3d tour of the pyramids of giza

360° Tour inside the Great Pyramid of Giza (Video)

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The BBC's 360° tour through the Great Pyramid of Giza , one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, provides viewers with an immersive virtual reality experience. The video tour starts in the heart of the pyramid, the ceremonial passage known as the Grand Gallery, and continues to the King's Chamber . The precision and architectural brilliance of the pyramid become evident as the viewers navigate through the narrow, low-roofed passages of this over 4,500-year-old edifice.

The video also explores the mysterious subterranean chamber, a feature of the pyramid normally closed off to the public. This enigmatic section is hewn out of the bedrock below ground level and, unlike the smooth surfaces found elsewhere in the pyramid, has rough and irregular walls. The purpose of this chamber and its unusual features, including a strange deep shaft and a short tunnel that ends abruptly, remain a mystery. Despite the enduring secrets it holds, the Great Pyramid , thanks to technological advances in virtual reality, now also shines as a marvel in the virtual world, giving us an unprecedented look into its fascinating interiors.

• Great White Pyramid: Did You know Giza’s Great Pyramid Was Once Dazzling White?
• The Hidden Message in Khafre’s Pyramid: What Were the Builders Trying to Tell Us?

Top image: Stairway inside the Great Pyramid, Egypt. Source:  witthaya / Adobe Stock.

By Joanna Gillan

Joanna Gillan is a Co-Owner, Editor and Writer of Ancient Origins. 

Joanna completed a Bachelor of Science (Psychology) degree in Australia and published research in the field of Educational Psychology. She has a rich and varied career, ranging from teaching... Read More

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Visit the Pyramids of Giza Without Even Leaving Your Couch

By ellen gutoskey | apr 15, 2021.

If going to the Giza Plateau in person is the ultimate way to experience the ancient Pyramids of Giza, Harvard University’s Digital Giza is at least the next best thing.

As Nerdist reports , Digital Giza is an offshoot of Harvard’s Giza Project , an international endeavor to catalog and consolidate archives and information about the Giza Plateau from all over the world. Researchers have used this data to create a digital platform with 3D models, virtual walking tours, and other free interactive resources to help people explore the region from afar.

You can, for example, amble around the largest of the three pyramids, commissioned by King Khufu around 2550 BCE and also known as the Great Pyramid . Not only is it the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it’s also the only one that still exists (That said, historians aren’t sure that some of them ever existed at all—hard evidence of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes, for example, has proven difficult to find.) The other two pyramids that tower over the rest of the plateau are the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure, built by (and named for) Khufu’s son and grandson, respectively.

Digital Giza offers plenty of sites to explore beyond those three edifices. The Great Sphinx , thought to have been built during Khafre’s reign, is also a must-see. While it’s currently the same sandy color as the rest of the plateau, pigment residue suggests that it might’ve once been painted red, blue, yellow, and perhaps other vibrant hues. The platform also has virtual tours of several extravagant tombs, complete with details about the art and sculptures you see inside.

If you’re interested in an immersive (and educational) virtual vacation, you can explore Digital Giza here .

[h/t Nerdist ]

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Discover the secrets of Egypt’s Great Pyramid on this new virtual tour

A new tool gives you access to the inside chambers of one of the Ancient Wonders of the World

Always wanted have a look around an Egyptian pyramid but never quite managed to go all the way to Giza? Here’s your chance for a sneak peek. You can now take a free virtual tour of the Great Pyramid of Giza – and, even online, it’s pretty spectacular.

On a website called Giza.Mused , the tour gives viewers a comprehensive look into one of Egypt’s most famous pyramids. It renders the ‘entire interior’ in digital 3-D form, taking virtual tour attendees through the king’s chamber at the top, the queen’s chamber in the middle and a subterranean chamber, which is cut into the bedrock beneath. 

So what’s so special about the Great Pyramid of Giza – despite, obviously, it being ‘great’ and all? Well, it’s the biggest pyramid in Egypt and stands at just over 138 metres tall. Built about 4,600 years ago, it houses the tomb of fourth dynasty pharaoh Khufu and is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (and the only Ancient Wonder still standing).

In other words, it’s a pretty sweet place to get a virtual tour of. Giza.Mused doubles up as a fascinating history lesson, with facts about everything from its construction and location to the current entrance, which was apparently dug by robbers in the ninth century.

You can do the tour for yourself here – and get fantasising about just how incredible it would be to see the pyramids IRL.

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Students wearing 3D glasses take a virtual tour of ancient Egypt in Peter Der Manuelian’s “Pyramid Schemes” class.

Photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Alvin Powell

Harvard Staff Writer

Digital Giza Project lets scholars virtually visit sites in Egypt and beyond, and even print them in 3D

Four thousand years ago, a member of Egypt’s elite was buried on the Giza Plateau in an elaborate stone tomb, complete with several rooms and underground chambers.

Then, in 1912, a team from Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston excavated the tomb, of a type called a mastaba , and brought back with them a limestone wall from its chapel.

The wall, housed at the MFA, is inscribed with images of the deceased, an official named Akh-meret-nesut, and his family in various poses — sitting, leaning on a staff, throwing a lasso.

Today, more than a century later, Harvard doctoral student Inês Torres wants to know as much as she can about Akh-meret-nesut: who he was, what he did, and why he was buried on the Giza Plateau in the shadow of the pyramids long after pharaohs’ burials there had ceased.

But Torres faces a problem familiar to many scholars studying ancient Egypt: getting access to what she’s studying. With part of the tomb in Boston and part in Egypt, she’d have to time travel to see it intact. Other scholars may face different hurdles, but the problem is the same: Documents and images are held in faraway archives, artifacts and other relics of ancient Egypt have been dispersed, stolen, or destroyed, and tombs and monuments have been dismantled, weather-worn, or locked away behind passages filled in when an excavation closes.

Hurdles can also be economic: The object of study may be intact, but the plane fare and expenses of living for weeks in the field or lodged in the cities — Cairo, London, Berlin, Paris, Boston — that are home to museums with large Egyptian collections hard to come by.

It was with scholars like these in mind that Digital Giza Project was born.

The project was created in 2000 by Peter Der Manuelian , who at the time was on the curatorial staff at the MFA. A scholar of ancient Egypt, Manuelian said his initial vision was to create a digital record of the work of Harvard’s legendary Egyptology Professor and MFA curator George Reisner and the Harvard-MFA Expedition he led. The expedition was one of the major academic archaeological efforts at Giza and other sites in Egypt during the early 1900s.

Reisner, who led the expedition for more than 40 years, dug at 23 sites, and Manuelian soon realized that just digitizing material relating to the vast finds on the Giza Plateau — which includes not only the pyramids and the Sphinx, but also associated temples, nearby cemeteries, and even a workers’ village — would be a career-long challenge. In 2010, he moved to Harvard to become the Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology and director of the Harvard Semitic Museum , and he brought the Giza Project with him.

The project staff’s ambition has since expanded to include not just Reisner’s work at Giza, but that of other archaeologists at the site as well, making it a comprehensive resource for Giza archaeology. It contains some 77,000 images, 21,000 of them Harvard University-MFA Expedition glass-plate negatives, and 10,000 of Manuelian’s own images. It has published manuscripts as well as unpublished expedition records, dig diaries, object record books, and sketches and drawings made by the archaeologists doing the digging. In January, during Harvard’s winter recess, Manuelian visited Egypt and collected another 5,000 digital images — including panoramic photos — of Giza and related objects in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

A key feature of the Giza Project is the fact that the material it holds is cross-referenced online, allowing a researcher to seamlessly move from a 3D image of an object to scholarly articles about it to diary pages by the archaeologist who discovered it.

“For people who focus on this particular period, this is the main resource for them to go to,” Manuelian said. “It’s thrown the doors wide open to this material that was previously only in the publications that Reisner lived long enough to finish.”

As the work has advanced, so has technology. Manuelian’s vision has expanded to include 3D re-creations of statues and artifacts that allow researchers to view them online, rotate them, and zoom in on specific features. Looking to the future, he said, 3D models’ source codes could be made available, which would allow distant scholars with access to 3D printers to create their own physical models.

“All of this allows us to ask new questions and to put the data together in ways not possible before and to make intelligent links,” Manuelian said. “If someone gets a grant and decides to go to the MFA and look through their records, good luck. There’s just so much, it’s overwhelming. If you go to Giza today, a tomb may have been reburied or vandalized, or is in not as good shape as it was in 1916. Objects might have gone to the basement of the Cairo museum, never to be seen again.

“With our attempt to put this all together digitally, with diaries and maps and plans and things, it allows you, first of all, convenient access to the data and then you can start to notice patterns.”

The Giza Projects’ 3D modeling extends beyond artifacts to locations. Manuelian’s team has already created video-game-like 3D versions of the entire Giza Plateau, with the Khafre pyramid, the Sphinx, and several temples and tombs posted so far and more to come. Those models can be accessed from the Digital Giza website and toured using controls on a laptop or desktop computer. Other re-creations, using high-resolution photographs of tombs’ interiors, let visitors walk through virtual burial chambers using stereo headsets. Visitors can move around inside the tombs and even walk up to a wall to examine a particular relief or other detail. About 20 tombs have been modeled in detail so far, with hundreds more to go.

“My hope is eventually to fly drones over the site, documenting everything from the air,” Manuelian said. “And complementing that with walks up and down the ‘streets’ [between rows of tombs] creating 360-degree panoramic visualizations, all linked to the more-traditional archaeological data that we have already assembled.”

For someone like Torres, studying a tomb that has one room in Boston and the rest in Egypt, a virtual model is the only way to see the intact structure, so she’s planning on creating one as part of her doctoral work.

“This tomb is divided between two countries,” she said. “3D modeling is the only way we can put it back together again.”

The overarching goal, Manuelian said, is to make scholarship in Egyptology more accessible than ever. And, while digital images may not fully replace the real thing, he said, foundational study can be conducted using the wide array of material presented by the project, allowing scholars to conserve scarce resources for when they’re essential.

The project’s 3D re-creations and data visualizations, together with the capabilities of the Harvard Visualization Center, also allow the Giza Project to give students a unique educational experience. Last fall, Manuelian gathered his students in a tomb in cyber space, using the center’s virtual reality headsets, and linked the class to students in Zhejiang University in China. Students’ avatars gathered at the virtual site — in this case, the Sphinx — with the technology, allowing Manuelian to act as a cyber tour guide.

“The project is all of these diverse approaches,” Manuelian said. “It’s a traditional database and website. It’s the intelligent linking of this photo to that tomb to this diary page. It’s the 3D modeling as we try to build more and more of the necropolis all the time. And it’s ultimately intended to enable the kind of remote teaching — what I call educational telepresence — where we can all be at Giza virtually and visiting the site and having a lecture inside a decorated tomb chapel no matter where you live.”

Torres said there is an irony to studying Giza: It is one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, but in many ways it is still unknown. While the pyramids and Sphinx are world-famous, and have been for centuries, in their shadow new tombs are still being uncovered, while known tombs, workers’ houses, and other sites are yet to be fully explored and studied.

“Giza is such a well-known site, but in some sense, it’s understudied,” Torres said. “Because the pyramids are so amazing, the things all around them fade.”

With so much work to be done, the access to digitized documents and materials might inspire scholars curious about ancient Egypt but without access to the sites themselves or a major Egyptological library to take up the job.

“I think that’s the way to go forward, to make sure everyone has access,” Torres said. “Possibly there are geniuses who don’t have a great library and could do something wonderful with the information.”

Another graduate student, Hilo Sugita, plans to study the sarcophagi found at Giza. Using the Giza Project’s data, she can examine photographs of inscriptions, find their original locations within tombs, and even create 3D models.

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“We have photographs, journals, glass negatives, letters, artifacts, publications,” Sugita said. “I think the Digital Giza Project is amazing because we’re trying to collect all the data about Giza everywhere and make it available on the website. You don’t have to go to the MFA, you don’t have to travel to Berlin.”

Technology’s advance is not without challenges, however. The digitization of archaeology, Manuelian said, is something like “the Wild West,” with competing file formats and uncertainty about how the growing data troves will be translated into next-generation software.

In addition, standards for what goes into a 3D re-creation are loose. Should a digital model reflect the state of a tomb as it was found, for example, or is it OK to color in reliefs on the walls to match paint residue found there? How far should digital re-creations go in filling in missing details, some of which are backed by scholarship, but others of which are more speculative, driven by knowledge of common practice rather than evidence at that specific site?

Early in the spring term, Manuelian gave students in his Gen Ed “Pyramid Schemes” class, which provides an overview of ancient Egypt, a glimpse of Giza using Giza Project models. The students visited the Harvard Visualization Center’s home on the second floor of the Geological Museum building, which is equipped with a curved floor-to-ceiling screen occupying one full wall and a suite of 3D and virtual reality tools.

He gave them a tour of both the technology — which can depict sites in detail — and the archaeology, showing them three-dimensional re-creations viewed with 3D glasses and letting them walk through a tomb via a virtual-reality headset.

Manuelian also encouraged students to not only soak up the experience, but to think about the challenges inherent in such an approach, where it might further education and scholarship, and what its shortcomings might be. And, with so much work still to do, he also made a pitch.

“This is a project that is waiting for people like you,” he said.

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Virtual Travel

A Smithsonian magazine special report

Take a Free Virtual Tour of Five Egyptian Heritage Sites

The sites include the 5,000-year-old tomb of Meresankh III, the Red Monastery and the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Barquq

Theresa Machemer

Correspondent

Earlier this month, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the release of five new virtual tours of historic sites, adding to the range of online adventures that you can now embark on from home.

The tours explore the tomb of Meresankh III , the tomb of Menna , the Ben Ezra Synagogue , the Red Monastery and the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Barquq . Each virtual experience features detailed 3-D imagery through which users can “walk” by clicking hotspots along the structures’ floors.

As James Stewart reports for the Guardian , the tours boast “beefed up” 3-D modeling made by experts with Harvard University’s Giza Project . Unlike their real counterparts, most of which charge a small entry fee, the virtual renderings are free to all.

“The virtual tours target both [international] tourists and Egyptians, a ministry spokesperson tells Al-Monitor ’s Amira Sayed Ahmed. “They serve the double purpose of promoting Egyptian tourism nationwide and increasing Egyptians' awareness of their own civilization.”

Two of the tours—the tombs of Meresankh III and elite Egyptian official Menna —include background information accessible by clicking circles overlaid atop specific features. The former’s tomb, dated to some 5,000 years ago, is the oldest of the Egyptian sites available as a virtual walkthrough. Meresankh, a queen wed to King Khafre, was the daughter of Prince Kawab and Hetepheres II of the fourth dynasty, and the granddaughter of Great Pyramid builder Cheops, also known as Khufu.

Harvard archaeologist George Andrew Reisner discovered the queen’s tomb in 1927. He later stated that “None of us had ever seen anything like it.” Today, the burial place’s paintings and carvings remain well-preserved, showcasing hunters catching water birds, bakers making triangular loaves of bread and servants holding offerings.

In the northern chamber, along the wall furthest from the virtual tour’s starting point, ten statues of women stand shoulder to shoulder—an unusual sight among Gaza tombs. The statues “serve to emphasize Meresankh’s position among her queenly relatives,” the tour explains. Along the path to the 16-foot-deep burial shaft, users pass a pair of statues depicting Meresankh and her mother, Hetepheres II, with their arms around each other.

The path leads down a spiraling staircase into the burial shaft, where Meresankh’s black granite sarcophagus—originally created for her mother but re-engraved upon the queen’s death in 2532 B.C., according to the History Blog —was originally found. The tour includes a reconstructed image of the chamber with the sarcophagus in place, but the actual coffin is now kept at the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo.

The tomb of Menna, dated to the 18th dynasty (about 1549 B.C to 1292 B.C.), is “one of the most visited and best preserved” from the era, the ministry writes in a statement quoted by Live Science ’s Laura Geggel. The tomb’s decorations suggest the elite official was a scribe in charge of the pharaoh’s fields and the temple of sun god Amun-Re.

Menna’s tomb also includes informational blurbs highlighting such features as paintings of the scribe’s family, including his wife Henuttawy and their five children. Curiously, all of the paintings of Menna have been defaced.

“The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul of a person inhabited paintings of them and destroying the face would ‘deactivate’ the image,” the tour notes. “Why would someone want to destroy the memory of Menna?”

The tomb also served as a point of communication with the dead. It once featured life-size statues of Menna and Henuttawy that family members could make offerings to, ask for favors or visit during festivals.

The other three tours do not offer information blurbs at this time, but they still have plenty of detailed 3-D imagery for virtual visitors to explore. The Red Monastery , a Coptic church in Upper Egypt, features ornate frescoes, while the 14th-century Mosque-Madrassa is known for its immense size and innovative architecture. The Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo is alleged to be the site where baby Moses was found.

“Experience Egypt from home,” says the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on Facebook . “Stay home. Stay safe.”

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Theresa Machemer | READ MORE

Theresa Machemer is a freelance writer based in Washington DC. Her work has also appeared in National Geographic and SciShow. Website: tkmach.com

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Take a 3D Tour Through Ancient Giza, Including the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx & More

in Architecture , History , Technology | March 31st, 2020 4 Comments

Imag­ine the pyra­mids of ancient Egypt, and a vivid image comes right to mind. But unless you hap­pen to be an Egyp­tol­o­gist, that image may pos­sess a great deal more vivid­ness than it does detail. We all have a rough sense of the pyra­mids’ size (impres­sive­ly large), shape (pyra­midi­cal), tex­ture (crumbly), and set­ting (sand), almost whol­ly derived from images cap­tured over the past cen­tu­ry. But what about the pyra­mids in their hey­day, more than 4,500 years ago? Do we know enough even to begin imag­in­ing how they looked, let alone how peo­ple made use of them? Har­vard Egyp­tol­o­gist Peter Der Manuelian does, and in the video above he gives us a tour through 3D mod­els that recon­struct the Giza pyra­mid com­plex (also known as the Giza necrop­o­lis) using both the best tech­nol­o­gy and the fullest knowl­edge avail­able today.

“You’ll see we’ve had to remove mod­ern struc­tures and exca­va­tors, debris dumps,” says Der Manuelian as the cam­era flies, drone­like , in the direc­tion of the Great Sphinx. “We stud­ied the Nile, and we had to move it much clos­er to the Giza pyra­mids, because in antiq­ui­ty, the Nile did flow clos­er. And we’ve tried to rebuild each and every struc­ture.”

Of the Sphinx, this mod­el boasts “the most accu­rate recon­struc­tion that has ever been attempt­ed so far,” and Der Manuelian shows it in two pos­si­ble col­ors schemes, one with only the head paint­ed, one with the entire body paint­ed in “the red­dish brown reserved for male fig­ures.” He also shows the pyra­mid tem­ple of Khafre, both in the near-com­plete­ly ruined state in which it exists today, and in full dig­i­tal recon­struc­tion, com­plete with seat­ed stat­ues the Fourth-Dynasty pharaoh Khafre him­self.

The mod­el accom­mo­dates more than just the built envi­ron­ment. Der Manuelian shows a mod­el bark with anoth­er stat­ue being car­ried into one of the cham­bers, explain­ing that it allows researchers to deter­mine “whether or not it’s big enough or small enough to actu­al­ly fit between the doors of the tem­ple.” Else­where in the mod­el we see a re-enact­ment of the “Open­ing of the Mouth cer­e­mo­ny,” the “rean­i­ma­tion cer­e­mo­ny for the deceased king, meant to mag­i­cal­ly and rit­u­al­ly bring him back to life for the nether­world.” The ren­der­ing takes place inside the tem­ple of the Pyra­mid of Khu­fu, peo­pled with human char­ac­ters. But “how many should there be? What should they be wear­ing? Where are the reg­u­lar Egyp­tians? Are they allowed any­where near this cer­e­mo­ny, or indeed are they allowed any­where near Giza at all?” The greater the detail in which researchers recon­struct the ancient world, the more such ques­tions come to the sur­face.

In the video just above , Der Manuelian explains more about the impor­tance of 3D mod­el­ing to Egyp­tol­ogy: how it uses the exist­ing research, what it has helped mod­ern researchers under­stand, and the promise it holds for the future. The lat­ter includes much of inter­est even to non-Egyp­tol­o­gists, such as tourists who might like to famil­iar­ize them­selves with Giza necrop­o­lis in the days when the Open­ing of the Mouth cer­e­monies still took place — or any era of their choice — before set­ting foot there them­selves. These videos come from “Pyra­mids of Giza: Ancient Egypt­ian Art and Archae­ol­o­gy,” Der Manuelian’s online course at edX, a worth­while learn­ing expe­ri­ence if you’ve got your own such trip planned — or just the kind of fas­ci­na­tion that has gripped peo­ple around the world since the Egyp­to­ma­nia of the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry. The tech­nol­o­gy with which we study Egypt has advanced great­ly since then, but for many, the mys­ter­ies of ancient Egypt itself have only become more com­pelling.

via The Kid Should See This

Relat­ed Con­tent:

How the Egypt­ian Pyra­mids Were Built: A New The­o­ry in 3D Ani­ma­tion

What the Great Pyra­mid of Giza Would’ve Looked Like When First Built: It Was Gleam­ing, Reflec­tive White

The Met Dig­i­tal­ly Restores the Col­ors of an Ancient Egypt­ian Tem­ple, Using Pro­jec­tion Map­ping Tech­nol­o­gy

Human All Too Human: A Roman Woman Vis­its the Great Pyra­mid in 120 AD, and Carves a Poem in Mem­o­ry of Her Deceased Broth­er

The Grate­ful Dead Play at the Egypt­ian Pyra­mids, in the Shad­ow of the Sphinx (1978)

A Drone’s Eye View of the Ancient Pyra­mids of Egypt, Sudan & Mex­i­co

Based in Seoul,  Col­in Mar­shall  writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the book  The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les  and the video series  The City in Cin­e­ma . Fol­low him on Twit­ter at  @colinmarshall , on  Face­book , or on  Insta­gram .

by Colin Marshall | Permalink | Comments (4) |

Related posts:

Comments (4), 4 comments so far.

Fas­ci­nat­ing is a free app? I am a begin­ner in Ancient Egyp­tol­ogy and in col­lege I had my natal chart done (Not that it mat­ters) which get me inter­est­ed Abot Abu Sim­bel Ram­ses ll.

Fas­ci­nat­ing! When will be out? Is the app free? If not About (An Esti­mat­ed price.

Ubisoft also did a good 3d guid­ed tour of Egypt a cou­ple of years ago .

https://support.ubisoft.com/en-gb/Faqs/000031846/Discovery-Tour-Mode-of-Assassin-s-Creed-Origins-ACO

I wish you stop look­ing in the wrong places

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Video Library

Eastern cemetery: site: giza; view: g 7000 x.

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the subterranean tomb of Queen Hetepheres (G 7000 X) at Giza, including reconstructions of tomb contents based on excavation documentation.

Animated video production that tells the story of the hidden Giza tomb of Queen Hetepheres, as told by Hetepheres herself along with George Reisner, the archaeologist who excavated the tomb and all of its contents in the early 1900s. Together they relate the mystery surrounding the Queen's final resting place. Was it in this tomb at Giza or in a second tomb built for her at another Egyptian site?

Eastern Cemetery: Site: Giza; View: G 7530-7540

Animated video production in which Queen Meresankh III personally leads a detailed tour of her unique mastaba tomb in the Eastern Cemetery at Giza.

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the mastaba tomb of Queen Meresankh III (G 7530-7540) at Giza, including her unique semi-underground tomb chapel (G 7530sub)

Giza Plateau: Site: Giza; View: the Giza Plateau

Animated video production that provides a guided, overall tour of the Giza Plateau.

Khafre Pyramid Complex: Site: Giza; View: Khafre Pyramid Complex

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the main components of the Khafre Pyramid Complex at Giza.

Khafre Pyramid Complex: Site: Giza; View: Khafre Pyramid Temple

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Khafre Pyramid Temple at Giza, part of the Khafre Pyramid Complex.

Khafre Pyramid Complex: Site: Giza; View: Khafre Valley Temple

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Khafre Valley Temple at Giza, part of the Khafre Pyramid Complex.

Khufu Pyramid Complex: Site: Giza; View: Khufu Pyramid Complex

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the main components of the Khufu Pyramid Complex at Giza.

Khufu Pyramid Complex: Site: Giza; View: Khufu Pyramid Temple

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Khufu Pyramid Temple, part of the Khufu Pyramid Complex at Giza.

Khufu Pyramid Complex: Site: Giza; View: Khufu Valley Temple

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Khufu Valley Temple, part of the Khufu Pyramid Complex at Giza.

Menkaure Pyramid Complex model: Site: Giza; View: Menkaure Pyramid Complex

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the main components of the Menkaure Pyramid Complex at Giza.

Menkaure Pyramid Complex model: Site: Giza; View: Menkaure Pyramid Temple

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Menkaure Pyramid Temple, part of the Menkaure Pyramid Complex at Giza.

Menkaure Pyramid Complex model: Site: Giza; View: Menkaure Valley Temple

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Menkaure Valley Temple, part of the Menkaure Pyramid Complex at Giza.

Sphinx Complex: Site: Giza; View: Sphinx Temple

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Sphinx Temple at Giza.

Sphinx Complex: Site: Giza; View: the Sphinx

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the Great Sphinx and its immediate surroundings at Giza.

Western Cemetery: Site: Giza; View: G 2100, G 2100-I, G 2100-II

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the family mastaba complex G 2100, which includes the mastaba tombs of Sedit (G 2100), Merib Kapunisut (G 2100-I), and Nensedjerkai [I] (G 2100-II) at Giza.

Western Cemetery: Site: Giza; View: G 2110

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the mastaba tomb of Nefer (G 2110) at Giza.

Western Cemetery: Site: Giza; View: G 2155

Animated video production that provides a guided tour of the mastaba tomb of Kaninisut (G 2155) at Giza.

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Virtual Tour of the Pyramid of Giza

Explore a virtual tour of the Pyramid of Giza from the inside on EON-XR and marvel at the architecture and engineering expertise of our ancient forefathers!

The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is the only surviving structure out of the famed Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built for Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops, in Greek), Sneferu’s successor and the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty.

These lessons show off the possibilities of learning using AR and VR. Anyone can transform even the most basic of spaces and subjects into a fascinating educational moment.  EON Reality is now offering free access to EON-XR , just click  here  to start!

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What You Need To Know About The Three Chambers Of The Great Pyramid (& What You Can See On A Tour)

• The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing today and is a popular tourist destination.
• The pyramids were sealed off to protect their secrets and treasures, but tourists can now see some of the chambers and passageways.
• The Great Pyramid was built as a mausoleum for the Pharaoh Khufu and took around 27 years to construct. Visitors can explore the King's Chamber and other hidden passageways.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing today and it has long captured the imagination of the many generations that have seen it (from the Greeks to the Romans to the modern era). During the Roman era, the pyramids were among the tourist destinations of Rome . The Great Pyramid has a number of chambers and some of these can be seen by tourists today.

The pyramids were sealed off and no one was meant to enter them to see (and loot) their secrets and treasures. The pyramids of Giza were encased with smooth white limestone and were part of a complex with satellite pyramids, temples, causeways, and more. The pyramids looked very different when they were first built , but visitors can glimpse them today. Here's what to know about touring the Great Pyramid.

Size & Purpose Of The Great Pyramid Of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest pyramid in Egypt (only a little larger than the Pyramid of Khafre) and was built as a mausoleum for the Pharaoh Khufu. It should be noted that the Ancient Egyptians did not see the pyramids as 'tombs' or their pharaohs as 'dead.' Instead, the pyramids were part of a larger complex designed to take the pharaoh to the afterlife.

• Built: 26th Century BC
• Height: 481 feet (original); 454 feet (today)

The Great Pyramid was built in the early 26th century BC and took around 27 years to construct. For some 3,800 years, the Great Pyramid was the tallest building in the world (originally 146.6 meters or 481 feet tall, now 138.5 meters or 454.4 feet tall).

The Great Pyramid is the most famous monument of the Giza Necropolis or Giza Pyramid Complex .

Related: The Great Sphinx Was Likely Part Of This Pyramid Complex

The Three Known Chambers Inside The Great Pyramid Of Giza

The Great Pyramid is awe-inspiring from the outside but somewhat underwhelming on the inside. There are three main known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. Additionally, there is the Grand Gallery and various corridors and shafts.

There are more secrets of the Great Pyramid still waiting to be discovered. A new passageway or hidden corridor was announced to have been discovered in March 2023 that measures some 9 meters or 30 feet long and 2 meters or 6 feet wide. It was found with non-invasive scans near the main entrance.

Subterranean Chamber

One of these chambers is not even in the pyramid per se , instead, the Subterranean Chamber (or 'Pit') was cut into the bedrock beneath the pyramid. This chamber remains unfinished and is located 89 feet or 27 meters below the base level. This room measures 27.5 feet by 46.4 feet and has a height of 13 feet.

The access to the Subterranean Chamber is through the Descending Passage, and it has been suggested that this may have been intended as the burial place for the pharaoh. This plan was changed later in favor of the King's Chamber higher in the pyramid.

This chamber was rediscovered in 1817.

Queen's Chamber

The Queen's Chamber is linked to the Grand Gallery by the Horizontal Passage. Despite its name, it is unlikely that a queen was buried there. Instead, it seems more probable that it once housed a life-size statue of the pharaoh.

The floor is rough, almost as though it's unfinished. The room measures 17 feet by 19 feet and the ceiling is 20.6 feet at the apex. The room is completely void of any contents with anything placed in the chamber removed long ago.

King's Chamber

The King's Chamber is the highest of the three main chambers and is completely faced with granite. This was the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid. Above the chamber are five compartments that were separated by huge horizontal granite slabs; these were likely meant to divert the massive weight of the pyramid above.

The chamber measures 34.4 feet by 17.2 feet and its ceiling is 19 feet high.

The only object still remaining in the chamber is the sarcophagus which is made out of a single granite block. The King's Chamber was rediscovered in the Early Middle Ages and it was quickly plundered for anything that was stored in the chamber.

Related: Pyramid of Cestius: See The Ancient Roman Pyramid That Was Inspired By Egypt's Ancient Pyramids

Tour Inside The Great Pyramid While In Giza

Visitors can go inside the Great Pyramid (as well as the neighboring Pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure). It is a separate ticket to go in each of the pyramids in addition to admission to the archeological site.

• Entry Fee Giza Pyramids Site: 240 Egyptian Pounds ($8 USD)
• Entry Fee Great Pyramid: 440 Egyptian Pounds ($14 USD)
• Opening Hours: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Visitors need to walk through narrow passageways (having to stoop down in places). Tourists see the King's Chamber and some of the other hidden passageways. It is perhaps surprising that the largest building in the world for thousands of years is actually cramped inside.

While in Giza, take the time to see the other Ancient Egyptian necropolises and see the other impressive pyramids of Egypt .