The Pyramids at Giza were built to endure an eternity—but how?

The Giza Pyramids, built to endure an eternity, have done just that. The monumental tombs are relics of Egypt's Old Kingdom era and were constructed some 4,500 years ago.

Egypt's pharaohs expected to become gods in the afterlife. To prepare for the next world they erected temples to the gods and massive pyramid tombs for themselves—filled with all the things each ruler would need to guide and sustain himself in the next world.

Each of the three massive pyramids is but one part of a larger complex, including a palace, temples, solar boat pits, and other features. Here’s what to know about who built them, how they were built—and the treasures we’ve discovered inside.

Who built the Pyramids of Giza?

Pharaoh Khufu was the first Egyptian king to build a pyramid in Giza, a project he began in circa 2550 B.C. His Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza and originally towered some 481 feet (147 meters) above the plateau—it’s a bit shorter now with its smooth casing stones long gone. Its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons.

Khufu's son, Khafre, built the second pyramid at Giza, circa 2520 B.C. His necropolis, or burial ground, stands out on the landscape because it also includes the Sphinx, a mysterious limestone monument with the body of a lion and the head of a pharaoh. The Sphinx, which before the 1800s spent thousands of years buried in the sand with only its head visible, may stand sentinel for the pharaoh’s tomb complex, although there’s no definitive proof that he built it.

(Who did build the Spinx? 4,500 years later, we took a fresh look.)

The third of the Giza Pyramids is considerably smaller than the first two—less than half their height at about 218 feet. Built by Khafre’s son Menkaure circa 2490 B.C. the pyramid’s elaborate complex includes two separate temples connected by a long causeway, and three individual queens’ pyramids. Menkaure’s chambers include niche decorations unique to Giza and a vaulted ceiling in his burial chamber itself. The pharaoh’s elaborate sarcophagus was lost at sea near Gibraltar in 1838.

How were the pyramids built?

The ancient engineering feats at Giza were so impressive that even today scientists and engineers can't be sure exactly how the pyramids were built. Yet they have learned much about the people who built them and the political power necessary to make it happen.

The builders were skilled Egyptian workers who lived in a nearby temporary city sprawling over some 17 acres. The remains of bakeries and piles of animal bones show that they were very well fed for their labor. Archaeological digs on the fascinating site have revealed a highly organized community, rich with resources, that must have been backed by strong central authority.

(Who was the first Pharaoh?)

Archaeological sites across Egypt and records written on ancient papyri show that boatmen used the Nile and a network of artificial waterways to bring materials to the Giza Plateau, including granite from Aswan quarries, copper cutting tools from the Sinai Peninsula, and timber from Lebanon. To sustain the workers, they also delivered cattle from farms near the Nile Delta.

It's likely that communities across Egypt contributed workers, as well as food and other essentials, for what became in some ways a national project to display the wealth and control of the ancient pharaohs.

Scientists and engineers are still debating exactly how the pyramids were constructed. It’s generally believed that the Egyptians moved massive stone blocks to the heights along large ramps, greased by water or wet clay, using a system of sledges, ropes, rollers, and levers. Some suggest exterior ramps either zig-zagged or spiraled around each pyramid, while a more controversial theory suggests internal ramps were used.

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These secrets of the pyramids’ construction may lie below the surface. Perhaps as future imaging technology reveals the arrangements of blocks inside, they will provide a blueprint for how Egyptian builders created these timeless monuments.

If the pyramids helped to build ancient Egypt, they also preserved it. Giza allows us to explore a long-vanished world.

"Many people think of the site as just a cemetery in the modern sense, but it's a lot more than that," says Harvard University Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian. "In these decorated tombs you have wonderful scenes of every aspect of life in ancient Egypt—so it's not just about how Egyptians died but how they lived."

(How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt’s Great Pyramid.)

Tomb art includes depictions of ancient farmers working their fields and tending livestock, fishing and bird hunting, practicing carpentry, wearing costumes, and performing religious rituals and burial practices.

Inscriptions and texts also allow research into Egyptian grammar and language. "Almost any subject you want to study about Pharaonic civilization is available on the tomb walls at Giza," Der Manuelian says.

Many of these unique resources are freely accessible to all at The Giza Project, an enormous collection of photographs, plans, drawings, manuscripts, object records, and expedition diaries from the world's leading institutions, gathered together in an incredible online repository for Giza-related material.

This collection preserves paintings and inscriptions that have since faded away, captures artifacts that have been lost or destroyed, and unlocks tombs not accessible to the public.

And while nothing could ever replicate the experience of a personal visit to Giza, the reconstructions of GIZA 3D may be the closest you can get. Virtual visitors from anywhere in the world can wander the wonders of the plateau and take guided tours of pyramids, temples, and even tombs.

What are we still discovering about the pyramids?

The pyramids of Giza still hold plenty of secrets. And while scientists continue to make new discoveries, many of them also raise new questions.

The ScanPyramids project, an international team under the authority of Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, has been using modern technology to delve inside the pyramids since 2015 without setting foot inside. Advances in high-energy particle physics have allowed them to use cosmic rays to uncover various empty spaces that had been hidden for 4,500 years—including one void that rivals the size of the pyramid’s Grand Gallery and another passage, dubbed the North Face Corridor,  to the Pyramid of Khufu.

It’s unclear if anything is inside these spaces, but most experts believe they have no ritual significance. Instead, they were likely used during construction, a carefully engineered system to distribute the weight and stress of these iconic structures that have definitely stood the test of time.