Stanley Visits Giza

Giza is an area in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.  Giza is famous for having the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx.  Stanley got to visit Giza a couple of weeks ago.

These are the three biggest pyramids in Giza.  They were build for three famous pharaohs, Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. 

The most famous of these pyramids is the Great Pyramid of Khufu.  In this picture it is the pyramid all the way to the left.  It is the biggest pyramid of all.  The stones used to build this pyramid are bigger than a full-grown man!  Since Stanley is a only boy, the stones are all much bigger than him.

People can go inside this pyramid, but no one can take pictures.  Here is Stanley by the main entrance for the pharaohs:

Underneath where Stanley is you can see where people go inside now.

Next to the big pyramids are some smaller pyramids built for the pharaoh's queens.  You can tell that the queens weren't very important because their pyramids are small and falling apart.

Next, Stanley visited the Sphinx.  A sphinx is a mythical animal that has a lion's body and a human head.  Most people think the head of this Sphinx was carved to look like the Pharaoh Khafra (the one with the second biggest pyramid).  The Sphinx is very big so you can barely see Stanley standing next to his paw. 

Nobody knows why the Sphinx was built, or why the Sphinx does not have a nose.  Some people think the Sphinx was meant to represent a god, and some other people think the Sphinx was just a way of praising the pharaoh Khafra.  The Sphinx is about 4,500 years old and it has not had a nose for at least 1500 years.  What do you think happened to his nose?