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The Great Pyramid is the oldest and the largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now Cairo, Egypt in Africa (29'58'45.25N, 31'08'03.75'E). The oldest and only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the World, it is believed to have been constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (hellenized as Cheops), and is sometimes called Khufu's Pyramid or the Pyramid of Khufu.
The Great Pyramid is the main part of a complex setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honour of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. One of the small pyramids contains the tomb of queen Hetepheres (discovered in 1925), sister and wife of Sneferu and the mother of Khufu. There was a town for the workers of Giza, including a cemetery, bakeries, a beer factory and a copper smelting complex. More buildings and complexes are being discovered by The Giza Mapping Project.
A few hundred metres south-west of the Great Pyramid lies the slightly smaller Pyramid of Khafre, one of Khufu's successors who is also commonly considered the builder of the Great Sphinx, and a few hundred metres further south-west is the Pyramid of Menkaure, Khafre's successor, which is about half as tall.
The generally accepted estimated date of its completion is c. 2500 BC. Although this date contradicts radiocarbon dating evidence it is loosely supported by a lack of archaeological findings for the existence prior to the fourth dynasty of a civilization with sufficient population or technical ability in the area.
Khufu's vizier, Hemon, is credited as the architect of the Great Pyramid.
Traditionally, the evidence for dating the Great Pyramid by Egyptologists has been based primarily on fragmented summaries of early Christian writings gleaned from the work of the Hellinistic Period Egyptian priest Maneth? who compiled the now lost revisionist Egyptian history Aegyptika. These works, and to a lesser degree earlier Egyptian sources, mainly the "Turin Canon" and "Table of Abydos" among others, combine to form the main body of historical reference for Egyptologists giving a timeline by popular consensus of rulers known as the "King's List", found in the reference archive; the Cambridge Ancient History. As a result, being Egyptologists have ascribed the pyramid to Khufu, establishing the time he reigned by default subsequently dates the monument as well as the confines for its completion of construction.
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