Before the Sphinx & the Pyramids: The Ancient Road into Giza | Ancient Architects

The causeway to the Khafre Pyramid, the second major pyramid to be built on Giza Plateau, was constructed on a ridge of limestone, a narrow band of bedrock that, surprisingly, is one of most interesting, most important and also most dividing subjects to research when it comes to the history and development of the Giza plateau. It runs for approximately 495 metres, from the northwestern corner of the Khafre Valley Temple, past the Great Sphinx and ends at the Khafre Mortuary Temple in the west. It has quarries on both its northern and southern sides, meaning this strip of bedrock was left intentionally, and although Egyptologists will state it was all part of Khafre’s pyramid plan, the truth may not be quite so straightforward. In fact, this ancient roadway could well be the oldest feature used by people on the Giza plateau, older than the pyramids AND even the Great Sphinx. It looks like the Giza Plateau developed around this narrow strip of bedrock, that it was always a central feature, with or