There's always something surprising about any where you visit
that you thought you understood in advance. At the Giza pyramids
for me it was this limestone "pavement" area in front of the
pyramids. While many obelisks in Egypt may have been made from
stone quarried and transported many miles down the Nile, the
pyramids were made with local stone - very local stone in fact!
This area is where the rock was quarried to make the blocks for
the pyramids, and it's immediately in front of them. Great
Pyramid of Cheops at Giza to the right.
Apparently, there was a stratum of softer limestone above the
harder layer that was used to make the pyramids that had to be
cleared out of the way first.
next
previous
start of this section
