Giza (Arabic, الجيزة, transliterated al-ǧīzah; pronounced in Egyptian Arabic dialect of Cairo al-Gīza; also sometimes rendered in English as Gizeh, Ghizeh, or Geezeh) is a town in Egypt on the left bank of the Nile river, across from the old city of Cairo, and now part of the greater Cairo metropolis. It is the capital of Al Jizah governorate, and is located in the northeast of this governorate, near its border.

Giza is most famous as the location of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza—the only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World of antiquity—and a number of other large pyramids and temples.

Giza pyramids, view from south in late nineteenth century. From left: Menkaura pyramid, Khafra pyramid, Great (Khufu) pyramid.

The most active phase of construction here was in the 25th century BC. These monuments are located some eight kilometers inland into the desert from the old town of Giza on the Nile.

The ancient remains of Giza have attracted visitors and tourists since Classical Antiquity, when these Old Kingdom monuments were already over 2,000 years old.

Nineteenth-century tourists in front of the Sphinx. View from South-East, Great Pyramid in background.

While, due largely to nineteenth-century images, the pyramids of Giza are generally thought of by foreigners as lying in a remote, desert location, they are located in what is now part of the Cairo metropolitan area [1] (http://www.delange.org/Giza_Pyramids_Sphinx/GC.jpg). Consequently, urban development reaches right up to the perimeter of the antiquities site, to the extent that in the 1990s a Pizza Hut restaurant opened across the street [2] (http://www.theagitator.com/archives/60-16-andec-01.jpg).

External link

• Wikitravel: Cairo/Giza (http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Cairo/Giza)