The Great Pyramid of Giza: What Is Known, and the Void Discovered in 2017.
The last surviving wonder of the ancient world has attracted as much nonsense as awe — that it was raised by slaves, by Atlanteans, by aliens, that it encodes secret mathematics. The documented reality is plenty astonishing on its own: a tomb the height of a forty-storey building, raised around 2560 BCE by an organized Egyptian workforce who left their own records behind. And in 2017, physicists found a large room-sized space inside it that no one knew was there.
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What the Great Pyramid is, in a paragraph.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest of the three pyramids on the Giza Plateau outside Cairo and the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. It was built around 2560 BCE, during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, as the tomb of the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek). Originally about 146.6 metres tall — it stood as the tallest human-made structure on earth for nearly four thousand years — it is made of an estimated 2.3 million blocks of limestone and granite, with an outer casing of fine white limestone that has mostly been stripped away. Its base is level to within a few centimetres and its sides are aligned to the cardinal directions with remarkable precision. Egyptology has answered the basic questions about it with hard evidence. It was built by Egyptians, not slaves and not foreigners: excavations led by Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass uncovered the workers' settlement and cemeteries beside the plateau, showing an organized, fed, and housed labour force of skilled craftsmen and rotating crews who were buried with honour near the king they served. A papyrus archive found at Wadi al-Jarf — the diary of an official named Merer — records the transport of casing limestone to Giza, a contemporary administrative document of the project itself. The stones were raised using ramps, levers, sledges, and human muscle; the precise ramp configuration is still argued, but the toolkit is understood and required no lost technology. In 2017 the ScanPyramids project, using muon tomography — tracking cosmic-ray particles that pass through stone — detected a large previously unknown void above the Grand Gallery, at least 30 metres long. Its purpose, whether a construction feature or a sealed chamber, is unknown and under study. The genuine open questions about the Great Pyramid are of this kind: exactly how, and exactly what the void is — not whether human beings could have built it.
The documented record.
It is the tomb of Khufu
The builder and function are established. Verified The pyramid was constructed as the tomb of the Fourth-Dynasty pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BCE; his name appears in workers' graffiti in the relieving chambers above the King's Chamber, and the monument is integral to a royal funerary complex [1][2].
It was built by paid Egyptian workers, not slaves
The workforce left its own evidence. Verified Excavations at Giza uncovered the builders' town, bakeries, and tombs — the burials of skilled workers honoured near the pyramid, fed on substantial rations. This is incompatible with the popular “slave” image and with non-human builders [2].
A contemporary logbook survives
The project documented itself. Verified The Diary of Merer, papyri found at Wadi al-Jarf, records crews transporting fine limestone to Giza during Khufu's reign — the oldest known inscribed papyri and a direct administrative trace of the construction [1].
The 2017 “Big Void”
A large internal space was found by physics. Verified The ScanPyramids project announced in 2017, in Nature, the detection of a substantial void above the Grand Gallery using muon imaging. Its existence is confirmed; its purpose is not yet known [3].
The competing positions.
A large “alternative” literature holds that the Great Pyramid was beyond the ability of Bronze Age Egyptians and must owe its design to a lost advanced civilization, to Atlantis, or to extraterrestrials — or that it was not a tomb at all but a power plant, an astronomical instrument, or a vault encoding the dimensions of the earth and the value of pi. Claimed These claims rest on selective measurements and an underestimation of ancient Egyptian organization and skill; none is supported by the archaeological record, which documents the builders, their methods, and the tomb's purpose directly [1][2].
The mainstream position, and this archive's, is that the Great Pyramid is exactly what the evidence says: a royal tomb of extraordinary scale and precision, built by a capable society using known techniques and immense coordinated labour. Disputed Real uncertainties — the precise ramp method and the nature of the 2017 void — are ordinary archaeological and engineering questions, not gaps that require a supernatural or extraterrestrial explanation [1][3].
The unanswered questions.
The exact construction method
The how is understood in outline, not in full. Claimed Researchers agree on ramps, sledges, and levers, but the specific ramp design — straight, zigzag, internal, or a combination — used to raise blocks to the upper levels is still debated [1].
The purpose of the 2017 void
The newest discovery is unexplained. Unverified Whether the large void above the Grand Gallery is a sealed chamber or a structural feature (such as a construction gap to relieve weight) has not been determined; exploration is ongoing [3].
Khufu's body
The tomb's occupant is absent. Claimed No mummy of Khufu has ever been found in the pyramid; the burial was robbed in antiquity, leaving the King's Chamber's granite sarcophagus empty [2].
Primary material.
The record on the Great Pyramid is held principally in these sources:
- The Giza workers' town and cemeteries (Mark Lehner, Zahi Hawass) — evidence of the paid labour force.
- The Diary of Merer (Wadi al-Jarf papyri) — the contemporary logbook of limestone transport.
- Khufu's workmen's graffiti in the relieving chambers — naming the king.
- The ScanPyramids muon survey (2017) — the discovery of the “Big Void.”
- Architectural and survey data — the dimensions, alignment, and internal structure.
Critical individual sources include: Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids; the Wadi al-Jarf papyri publications; and Morishima et al. (2017) in Nature.
The sequence.
- c. 2560 BCE The Great Pyramid is built as the tomb of Khufu over roughly two decades.
- Antiquity The burial chamber is robbed; the casing stones are later stripped for building material.
- 1880s–1920s Systematic surveys (Flinders Petrie and others) record the pyramid's precise dimensions.
- 1990s–2000s Excavation of the Giza workers' town and cemeteries documents the labour force.
- 2013 The Diary of Merer is found at Wadi al-Jarf.
- 2017 ScanPyramids announces the muon-detected “Big Void” above the Grand Gallery.
Full bibliography.
- Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids (Thames & Hudson, 1997); Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) Giza excavations.
- Pierre Tallet and colleagues, publications on the Wadi al-Jarf papyri and the Diary of Merer.
- K. Morishima et al., “Discovery of a big void in Khufu's Pyramid by observation of cosmic-ray muons,” Nature (2017).
- Survey records from Flinders Petrie onward; Zahi Hawass on the Giza workers' cemeteries.
Frequently asked questions.
What is the Great Pyramid of Giza?
The largest pyramid on the Giza Plateau in Egypt, built around 2560 BCE as the tomb of the pharaoh Khufu. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing and was the tallest structure on earth for nearly 4,000 years.
What is the current status of this case?
Well-documented. The pyramid is established as Khufu's tomb, built by a skilled, paid Egyptian workforce. The exact construction technique and the purpose of a large internal void detected in 2017 remain open questions; the “aliens” and “slaves” narratives are not supported.
Who built the Great Pyramid — slaves or aliens?
Neither. It was built by paid Egyptian workers, whose town, bakeries, and honoured tombs have been excavated beside the plateau, and whose work is recorded in a contemporary papyrus logbook, the Diary of Merer.
What is the void discovered in 2017?
In 2017 the ScanPyramids project used muon imaging to detect a large, previously unknown space at least 30 metres long above the Grand Gallery. Its existence is confirmed, but whether it is a chamber or a structural feature is not yet known.