Cairo Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

The Great Pyramid was built for Khufu. That was around 2560 BC. It stood about 146 metres then and about 138 now, having lost its outer casing.

It held the record as the tallest structure humans made for some three thousand eight hundred years. Roughly two and a half million blocks went into it. Nobody has fully settled how.

On the plateau

It is not alone up there. Three pyramids stand in a line, with the Sphinx below them at the edge of the plateau. The whole site is walkable but large and unshaded.

• The inside. A separate ticket, a steep climb through the Grand Gallery, and no ventilation to speak of.
• The Sphinx. Carved from the bedrock, below the causeway, and closer to the modern city than photographs suggest.
• The panorama. The viewpoint on the desert side, where the three pyramids line up. Every tour stops there.

What is sold here

Half-day and full-day private tours are the standard, usually with a licensed Egyptologist. Camel and horse rides cross the sand between the monuments. Quad bikes run in the desert behind the plateau.

Most itineraries add Memphis and Saqqara, where the step pyramid stands. Others pair the plateau with a museum. The sound and light show runs after dark.

Practical

• Time of day. Go at opening. By eleven the plateau is hot, crowded and fully exposed.
• The inner ticket. Sold in limited numbers at the gate and not included in most tour prices.
• Not for everyone. The interior passage is low, steep and airless. Skip it with claustrophobia or a bad back.
• Sellers. Camel and souvenir touts are persistent. A firm no, repeated, is normal and not rude.
• Bring. Water, a hat and closed shoes. There is sand everywhere and shade almost nowhere.