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Chapter 1
Dawn at Giza
Three pyramids rise from the edge of the Western Desert, above the green valley of the Nile.
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Giza
The pyramids, block by block
饟徎 2
Chapter 2
The plateau
Seen from above, the pyramids follow a diagonal from northeast to southwest, and their sides face the cardinal points almost exactly.
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饟徏 3
Chapter 3
Khufu, the Great Pyramid
Built for Khufu in the 26th century BCE: 230 meters per side, originally 146.6 meters tall, and an estimated 2.3 million blocks. Take it apart.
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饟徑 4
Chapter 4
Inside Khufu
Passages, the Grand Gallery, the Queen鈥檚 and King鈥檚 Chambers, and a large void detected with cosmic-ray muons in 2017.
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饟従 5
Chapter 5
Khafre and the Sphinx
Khafre鈥檚 pyramid keeps part of its smooth casing near the top and stands on bedrock about 10 meters higher, so it looks taller than Khufu.
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饟徔 6
Chapter 6
Menkaure
The smallest of the three. Its lowest courses were cased in red Aswan granite, and a gash on its north face recalls a failed demolition in 1196.
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饟悁 7
Chapter 7
Building a pyramid
Quarries on the plateau, Tura limestone by boat, and the Diary of Merer. How the blocks were raised is still debated: every ramp is a hypothesis.
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饟悂 8
Chapter 8
Sun and shadow
From 28 February to 13 October the noon sun at Giza stands higher than Khufu鈥檚 slope, so the pyramid casts no shadow at midday.
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饟悅 9
Chapter 9
The sky of 2560 BCE
Precession has moved the pole: when the pyramids were built, the star nearest the north celestial pole was Thuban.
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饟巻 10
Chapter 10
Then and now
Restore the white Tura limestone casing and the ancient landscape, and compare them with the plateau today.
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饟巻饟徍 11
Chapter 11
Explore
Move freely around the plateau and take any pyramid apart.
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Giza
The pyramids, block by block
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