World Heritage #0086 – The Pyramids

Last modified 27.03.2022 | Published 04.01.2005Egypt, Middle East and Africa, World Heritage Sites

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Every person on earth have heard of, and seen a picture of the Pyramids and the Sphinx. They have been around for thousands of years. 

The UNESCO World Heritage List includes more than a thousand properties with outstanding universal value. They are all part of the world’s cultural and natural heritage.

 

Official facts

  • Full name of site: Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur
  • Country: Egypt
  • Date of Inscription: 1979
  • Category: Cultural site

UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre’s short description of site no. 86:

“The capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt has some extraordinary funerary monuments, including rock tombs, ornate mastabas, temples and pyramids. In ancient times, the site was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.”

 

My visit

Travelling with my young son in 2005 I wrote this:

“We walked around the largest, the Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu), and entered the middle one, the Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren), and rode a camel on a hill near the smallest, the Pyramid of Menkaure (Mykerinos). My son was struck by the size of the animal and refused to climb it. But we rode 300 metres together and he was all happy about that.”

I might add that if there is one structure on this planet that everyone has heard of or seen a picture of it must be one of these pyramids. The pyramids at Giza are also the only remaining of the ancient Seven Wonders.

Read more about my visit.

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