Built for Khufu (Cheops), the Great Pyramid is the culmination of the move from stepped mass to the smooth four-sided pyramid. On completion it stood 146.7 metres tall, the world's tallest structure — a record it held for some four thousand years.

The structure is in essence simple but extraordinary in scale: an estimated 2.3 million blocks of limestone and granite, most weighing several tonnes, some tens of tonnes. The building is a solid mass — not a load-bearing wall or frame but a stone mountain standing by its own weight. The real engineering lies in three areas: the logistics of quarrying and transport (the debate over ramps, sledges, and water-borne movement continues); the precise cutting and stacking of blocks; and a startling astronomical orientation — the base edges are aligned to true north within fractions of a degree.

Inside are a few narrow corridors and chambers. Among them, the Grand Gallery is an 8.6-metre-high corbelled vault, roofed by successive courses of stone oversailing inward — an early solution to spanning within a solid mass. Above the flat granite ceiling of the King's Chamber sit five relieving chambers that distribute the load. Giza thus represents a simple geometric form turned into monumental engineering through logistics and precision.