Cairo Vacation Guide

The Pyramids of Giza

Giza is a Governorate to the west of the Egyptian capital Cairo - a city in its own right, but for a long time now absorbed as part of the heavily-populated and sprawling Cairo metropolis.

Giza is best known as that part of Cairo closest to the world-famous Pyramids of Giza, situated high on the desert plateau immediately to the west of the urban district, itself located in the valley and centred around the Pyramids Road, linking central Cairo with the ancient wonders.

One of the premier attractions of Egypt, if not the world, the Pyramids of Giza represent the archetypal pyramid structures of ancient Egyptian civilisation and – together with the Sphinx at the base of the Giza plateau – are the iconic image of Egypt.

The city / district of Giza is important as a secondary – and increasingly popular – option for travellers for food, accommodation and entertainment beyond central Cairo. Most of these services are concentrated along the local transport artery, El Haram (the Pyramids) Street.

Under the former regime, the desert plateau of Giza, adjacent to the Pyramids, was the projected site of the proposed Grand Museum of Egypt, a long-awaited replacement for the long-standing, out-dated and under-sized Egyptian National Museum in Midan Tahrir. Completion was projected for 2013, but is now unknown as the project has been put on hold indefinitely.

Map of the Giza area
Not much more than a century ago, El Haram Street existed as little more than a dusty carriage track amongst irrigated fields, leading out from the city to the then small peasant village of Giza adjoining the pyramid field.

Given the rapidly increasing population of Cairo in the 20th century, and the obvious tourism opportunities that the Pyramids provided, Giza has now been transformed beyond recognition to those pioneering Western travellers of the late 19th century. Major arterial roads, apartment blocks, retail strips, restaurants and night clubs now replace what used to be palm-fringed farmers’ fields, and the city has now spread to the very limit of the desert plateau.

Such rapid development, of course, has not been without its costs – social, economic and aesthetic – and the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities is now making some efforts to control and channel future (re)development in areas closest to the Pyramids themselves.