Khufu

Owner of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.

Life

Son of Sneferu

Khufu, son of Sneferu, reigned c. 26th century BCE. He built the Great Pyramid on the Giza plateau; originally about 146 meters tall, it remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for nearly 4,000 years.

Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid used about 2.3 million blocks of stone, and construction lasted about 20 years. Archaeological finds show that the builders were not slaves but organized gangs of workers who received food rations; the "Diary of Merer" papyri, discovered in 2013, record workers shipping limestone from Tura.

Ivory statuette

Ironically, the only surviving statue confirmed to depict the pharaoh who built the largest pyramid is an ivory statuette just a few centimeters tall. (He lived before the start of the site's timeline, so he is marked here at the timeline's earliest year.)

Legacy

Khufu's Great Pyramid is one of the most magnificent engineering feats in human history and remains a symbol of Egypt to this day.

Did you know? Herodotus called Khufu a tyrant, but that was a legend from two thousand years later, with no contemporary evidence.

Key dates

• 2100 BCE(Actually c. 26th century BCE) Builds the Great Pyramid of Giza