The Great Pyramid is the most substantial ancient structure in the world, and the most mysterious. According to prevailing archaeological theory the three pyramids of Giza were. built for three kings of the fourth dynasty. The Great Pyramids were attributed to Khufu, is the largest. The pyramid attributed to Khafra, is the second largest, and that of Menkaura, is the smallest of the three. The Great Pyramid was originally 481 feet, five inches tall and measured 755 feet along its sides. Covering an area of 13 acres, it is large enough to contain the European cathedrals of Florence, Milan, St. Peters, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's. Constructed from approximately 2.5 million limestone blocks that weighed an average of 2.6 tons each, its total mass is more than 6.3 million tons. The Great Pyramid was originally encased in highly polished, smooth white limestone and capped. Covering an area of 22 acres the white limestone casing was removed by an Arab sultan in 1356 in order to build fortresses in Cairo. According to its knowledge the Great Pyramid is mostly solid mass, its only known interior spaces is the original entrance, the Ascending passage, the Grand Gallery, a mysterious grotto, an equally mysterious subterranean chamber, and the two main chambers. These two chambers, called the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber, have unfortunately retained the misleading names given to them by early Arab visitors to the pyramid. It is an Arab custom to bury men in tombs with a flat roof and women in rooms with a gabled roof. The King's Chamber is 10.46 meters by 5.23 meters. It is built of enormous blocks of solid red granite that were transported by a still-unknown means from the quarries of Aswan. Within the chamber, sits a large, lidless coffer of dark black granite estimated to weigh more than three tons. When Arab Abdullah Al Mamoun finally forced his entry into the chamber in 820, the first entry since the chamber wa...
