Gizeh (or Gizèh, Giza, Gîza, Guizé), in Arab الجيزة ( Al-Gizah ), is a town of Egypt, located on left bank of the the Nile, vis-a-vis the old city of the Cairo.

The international repute of Gizeh is due to famous the large pyramids, of Khéops, Khéphren and Mykérinos, like with the Sphinx, witnesses of ancient Egyptian civilization, located on the plate at a few kilometers of the city.

It is foot of these pyramids which Napoleon Bonaparte, at the time of the Campagne of Egypt, the July 21st 1798, before a decisive battle, would have pronounced celebrates it

Today, Gizeh is a chief town of province of almost: 2500000 inhabitants and is part from now on of the large metropolis inhabitant of Cairo.

The plate and the necropolis

See also: Necropolis of Gizeh

The Nécropole of Gizeh is located on the plate in the desert at 8 km of the center town and 25 km of the Cairo.

Tourism

High tourist place thanks to the presence of the pyramids, of which that of Khéops remains classified among the seven wonders of the world since antiquity, the site of Gizeh is threatened by the rapid expansion of the Cairo whose which gallops and anarchistic urbanization nibbles little by little the neighborhoods of the site including on the desert.

Of this fact a new policy of protection of the plate is under development with in particular the construction of a fence on all its circumference delimiting the archaeological zone thus protected from what is not it more from now on and making safe its access.

The site indeed is also “victim” of its success. Traversed by million tourists each year the visit “is more and more channeled” in order to avoid many deteriorations of not very scrupulous tourists who do not hesitate to register their “historical” passage in the stone of the Mastaba and other still visible vestiges. Some go even until disfiguring the reliefs which are not put at the shelter. The service of antiquities which cannot undertake restorations nor of excavations of rescue of scales so much the site is vast is thus more and more reduced to put at the shelter these works of art while prohibiting purely and simply their access to the tourists.

The freedom of circulation and thus of visit of the site is seen some limited year by year what will undoubtedly frustrate in love ones with the old stones. It is also envisaged to install cameras on all the site in order to supervise these tourist-vandals but also the plunderers of antiquities which are dissimulated among the tourist “hordes” and which still recently succeeded in making leave the plate of Gizeh of the priceless statues on the market of antiquities… For the little story they were caught up with and condemned to sorrows going up to twenty years of prison firm.

The pyramids themselves are threatened by this million of visitors who generally come out from it disappointed not to have seen splendid frescos or other treasures which stick to the legend pyramids. Their breathing indeed produces an accumulation of carbonic gas producing of water by condensation which mixed with their perspiration produces salt crystals which little by little threaten to make burst the stone of the corridors and apartments funerary. To limit this danger, of the ventilation systems were installed and a pyramid on three is closed in turn each year so that the monument “rests”.

Finally the new project of installation of the site envisages two distinct entries. For the Egyptians on the side of the Sphinx and for the nonEgyptian tourists by the north of the site near the pyramid of Khéops.