid of Menkaure lies on the right. The neverending sprawl of Cairo can be seen in the background. Though “The Great Pyramid” of Khufu is the largest of the three, Khafre’s pyramid actually seems larger when you are there, due to it’s construction on a higher elevation and the steeper angle of the pyramid itself. All three of the pyramids are astronomically aligned to be north-south, east-west… down to the smallest fraction of a degree.