The Giza Plateau near Cairo, Egypt (photo taken from my seat in our airplane on final approach as we flew to Cairo airport -- pure luck!). The three principal pyramids (Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure from upper left (north) to lower right (south) and many tombs are visible. In the upper left corner (north) is the Mena House Hotel where we stayed (the buildings that look like a truncated tuning fork are the rooms in the new wings; the older main building is to the right end of the hotel complex. As one enters the plateau by the roadway (upper left in this photo), passing parking spaces on the right, the Great Pyramid is immediately in front. Busses park off the road (to the left of the Great Pyramid in this photo along its northern side). Visitors can walk a short way up the north face of the Great Pyramid. Somewhat visible in this photo is the concavity of each face of the Great Pyramid. The faces are not flat, but slightly indented or concave. One theory is that the pyramid is a scale model of the northern hemisphere and the distances around the pyramid at various elevations measure the circumference of the earth at various latitudes, and that the concavity is necessary to account for the earth's non-spherical oblate shape. Okay. On the southern side of the Great Pyramid is the boat house.
