Pyramids of Giza
Giza, Egypt
The Pyramids of Giza are the three great royal pyramids and the Sphinx on a desert plateau at the edge of Cairo, built…
65 tickets & tours
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Best pyramids to visit worldwide
The pyramids in this catalogue fall into two families. Egypt’s are royal tombs of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, stepped or smooth-sided, with narrow passages leading to burial chambers and temples and causeways at their feet. Those of the Americas are platforms for temples, raised in stages of stone or adobe, with stairways up the front and the shrine on top; Cholula is largely buried under a hill and a church. Rome has its own oddity, the Pyramid of Cestius, a tomb set into the city wall.
Great Pyramid of Cholula
Cholula, Mexico
Cholula, just west of Puebla, holds the Tlachihualtepetl, the largest pyramid in the world by volume at about 4.45…
23 tickets & tours
Saqqara
Saqqara, Egypt
Saqqara is the vast burial ground of ancient Memphis, 30 km south of Cairo, where the Step Pyramid of Djoser stands as…
23 tickets & tours
Huaca Pucllana
Lima, Peru
Huaca Pucllana is a great stepped pyramid of adobe in the middle of Miraflores, built by the Lima culture between about…
21 tickets & tours
Dahshur Pyramids
Dahshur, Egypt
Dahshur is the royal cemetery south of Cairo where King Sneferu built the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid around 2600…
10 tickets & tours
Cahuachi
Nazca, Peru
Cahuachi is the great ceremonial centre of the Nazca culture, a group of more than 40 adobe-topped mounds spread over…
6 tickets & tours
El Lahun Pyramid of Senusret II
Faiyum, Egypt
The pyramid of Senusret II at El Lahun, at the entrance to the Faiyum, was built for a pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty in…
No online ticket
Huaca del Sol
Trujillo, Peru
The Huaca del Sol, near Trujillo on the north coast of Peru, is the largest adobe pyramid built in the pre-Columbian…
No online ticket
Huaca Huallamarca
Lima, Peru
Huaca Huallamarca is a stepped adobe pyramid about 19 metres high in the San Isidro district of Lima, begun around 200…
No online ticket
Kinich Kakmo Pyramid, Izamal
Izamal, Mexico
Kinich Kakmo is a Maya pyramid in the centre of Izamal, in Yucatan, rising about 40 metres above the streets of the…
No online ticket
Meidum Pyramid
Beni Suef, Egypt
The Meidum Pyramid, about 72 km south of Cairo on the edge of the desert near al-Wasta, was the first attempt to build…
No online ticket
Pyramid of Cestius
Rome, Italy
The Pyramid of Cestius is a Roman tomb in the shape of a steep pyramid, built in about 18 to 12 BC for the magistrate…
No online ticket
Pyramid of Hawara
Faiyum, Egypt
The Pyramid of Hawara, near Faiyum, is the mudbrick pyramid of Amenemhat III, a pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty who ruled…
No online ticket
Allow half a day at Giza or Saqqara and an hour or two at a smaller pyramid. Shade is almost absent, so come at opening, when it is cooler and quieter, and carry water, a hat and closed shoes for sand. Climbing the outside is forbidden in Egypt, but several interiors are open: at Dahshur and Meidum expect steep passages about a metre high, unsuited to anyone with bad knees or claustrophobia. Giza has an evening sound-and-light show.
Start with the Pyramids of Giza, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur, all in Egypt. In the Americas, see the Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico, with tunnels through its core, and Huaca Pucllana in Peru, an adobe pyramid in the middle of Lima’s Miraflores district.