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For more than 4,000 years the pyramids of Giza have stood like giant question marks that have intrigued and endlessly fascinated people. Who exactly built them? When? Why? And how did they create these colossal structures? But the pyramids are not a complete mystery - the stones, the hieroglyphs, the landscape and even the layers of sand and debris hold stories for us to read. Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass, with over four decades of involvement with Giza, provide their unique and personal insight into the site, bringing together all the information and evidence to create a record unparalleled in its detail and scope. The celebrated Great Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops, is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing, but there is much more to Giza. We may think of the pyramids as rising from the desert, isolated and enigmatic, yet they were surrounded by temples, tombs, vast cemeteries and even teeming towns of the living. All are described in detail here and brought back to life, with hundreds of illustrations including detailed photographs of the monuments, excavations and objects, as well as plans, reconstructions and the latest images from remote-controlled cameras and laser scans. Through the ages, Giza and the pyramids have inspired the most extraordinary speculations and wild theories, but here, finally, in this prestigious publication, is the full story as told by the evidence on the ground, by the leading authorities on the site.
List of contents
Preface . 1. Time's Other Horizon . 2. Quests, Puzzles and Questions . 3. Giza in Context . 4. Giza before Khufu: Beginnings as a Burial Ground . 5. Origins of the Pyramid . 6. Explorers, Scholars and Expeditions . 7. Pyramids: Funeral, Palace and Ritual Process . 8. The Great Pyramid of Khufu . 9. The Second Pyramid: Khafre . 10. The Great Sphinx . 11. The Third Pyramid: Menkaure . 12. The Khentkawes Monument: Giza's Punctuation Point . 13. The Development of the Giza Cemeteries . 14. The Workers' Cemetery . 15. Living at Giza: Worker Settlements and Pyramid Towns . 16. How They Might Have Built the Pyramids . 17. Giza on the Ground: The Pyramid Projects . 18. The Abandonment of Giza . 19. New Kingdom Revival . 20. Giza in the Late Period . Afterword: Giza Developments
About the author
Mark Lehner has been conducting fieldwork at Giza since the mid-1970s. He is
president of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), which is excavating the
large settlement of the pyramid builders. Among his publications is the bestselling
and award-winning The Complete Pyramids, published by Thames & Hudson.
