Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza, built as the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), stood 146.5 metres tall when completed around 2560 BCE. It held the record as the world's tallest human-made structure for approximately 3,800 years — until Lincoln Cathedral in England surpassed it around 1311 CE. Around 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing 2.5 to 15 tonnes, were quarried and placed with remarkable precision. Today, due to erosion of its original smooth white limestone casing, the pyramid stands at approximately 138.5 metres.

The 3,800-year figure is approximate; some estimates extend to 4,000 years depending on how the comparison structure is dated.

Context

The original height is reconstructed rather than directly measured. The top of the pyramid and nearly all of its outer casing stones are missing, so scholars work out the intended height from the slope of the sides and the length of the base, which is roughly 230 metres per side. This is why published figures cluster around 146 to 147 metres.

Most of the structure is local limestone quarried close to the site, with finer white limestone used for the casing and granite brought from Aswan for chambers inside. The number of blocks is an estimate, often given as roughly 2.3 million, and the average block size varies widely between sources.

Evidence from workers' settlements and the 2013 discovery of papyri at Wadi al-Jarf, which record the transport of limestone for the project, suggests that organised crews of paid labourers, not slaves, did the work. The pyramid is generally dated to the reign of Khufu in the early Fourth Dynasty, within the 26th century BCE, though exact reign dates carry an uncertainty of a few decades.