Smaller pyramids or temples surrounded the bigger pyramids where the mother, wife and daughters of the king were buried. Boats were buried in the grounds surrounding the pyramid for they believed that these would be used by the Pharaoh in the afterlife as he crosses through the Nile River.
The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Cheops) has a massive base that can fit 5 cathedrals. 100,000 Egyptian workers laid the 2.3M blocks on top of each other during the hot summers. 15 years ago, the village for the workers were discovered and it revealed that the ancient Egyptians were the first to invent site management.
Not too far away was the Great Sphinx.
Poor Sphinx has lost its nose. No one really knows the truth. Some say that Napoleon shot it off. There’s another version that says it was destroyed by a Sufi Muslim. My theory is that it just broke off due to the weather conditions. 🙂 Some researchers also suggest that this Sphinx originally had a beard. Note on the beards: if you see that the beard is curled towards the end, the image was made after the Pharaoh died. If it’s straight, the image was done during his lifetime.
Ingrid Nieto-Pagulayan 