The most famous pyramids, even though not the oldest, are the pyramids of Gizeh (or Giza). Even though it looks as if there are only three (Cheops, Chefren and Mykerinos), in reality, there are 11 pyramids in that neighborhood and more than 90 all over Egypt. The largest one is the pyramid of Cheops, even though the pyramid of Chefren, his son, the one with the limestone coverage on top, seems taller. It deceits the eye because of it is placed on an elevated plateau and has a steeper slope. But the difference is tiny, between a little over 136 and a little over 137 meters, so it would have been difficult to see anyway; and both of them have lost 7 to 10 meters to the desert over the years.

The Mykerinos pyramid is, with its 65 meters, much smaller than the other two. From up close, you can see that the building blocks are huge; just compare them to the size of the soldier who is standing against the pyramid. The blocks get smaller however, the higher you get. In the old days, the pyramid outsides must have been completely smooth, whilst they were still covered in limestone. The Gizeh pyramids date back from around the 2570 BC, which makes them a century younger than the step pyramid in Sakarrah. As you see them always pictured with sand around them, they seem to be in the middle of the desert, but nothing is less true: Gizeh is very close to Cairo's city border and you can walk there from the outskirts of Cairo.

From the Gizeh plateau, you can see the pyramids of Sakarrah at a distance of about 25 kilometers. The most famous and oldest one is the Step Pyramid of King Djoser. As they are older than the Gizeh ones, time has eroded them to a less pointed version.

The pyramids are guarded by the sphinx, and the sphinx itself, as you can see from the pictures, is guarded by numerous birds himself. The head is said to be the head of Chefren, although nobody is sure. It is already without a nose, and if the birds get their way perhaps without even a head in the next few years. The name "sphinx" is not Egyptian but Greek, and it describes a mythological creature with the body of a lion, a human's head and wings of an eagle. The wings must have lived in somebody's imagination though, because they are no longer visible, and probably never were there.