Pyramid of Khafre

is the middle of the three Ancient Egyptian Pyramids of Giza, the second tallest and second largest of the group. It is the tomb of the Fourth-Dynasty pharaoh Khafre (Chefren), who ruled c. 2558−2532 BC.

Size
The pyramid has a base length of 215.5 m (706 ft) and rises up to a height of 136.4 metres (448 ft). It is made of limestone blocks weighing more than 2 tons each. The slope of the pyramid rises at a 53° 13′ angle, steeper than its neighbor, the pyramid of Khufu, which has an angle of 51°50’24”. Khafre’s pyramid sits on bedrock 10 m (33 ft) higher than Khufu’s pyramid, which makes it appear to be taller.

History

Inscription by Giovanni Belzoni, the first explorer of the pyramid in modern times ,The pyramid was likely opened and robbed during the First Intermediate Period. During the Nineteenth Dynasty, the overseer of temple construction took casing stones to build a temple in Heliopolis on Ramesses II’s orders. Arab historian Ibn Abd al-Salam recorded that the pyramid was opened in 1372 AD. On the wall of the burial chamber, there is an Arabic graffito that probably dates from the same time. It is not known when the rest of the casing stones were robbed; they were presumably still in place by 1646, when John Greaves, professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford in his Pyramidographia, wrote that, while its stones were not as large or as regularly laid as in Khufu’s, the surface was smooth and even free of breaches or inequalities, except on the south. The pyramid was first explored in modern times by Giovanni Belzoni on March 2, 1818, when the original entrance was found on the north side. Belzoni had hopes of finding an intact burial, but the chamber was empty except for an open sarcophagus and its broken lid on the floor.

Construction
Like the Great Pyramid, a rock outcropping was used in the core. Due to the slope of the plateau, the northwest corner was cut 10 m (33 ft) out of the rock subsoil, and the southeast corner was built up. The pyramid is built of horizontal courses. The stones used at the bottom are very large, but as the pyramid rises, the stones become smaller, becoming only 50 cm (20 in) thick at the apex. The courses are rough and irregular for the first half of its height, but a narrow band of regular masonry is clear in the midsection of the pyramid. At the northwest corner of the pyramid, the bedrock was fashioned into steps. Casing stones cover the top third of the pyramid, but the pyramidion and part of the apex are missing. The bottom course of casing stones was made out of pink granite, but the remainder of the pyramid was cased in Tura limestone. Close examination reveals that the corner edges of the remaining casing stones are not completely straight but are staggered by a few millimeters. One theory is that this is due to settling from seismic activity. An alternative theory postulates that the slope on the blocks was cut to shape before being placed due to the limited working space towards the top of the pyramid.