The Sphinx enclosure with the pyramids of Khafre and Khufu behind

What to See on the Giza Plateau

From the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid to the painted tombs most visitors walk straight past.

The Giza Plateau is not three pyramids standing alone in the sand. It is a complete royal necropolis: three king’s pyramids, each with its own temples and causeway, at least nine smaller queens’ and satellite pyramids, the Sphinx, hundreds of nobles’ tombs laid out in streets, and the town where the builders lived.

Most visitors see the Great Pyramid, the viewpoint and the Sphinx and leave. With a little planning you can add a painted tomb, the granite-clad base of Menkaure’s pyramid and the atmospheric Valley Temple — and still be at the Grand Egyptian Museum by early afternoon. The pages below explain what each sight is, how to reach it on the electric bus loop and which extra tickets you need.

On the Giza Plateau

The Great Pyramid of Khufu seen from its base, with visitors at the foot

On the Giza Plateau

Great Pyramid of Khufu

The last wonder of the ancient world

Built for King Khufu around 2560 BC from some 2.3 million blocks, the Great Pyramid stood 146.6 metres high and was the tallest building on Earth for nearly four thousand years. You can climb inside through the Grand Gallery to the granite King’s Chamber.

The Great Sphinx of Giza seen from the side in morning light

On the Giza Plateau

Great Sphinx & Valley Temple

The guardian of the plateau

A lion with a king’s head, carved from a single outcrop of limestone some 4,500 years ago and 73 metres long. You reach its viewing terrace through the Valley Temple of Khafre, a severe masterpiece of red granite and alabaster.

The pyramid of Khafre with its limestone casing surviving at the top

On the Giza Plateau

Pyramid of Khafre

The one that still wears its casing

Khufu’s son built the second pyramid on higher ground, so it looks the tallest of the three. Its summit still carries a cap of the smooth white limestone that once covered every pyramid at Giza.

The pyramid of Menkaure with the gash in its north face

On the Giza Plateau

Pyramid of Menkaure

The smallest, and the quietest

The third pyramid is a tenth of the volume of the Great Pyramid but was the most lavishly finished, with lower courses clad in red granite shipped from Aswan. Three little queens’ pyramids stand beside it and the crowds thin out.

The three queens’ pyramids of Khufu in the desert haze

On the Giza Plateau

Queens’ Pyramids & Eastern Cemetery

Khufu’s family, laid out in streets

Three small pyramids for Khufu’s queens stand in a row east of the Great Pyramid, beside the empty boat pits and the secret shaft tomb of his mother, Hetepheres. Beyond them stretch the mastaba tombs of princes and officials.

The interior of the rock-cut tomb of Queen Meresankh III

On the Giza Plateau

Tomb of Meresankh III

The best-kept secret at Giza

An underground chapel cut for a queen who was Khufu’s granddaughter and Khafre’s wife, with painted reliefs still bright after forty-five centuries and a row of ten women carved from the living rock.

The pyramids of Giza lined up as seen from the panoramic viewpoint

On the Giza Plateau

Panoramic Viewpoint

All the pyramids in a single frame

A low rise in the desert south-west of the pyramids where the whole group lines up in the classic postcard view. It is a stop on the electric bus loop, the starting point for camel rides and close to the 9 Pyramids Lounge.

An illuminated tomb in the cemetery of the pyramid builders at Giza

On the Giza Plateau

Workers’ Village & Builders’ Tombs

Where the pyramid builders lived

South of the Sphinx, archaeologists have uncovered the town, bakeries and cemetery of the people who built the pyramids — proof that they were organised, well-fed Egyptian workers, not slaves. Access is limited, but the story changes how you see everything else.

Museums

The atrium and grand staircase of the Grand Egyptian Museum

Grand Egyptian Museum

Tutankhamun, complete, beside the pyramids

Fully opened in November 2025, the GEM is the largest archaeological museum in the world devoted to one civilisation: a colossus of Ramesses II in the atrium, a grand staircase of statues, the entire treasure of Tutankhamun and the solar boats of Khufu.

The pink neoclassical facade of the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square

Egyptian Museum, Tahrir

The grand old museum downtown

The pink 1902 museum on Tahrir Square has given its Tutankhamun galleries to the GEM but remains a treasure house of crowded, old-fashioned charm, with superb Old Kingdom sculpture and the gold of Tanis.

The main exhibition hall of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

Home of the royal mummies

A modern museum in Fustat that tells the whole story of Egypt from prehistory to the present — and, in a hushed crypt below, displays the mummies of Ramesses II, Hatshepsut and twenty other kings and queens.

Beyond Giza

The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara

Saqqara

The first pyramid ever built

Twenty-five kilometres south of Giza, the Step Pyramid of Djoser is where building in stone on a monumental scale began, a century before Khufu. Around it lie exquisitely carved tombs, the Pyramid Texts and the eerie Serapeum.

The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur with its smooth limestone casing

Dahshur

The Bent and Red Pyramids

Khufu’s father Sneferu learned how to build a true pyramid here. The Bent Pyramid keeps most of its smooth casing; the Red Pyramid, the third largest in Egypt, can be entered on the site ticket — and you may have it almost to yourself.

The colossal limestone statue of Ramesses II lying in the Memphis museum

Memphis

The vanished capital of the pyramid kings

Little survives of the city from which the builders of Giza ruled Egypt, but the open-air museum at Mit Rahina holds a magnificent fallen colossus of Ramesses II and a great alabaster sphinx among the palms.

The Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan in Cairo

Islamic Cairo

A thousand years of the medieval city

The other Cairo: the towering Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan, the Citadel, the Mamluk monuments of Al-Muizz Street and the lanes of Khan el-Khalili bazaar — the perfect counterpoint to a day among the pharaohs.

A sensible order for one visit

Enter through the Great Gate and take the electric bus to the panoramic viewpoint first, while the air is clear. Ride back to the pyramid of Menkaure and the pyramid of Khafre, continue to the Great Pyramid — going inside if you have the ticket — and walk through the queens’ pyramids and the Eastern Cemetery. Finish downhill at the Sphinx and the Valley Temple. See the travel guide for tickets, timings and the bus stops.

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