The Pyramid of Khafre The Pyramid of Khafre, called Great is Khafre, was designed by a rather ambitious young pharoh. He can be called ambitious because of the fact that he decided he was going to place his pyramid next to that of his father, Khufu, The Great Pyramid. While not as tall as his father's pyramid, he made it appear taller by placing it on a foundation of bedrock that was about 33 feet higher than that of his father. Citation This above image shows the Pyramid of Khafre, which was built around 2558-2532 B.C. The image is taken from the Valley Temple, the massive complex that is located next to the pyramid and contains the Sphinx. The Dimensions of this pyramid are as follows: Angle of Slope: 53 degrees, 10 minutes Height: 471 feet Base Lenght: 705 feet This pyramid, while probably trying to say that the man who created this is just as great, if not greater, than the man who created the Great Pyramid, has one minor flaw in its design, there is a slight twist at the top that is due to the fact that the four corner angles were not aligned correctly to meet at the top. While it is very minor, it shows that there was a little less attention to detail than at the Great Pyramid. One feature that is very noticeable on this pyramid is the top, which has a different color and texture than the rest of the pyramid, and indeed, the other pyramids around it. The section is what remains of the casing stones that once covered the entire pyramid. The reason that the top is the only section that remains is the plunderers took the sections of fine limestone that made up the casing from where is was easiest to grab, the bottom, and worked their way up. The most remarkable thing associated with Khafre's pyramid is not a part of the pyramid at all, but part of the temple complex, the Sphinx. The Sphinx was cut directly from the bedrock at the base of the pyramid. The stones that were removed were probably used to build the pyramid itself. Citation Above is a picture from the temple complex, looking at the Sphinx with Khafre's pyramid in the background. The face on this Sphinx is thought to be the face of Khafre, which would place the building of the Sphinx around the same time as the pyramid of Khafre. Learn about The Great Pyramid of Khufu Return to Giza Main This site is maintained by Ryan Cohagan at Creighton University. Please feel free to visit our course syllabus. My e-mail address is cohagan@creighton.edu I would appreciate some feedback. Created: November 10, 2001 Updated: December 12, 2001