Article Series Egyptian Sites

Places

Prefectures / cities Monuments / Temples

Region

Lower Egypt / Middle Egypt Upper Egypt / Nubia

Location

Giza

29 59 '00 "North 31 08 '00 "East / 29.98333, 31.13333

Giza (or Giza, Giza, Giza, Giza) in Arabic (Al-Gizah) is a city of Egypt , located on the left bank of the Nile , opposite the old city of Cairo.

The international reputation is due to the famous Giza pyramids of Cheops , Khafre and Menkaure , and the Sphinx , witnessing the ancient Egyptian civilization, located on the plateau a few kilometers from the city. This is the base of these pyramids that Bonaparte , during the Egyptian campaign , the 21 July 1798 , before a decisive battle, would have delivered the famous "Soldiers, remember that the top of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on you. "

Today, Giza is a town in province of nearly 2.5 million inhabitants ^{The top and the necropolis}

The Giza necropolis is located on the plateau in the desert 8 km from downtown and 25 km from Cairo.

Tourism

Top spot thanks to the presence of pyramids, including that of Khufu , which is ranked among the seven wonders of the world since antiquity, the site of Giza is threatened by the rapid expansion of Cairo whose chaotic urbanization and little nibbles little around the site including the desert.

Thus, a new protection policy board is being developed including building a fence along its periphery and defining the protected archaeological zone of what is now the most secure and access.

The site is in fact also a victim of its success. Traveled by millions of tourists each year visit is increasingly "channeled" to avoid the deterioration of many unscrupulous tourists who do not hesitate to enroll their passage through the stone mastaba and other remnants are still visible. Some even disfigure the reliefs that are not stored away. The Antiquities Department can not undertake to restore or salvage excavations of sizes as the site is so large is increasingly reduced to shelter these works of art simply by banning their access tourists.

Freedom of movement and therefore the site visit it sees limited every year which probably frustrates lovers of old stones. There are also plans to install cameras throughout the site to monitor these tourists, vandals, but the looters of antiquities who hide among the "hordes" tourist who until recently managed to bring out the Giza plateau priceless statues on the antiquities market. Some were caught and sentenced to up to twenty years in prison.

The pyramids themselves are threatened by millions of visitors who often come out disappointed not to have seen the magnificent frescoes and other treasures that stick to the legend of the pyramids. Their breathing in fact produces an accumulation of carbon dioxide produced by condensation of water that mixed with their perspiration produces salt crystals that gradually threaten to shatter the stone corridors and apartments Homes. To limit this risk, ventilation systems were installed and a pyramid of three is closed on a rotating each year so that the monument is "based".

Finally, the new proposed development site includes two separate entries. One for the Egyptians toward the Sphinx and Egyptian tourists not to the north of the site near the pyramid of Cheops.

Sport

The city has a football club, the Al Tersana , having experienced its heyday in the Egyptian football in the 1960s.

Notes

External Links

• Seen by Google Maps
• The Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza