title: Ridley Scott

text: In 2005, he made the modestly successful "Kingdom of Heaven", a film about the Crusades. The film starred Orlando Bloom, and marked Scott's first collaboration with the composer Harry Gregson-Williams. The Moroccan government sent the Moroccan cavalry as extras for some battle scenes. Unhappy with the theatrical version of "Kingdom of Heaven" (which he blamed on paying too much attention to the opinions of preview audiences in addition to relenting when Fox wanted 45 minutes shaved off), Scott supervised a director's cut of the film, the true version of what he wanted, which was released on DVD in 2006. The director's cut of "Kingdom of Heaven" has been met with critical acclaim, with "Empire" magazine calling the film an "epic", adding: "The added 45 minutes in the director’s cut are like pieces missing from a beautiful but incomplete puzzle." "This is the one that should have gone out" reflected Scott. Asked if he was against previewing in general in 2006, Scott stated: "It depends who's in the driving seat. If you've got a lunatic doing my job, then you need to preview. But a good director should be experienced enough to judge what he thinks is the correct version to go out into the cinema."


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott teamed up again with "Gladiator" star Russell Crowe for "A Good Year", based on the best-selling book by Peter Mayle about an investment banker who finds a new life in Provence. The film was released on 10 November 2006. A few days later Rupert Murdoch, chairman of studio 20th Century Fox (who backed the film) dismissed "A Good Year" as "a flop" at a shareholders' meeting.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott's next film was "American Gangster", based on the story of real-life drug kingpin Frank Lucas. Scott took over the project in early 2006 and had screenwriter Steven Zaillian rewrite his script to focus on the dynamic between Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts. Denzel Washington signed on to the project as Lucas, with Russell Crowe co-starring as Roberts. The film premiered in November 2007 to positive reviews and box office success, and Scott was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Director.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In late 2008, Scott's espionage thriller "Body of Lies", starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, opened to lukewarm ticket-sales and mixed reviews. Scott directed a revisionist adaptation of "Robin Hood", which starred Russell Crowe as Robin Hood and Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian. It was released in May 2010 to mixed reviews, but a respectable box-office.


title: Ridley Scott

text: On 31 July 2009, news surfaced of a two-part prequel to "Alien" with Scott attached to direct. The project, ultimately reduced to a single film called "Prometheus", which Scott described as sharing "strands of "Alien"'s DNA" while not being a direct prequel, was released in June 2012. The film starred Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender, with Noomi Rapace playing the leading role of the scientist named Elizabeth Shaw. The film received mostly positive reviews and grossed $403 million at the box office.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In August 2009, Scott planned to direct an adaptation of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" set in a dystopian London with Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2009, the TV series "The Good Wife" premiered with Ridley and his brother Tony credited as executive producers.


title: Ridley Scott

text: On 6 July 2010, YouTube announced the launch of "Life in a Day", an experimental documentary executive produced by Scott. Released at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2011, it incorporates footage shot on 24 July 2010 submitted by YouTube users from around the world. As part of the buildup to the 2012 London Olympics, Scott produced "Britain in a Day", a documentary film consisting of footage shot by the British public on 12 November 2011.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 2012, Scott produced the commercial for Lady Gaga's fragrance, "Fame." It was touted as the first ever black Eau de Parfum, in the informal credits attached to the trailer for this advertisement. On 24 June 2013, Scott's series "Crimes of the Century" debuted on CNN. In November 2012 it was announced that Scott would produce the documentary, "Springsteen & I" directed by Baillie Walsh and inspired by "Life in a Day", which Scott also produced. The film featured fan footage from throughout the world on what musician Bruce Springsteen meant to them and how he impacted their lives. The film was released for one day only in 50 countries and on over 2000 film screens on 22 July 2013.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott directed "The Counselor" (2013), with a screenplay by author Cormac McCarthy. On 25 October 2013, "Indiewire" reported that "Before McCarthy sold his first spec script for Scott's ("The Counselor") film, the director was heavily involved in developing an adaptation of the author's 1985 novel "Blood Meridian" with screenwriter Bill Monahan ("The Departed"). But as Scott said in a "Time Out" interview, '[Studios] didn't want to make it. The book is so uncompromising, which is what's great about it.' Described as an 'anti-western'..." Scott directed the biblically inspired epic film "", released in December 2014 which received negative reviews from critics (particularly for the casting of white actors as Middle Eastern characters) and grossed $268 million on a $140 million budget. Filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, the film starred Christian Bale in the lead role.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In May 2014, Scott began negotiations to direct "The Martian", starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney. Like many of Scott's previous works, "The Martian" features a heroine in the form of Jessica Chastain's character who is the mission commander. The film was originally scheduled for release on 25 November 2015, but Fox later switched its release date with that of "Victor Frankenstein", and thus "The Martian" was released on 2 October 2015. "The Martian" was a critical and commercial success, grossed over $630 million worldwide, becoming Scott's highest-grossing film to date.


title: Ridley Scott

text: A sequel to "Prometheus", "", started filming in 2016, premiered in London on 4 May 2017, and received general release on 19 May 2017. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising Michael Fassbender's dual performance and calling the film a return to form for both director Ridley Scott and the franchise.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In August 2011, information leaked about production of a sequel to "Blade Runner" by Alcon Entertainment, with Alcon partners Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove. Scott informed the "Variety" publication in November 2014 that he was no longer the director for the film and would only fulfill a producer's role. Scott also revealed that filming would begin sometime within 2015, and that Harrison Ford has signed on to reprise his role from the original film but his character should only appear in "the third act" of the sequel. On 26 February 2015, the sequel was officially confirmed, with Denis Villeneuve hired to direct the film, and Scott being an executive producer. The sequel, "Blade Runner 2049", was released on 6 October 2017 to universal acclaim.


title: Ridley Scott

text: From May to August 2017, Scott filmed "All the Money in the World", a drama about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, starring Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams. Kevin Spacey originally portrayed Getty Sr. However, after multiple sexual assault allegations against the actor, Scott decided to replace him with Christopher Plummer, saying "You can't condone that kind of behaviour in any shape or form. We cannot let one person's action affect the good work of all these other people. It's that simple." Scott began re-shooting Spacey's scenes with Plummer on 20 November, which included filming at Elveden Hall in west Suffolk, England. With a release date of 25 December 2017, the film studio had its doubts that Scott would manage it, saying: "They were like, 'You'll never do it. God be with you.'"


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 2020, Scott directed "The Last Duel", a film adaptation of Eric Jager's 2004 book "", starring Adam Driver, Matt Damon and Jodie Comer which was released on 15 October 2021 and bombed at the box office, grossing only $30.6 million against a production budget of $100 million. Filming locations included the French medieval castle of Berzé-le-Châtel (with a film crew of 300 people including 100 extras), and Ireland.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 2021, he directed "House of Gucci", a film about the murder of Maurizio Gucci orchestrated by Patrizia Reggiani, who were portrayed by Adam Driver and Lady Gaga, respectively. The film was released in November 2021. Scott is next directing "Napoleon", a biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte starring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon. Filming began in February 2022.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Ridley Scott and his brother Tony produced CBS series "Numb3rs" (2005–10), a crime drama about a genius mathematician who helps the FBI solve crimes; and "The Good Wife" (2009–2016), a legal drama about an attorney balancing her job with her husband, a former state attorney trying to rebuild his political career after a major scandal. The two Scotts also produced a 2010 film adaptation of 1980s television show "The A-Team", directed by Joe Carnahan.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Ridley Scott was an executive producer of the first season of Amazon's "The Man in the High Castle" (2015–16). Through Scott Free Productions, he is an executive producer on the dark comic science-fiction series "BrainDead" which debuted on CBS in 2016.


title: Ridley Scott

text: On 20 November 2017, Amazon agreed a deal with AMC Studios for a worldwide release of "The Terror", Scott's series adaptation of Dan Simmons' novel, a speculative retelling of British explorer Sir John Franklin's lost expedition of HMS "Erebus" and HMS "Terror" to the Arctic in 1845–1848 to force the Northwest Passage, with elements of horror and supernatural fiction, and the series premiered in March 2018. Scott was an executive producer for the 2019 BBC/FX three-part miniseries "A Christmas Carol".


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott's first television directing role in 50 years, "Raised by Wolves", was released on HBO Max in 2020. Scott said his “tendency was to think, ‘I don't want to go down that road of androids again'”, but decided to take on the project after he read the script and liked it. The show revolves around androids Mother and Father, who attempt to save humankind on planet Kepler-22b after earth is demolished by war between the Mithraic, who follow a god called Sol, and militant atheists.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Ridley Scott was married to Felicity Heywood from 1964 to 1975. The couple had two sons, Jake and Luke, both of whom work as directors in Scott's production company, Ridley Scott Associates. Scott later married advertising executive Sandy Watson in 1979, with whom he had a daughter, Jordan Scott, also a director, and divorced in 1989. His current partner is actress Giannina Facio, whom he has cast in all his films since "White Squall" except "American Gangster" and "The Martian", and whom he married in 2015. He divides his time between homes in London, France, and Los Angeles.


title: Ridley Scott

text: His eldest brother Frank died, aged 45, of skin cancer in 1980. His younger brother Tony, who was also his business partner in their company Scott Free, died on 19 August 2012 at the age of 68 after jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge which spans Los Angeles Harbour, after an originally disputed long struggle with cancer. Before Tony's death, he and Ridley collaborated on a miniseries based on Robin Cook's novel "Coma" for A&E. The two-part miniseries premiered on A&E on 3 September 2012, to mixed reviews.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Ridley has dedicated several of his films in memory of his family: "Blade Runner" to his brother Frank, "Black Hawk Down" to his mother, and "The Counselor" and "" to his brother Tony. Ridley also paid tribute to his late brother Tony at the 2016 Golden Globes, after his film, "The Martian", won Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 2013, Ridley stated that he is an atheist. Although when asked by the BBC in a September 2014 interview if he believes in God, Scott replied:


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott's frequent collaborator Russell Crowe commented, "I like being on Ridley's set because actors can perform [...] and the focus is on the performers." Paul M. Sammon, in his book "Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner", commented in an interview with Brmovie.com that Scott's relationship with his actors has improved considerably over the years. More recently during the filming of Scott's 2012 film, "Prometheus", Charlize Theron praised the director's willingness to listen to suggestions from the cast for improvements in the way their characters are portrayed on screen. Theron worked alongside the writers and Scott to give more depth to her character during filming. When working on epics, Scott states, "there’s always the danger that the characters can get swamped" on a large canvas, before adding, "My model is David Lean, whose characters never got lost in the proscenium."


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott's work is identified for its striking visuals, with heroines also a common theme. His visual style, incorporating a detailed approach to production design and innovative, atmospheric lighting, has been influential on a subsequent generation of filmmakers. James Cameron commented, "I love Ridley's films and I love his film making, I love the beauty of the photography, I love the visceral sense that you're there, that you're present." Scott commonly uses slow pacing until the action sequences. Examples include "Alien" and "Blade Runner"; the "Los Angeles Times" critic Sheila Benson, for example, would call the latter "Blade Crawler" "because it's so damn slow". Scott claims to have an eidetic memory, which he says aids him in visualising and storyboarding the scenes in his films.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott has developed a method for filming intricate shots as swiftly as possible: "I like working, always, with a minimum of three cameras. [...] So those 50 set-ups [a day] might only be 25 set-ups except I'm covering in the set-up. So you're finished. I mean, if you take a little bit more time to prep on three cameras, or if it's a big stunt, eleven cameras, and – whilst it may take 45 minutes to set up – then when you're ready you say 'Action!', and you do three takes, two takes and is everybody happy? You say, 'Yeah, that's it.' So you move on."


title: Ridley Scott

text: Artificial intelligence is a theme that appears in several of Scott's films including "Blade Runner", "Alien", and "Prometheus". The 2013 book "The Culture and Philosophy of Ridley Scott" identifies pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing and the philosopher John Searle as presenting relevant models of testing artificial intelligence known as the Turing test and the Chinese Room Thought Experiment, respectively, in the chapter titled "What's Wrong with Building Replicants," which has been a recurring theme for many of Scott's films. The chapter titled "Artificial Intelligence in "Blade Runner", "Alien", and "Prometheus"," concludes by citing the writings of John Stuart Mill in the context of Scott's Nexus-6 Replicants in "Blade Runner" (Rutger Hauer), the android Ash (Ian Holm) in "Alien", and the android David 8 (Michael Fassbender) in "Prometheus", where Mill is applied to assert that measures and tests of intelligence must also assess actions and moral behaviour in androids to effectively address the themes which Scott explores in these films.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott is known for his enthusiasm for the DVD format, providing audio commentaries and interviews for all his films where possible. In the July 2006 issue of "Total Film" magazine, he stated: "After all the work we go through, to have it run in the cinema and then disappear forever is a great pity. To give the film added life is really cool for both those who missed it and those who really loved it."


title: Ridley Scott

text: Running alongside his enthusiasm for DVD, Scott is known for his use of the director's cut. The positive reaction to the "Blade Runner" Director's Cut encouraged Scott to re-cut several movies that were a disappointment at the time of their release (including "Legend" and "Kingdom of Heaven"), which have been met with great acclaim. Today the practice of alternative cuts is more commonplace, though often as a way to make a film stand out in the DVD marketplace by adding new material.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2003 New Year Honours for services to the British film industry. He received his accolade from Queen Elizabeth II at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 8 July 2003. Scott admitted feeling "stunned and truly humbled" after the ceremony, saying, "As a boy growing up in South Shields, I could never have imagined that I would receive such a special recognition. I am truly humbled to receive this treasured award and believe it also further recognises the excellence of the British film industry."


title: Ridley Scott

text: He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing—"Thelma & Louise", "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down"—as well as three British Academy Film Awards for Best Director, four Golden Globe Awards for Best Director, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 1995, Ridley and his brother Tony received the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 2018 he received the highest accolade from BAFTA, the BAFTA Fellowship, for lifetime achievement.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2017 the German newspaper "FAZ" compared Scott's influence on the science fiction film genre to Sir Alfred Hitchcock's on thrillers and John Ford's on Westerns. In 2011, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott has received three Hugo Awards in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation for "Alien", "Blade Runner" and "The Martian". In 2012, Scott was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork, the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover, to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires to mark his 80th birthday. On 3 July 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London at which he described how he still keeps on his office wall his school report placing him 31st out of 31 in his class, and how his teacher encouraged him to pursue what became his passion at art school.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. As part of the Giza pyramid complex, it borders present-day Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Initially standing at , the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Over time, most of the smooth white limestone casing was removed, which lowered the pyramid's height to the present . What is seen today is the underlying core structure. The base was measured to be about square, giving a volume of roughly , which includes an internal hillock.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The dimensions of the pyramid were high, a base length of , with a seked of palms (a slope of 51°50'40").


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Great Pyramid was built by quarrying an estimated 2.3 million large blocks weighing 6 million tonnes in total. The majority of stones are not uniform in size or shape and are only roughly dressed. The outside layers were bound together by mortar. Primarily local limestone from the Giza Plateau was used. Other blocks were imported by boat down the Nile: White limestone from Tura for the casing, and granite blocks from Aswan, weighing up to 80 tonnes, for the King's Chamber structure.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest was cut into the bedrock, upon which the pyramid was built, but remained unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber, that contains a granite sarcophagus, are higher up, within the pyramid structure. Khufu's vizier, Hemiunu (also called Hemon), is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. Many varying scientific and alternative hypotheses attempt to explain the exact construction techniques.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The funerary complex around the pyramid consisted of two mortuary temples connected by a causeway (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), tombs for the immediate family and court of Khufu, including three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite pyramid" and five buried solar barges.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Historically the Great Pyramid had been attributed to Khufu based on the words of authors of classical antiquity, first and foremost Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. However, during the Middle Ages a number of other people were credited with the construction of the pyramid as well, for example Joseph, Nimrod or king Saurid.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 1837 four additional Relieving Chambers were found above the King's Chamber after tunneling to them. The chambers, previously inaccessible, were covered in hieroglyphs of red paint. The workers who were building the pyramid had marked the blocks with the names of their gangs, which included the pharaoh's name (e.g.: “The gang, The white crown of Khnum-Khufu is powerful”). The names of Khufu were spelled out on the walls over a dozen times. Another of these graffiti was found by Goyon on an exterior block of the 4th layer of the pyramid. The inscriptions are comparable to those found at other sites of Khufu, such as the alabaster quarry at Hatnub or the harbor at Wadi al-Jarf, and are present in pyramids of other pharaohs as well.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Throughout the 20th century the cemeteries next to the pyramid were excavated. Family members and high officials of Khufu were buried in the East Field south of the causeway, and the West Field. Most notably the wives, children and grandchildren of Khufu, Hemiunu, Ankhaf and (the funerary cache of) Hetepheres I, mother of Khufu. As Hassan puts it: "From the early dynastic times, it was always the custom for the relatives, friends and courtiers to be buried in the vicinity of the king they had served during life. This was quite in accordance with the Egyptian idea of the Hereafter."


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The cemeteries were actively expanded until the 6th dynasty and used less frequently afterwards. The earliest pharaonic name of seal impressions is that of Khufu, the latest of Pepi II. Worker graffiti was written on some of the stones of the tombs as well; for instance, "Mddw" (Horus name of Khufu) on the mastaba of Chufunacht, probably a grandson of Khufu.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Some inscriptions in the chapels of the mastabas (like the pyramid, their burial chambers were usually bare of inscriptions) mention Khufu or his pyramid. For instance, an inscription of Mersyankh III states that "Her mother [is the] daughter of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Khufu." Most often these references are part of a title, for example, Snnw-ka, "Chief of the Settlement and Overseer of the Pyramid City of Akhet-Khufu" or Merib, "Priest of Khufu". Several tomb owners have a king's name as part of their own name (e.g. Chufudjedef, Chufuseneb, Merichufu). The earliest pharaoh alluded to in that manner at Giza is Snefru (Khufu's father).


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 1936 Hassan uncovered a stela of Amenhotep II near the Great Sphinx of Giza which implies the two larger pyramids were still attributed to Khufu and Khafre in the New Kingdom. It reads: "He yoked the horses in Memphis, when he was still young, and stopped at the Sanctuary of Hor-em-akhet (the Sphinx). He spent a time there in going round it, looking at the beauty of the Sanctuary of Khufu and Khafra the revered."


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 1954 two boat pits, one containing the Khufu ship, were discovered buried at the south foot of the pyramid. The cartouche of Djedefre was found on many of the blocks that covered the boat pits. As the successor and eldest son he would have presumably been responsible for the burial of Khufu. The second boat pit was examined in 1987; excavation work started in 2010. Graffiti on the stones included 4 instances of the name "Khufu", 11 instances of "Djedefre", a year (in reign, season, month and day), measurements of the stone, various signs and marks, and a reference line used in construction, all done in red or black ink.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: During excavations in 2013 the Diary of Merer was found at Wadi al-Jarf. It documents the transportation of white limestone blocks from Tura to the Great Pyramid, which is mentioned by its original name Akhet Khufu (with a pyramid determinative) dozens of times. It details that the stones were accepted at She Akhet-Khufu ("the pool of the pyramid Horizon of Khufu") and Ro-She Khufu (“the entrance to the pool of Khufu”) which were under supervision of Ankhhaf, half brother and vizier of Khufu, as well as owner of the largest mastaba of the Giza East Field.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Great Pyramid has been determined to be about 4600 years old by two principal approaches: indirectly, through its attribution to Khufu and his chronological age, based on archaeological and textual evidence; and directly, via radiocarbon dating of organic material found in the pyramid and included in its mortar.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In the past the Great Pyramid was dated by its attribution to Khufu alone, putting the construction of the Great Pyramid within his reign. Hence dating the pyramid was a matter of dating Khufu and the 4th dynasty. The relative sequence and synchronicity of events stands at the focal point of this method.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Absolute calendar dates are derived from an interlocked network of evidence, the backbone of which are the lines of succession known from ancient king lists and other texts. The reign lengths from Khufu to known points in the earlier past are summated, bolstered with genealogical data, astronomical observations, and other sources. As such, the historical chronology of Egypt is primarily a political chronology, thus independent from other types of archaeological evidence like stratigraphies, material culture, or radiocarbon dating.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The majority of recent chronological estimates date Khufu and his pyramid roughly between 2700 and 2500 BC.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Mortar was used generously in the Great Pyramid's construction. In the mixing process ashes from fires were added to the mortar, organic material that could be extracted and radiocarbon dated. A total of 46 samples of the mortar were taken in 1984 and 1995, making sure they were clearly inherent to the original structure and could not have been incorporated at a later date. The results were calibrated to 2871–2604 BC. The old wood problem is thought to be mainly responsible for the 100–300 year offset, since the age of the organic material was determined, not when it was last used. A reanalysis of the data gave a completion date for the pyramid between 2620 and 2484 BC, based on the younger samples.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 1872 Waynman Dixon opened the lower pair of "Air-Shafts", previously closed at both ends, by chiseling holes into the walls of the Queen's Chamber. One of the objects found within was a cedar plank, which came into possession of James Grant, a friend of Dixon. After inheritance it was donated to the Museum of Aberdeen in 1946, however it had broken into pieces and was filed incorrectly. Lost in the vast museum collection, it was only rediscovered in 2020, when it was radiocarbon dated to 3341–3094 BC. Being over 500 years older than Khufu's chronological age, Abeer Eladany suggests that the wood originated from the center of a long-lived tree or had been recycled for many years prior to being deposited in the pyramid.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Circa 450 BC Herodotus attributed the Great Pyramid to Cheops (Hellenization of Khufu), yet erroneously placed his reign following the Ramesside period. Manetho, around 200 years later, composed an extensive list of Egyptian kings which he divided into dynasties, assigning Khufu to the 4th. However, after phonetic changes in the Egyptian language and consequently the Greek translation, "Cheops" had transformed into "Souphis" (and similar versions).


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Greaves, in 1646, reported the great difficulty of ascertaining a date for the pyramid's construction based on the lacking and conflicting historic sources. Because of the aforementioned differences in spelling, he didn't recognize Khufu on Manetho's king list (as transcribed by Africanus and Eusebius), hence he relied on Herodotus' incorrect account. Summating the duration of lines of succession, Greaves concluded the year 1266 BC to be the beginning of Khufu's reign.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Two centuries later, some of the gaps and uncertainties in Manetho's chronology had been cleared by discoveries such as the King Lists of Turin, Abydos, and Karnak. The names of Khufu found within the Great Pyramid's Relieving Chambers in 1837 helped to make clear that Cheops and Souphis are, in fact, one and the same. Thus the Great Pyramid was recognized to have been built in the 4th dynasty. The dating among Egyptologists still varied by multiple centuries (around 4000–2000 BC), depending on methodology, preconceived religious notions (such as the biblical deluge) and which source they thought was more credible.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Estimates significantly narrowed in the 20th century, most being within 250 years of each other, around the middle of the third millennium BC. The newly developed radiocarbon dating method confirmed that the historic chronology was approximately correct. It is, however, still not a fully appreciated method due to larger margins or error, calibration uncertainties and the problem of inbuilt age (time between growth and final usage) in plant material, including wood. Furthermore, astronomical alignments have been suggested to coincide with the time of construction.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Egyptian chronology continues to be refined and data from multiple disciplines have started to be factored in, such as luminescence dating, radiocarbon dating, and dendrochronology. For instance, Ramsey et al. included over 200 radiocarbon samples in their model.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The ancient Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, is one of the first major authors to mention the pyramid. In the second book of his work "The Histories", he discusses the history of Egypt and the Great Pyramid. This report was created more than 2000 years after the structure was built, meaning that Herodotus obtained his knowledge mainly from a variety of indirect sources, including officials and priests of low rank, local Egyptians, Greek immigrants, and Herodotus's own interpreters. Accordingly, his explanations present themselves as a mixture of comprehensible descriptions, personal descriptions, erroneous reports, and fantastical legends; as such, many of the speculative errors and confusions about the monument can be traced back to Herodotus and his work.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Herodotus writes that the Great Pyramid was built by Khufu (Hellenized as Cheops) who, he erroneously relays, ruled after the Ramesside Period (the 19th dynasty and the 20th dynasty). Khufu was a tyrannical king, Herodotus claims, which may explain the Greek's view that such buildings can only come about through cruel exploitation of the people. Herodotus further states that gangs of 100,000 labourers worked on the building in three-month shifts, taking 20 years to build. In the first ten years a wide causeway was erected, which, according to Herodotus, was almost as impressive as the construction of the pyramids themselves. It measured nearly long and wide, and elevated to a height of , consisting of stone polished and carved with figures. In addition, underground chambers were made on the hill whereon the pyramids stand. These were intended to be burial places for Khufu himself and were encompassed with water by a channel brought in from the Nile. Herodotus later states that at the Pyramid of Khafre (located beside the Great Pyramid) the Nile flows through a built passage to an island in which Khufu is buried. (Hawass interprets this to be a reference to the "Osiris Shaft" which is located at the causeway of Khafre, south of the Great Pyramid.)


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Herodotus also described an inscription on the outside of the pyramid which, according to his translators, indicated the amount of radishes, garlic and onions that the workers would have eaten while working on the pyramid. This could be a note of restoration work that Khaemweset, son of Rameses II, had carried out. Apparently, Herodotus’ companions and interpreters could not read the hieroglyphs or deliberately gave him false information.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Between 60 and 56 BC, the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus visited Egypt and later dedicated the first book of his "Bibliotheca historica" to the land, its history, and its monuments, including the Great Pyramid. Diodorus's work was inspired by historians of the past, but he also distanced himself from Herodotus, who Diodorus claims tells marvelous tales and myths. Diodorus presumably drew his knowledge from the lost work of Hecataeus of Abdera, and like Herodotus, he also places the builder of the pyramid, "Chemmis," after Ramses III. According to his report, neither Chemmis (Khufu) nor Cephren (Khafre) were buried in their pyramids, but rather in secret places, for fear that the people ostensibly forced to build the structures would seek out the bodies for revenge; with this assertion, Diodorus strengthened the connection between pyramid building and slavery.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: According to Diodorus, the cladding of the pyramid was still in excellent condition at the time, whereas the uppermost part of the pyramid was formed by a platform high. About the construction of the pyramid he notes that it was built with the help of ramps since no lifting tools had yet been invented. Nothing was left of the ramps, as they were removed after the pyramids were completed. He estimated the number of workers necessary to erect the Great Pyramid at 360,000 and the construction time at 20 years. Similar to Herodotus, Diodorus also claims that the side of the pyramid is inscribed with writing that "[set] forth [the price of] vegetables and purgatives for the workmen there were paid out over sixteen hundred talents."


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian Strabo visited Egypt around 25 BC, shortly after Egypt was annexed by the Romans. In his work "Geographica", he argues that the pyramids were the burial place of kings, but he does not mention which king was buried in the structure. Strabo also mentions: "At a moderate height in one of the sides is a stone, which may be taken out; when that is removed, there is an oblique passage to the tomb." This statement has generated much speculation, as it suggests that the pyramid could be entered at this time.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Roman writer Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century AD, argued that the Great Pyramid had been raised, either "to prevent the lower classes from remaining unoccupied", or as a measure to prevent the pharaoh's riches from falling into the hands of his rivals or successors. Pliny does not speculate as to the pharaoh in question, explicitly noting that "accident [has] consigned to oblivion the names of those who erected such stupendous memorials of their vanity". In pondering how the stones could be transported to such a vast height he gives two explanations: That either vast mounds of nitre and salt were heaped up against the pyramid which were then melted away with water redirected from the river. Or, that "bridges" were constructed, their bricks afterwards distributed for erecting houses of private individuals, arguing that the level of the river is too low for canals to ever bring water up to the pyramid. Pliny also recounts how "in the interior of the largest Pyramid there is a well, eighty-six cubits [] deep, which communicates with the river, it is thought". Further, he describes a method discovered by Thales of Miletus for ascertaining the pyramid's height by measuring its shadow.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: During late antiquity, a misinterpretation of the pyramids as "Joseph's granary" began to gain in popularity. The first textual evidence of this connection is found in the travel narratives of the female Christian pilgrim Egeria, who records that on her visit between 381 and 384 AD, "in the twelve-mile stretch between Memphis and Babylonia [= Old Cairo] are many pyramids, which Joseph made in order to store corn." Ten years later the usage is confirmed in the anonymous travelogue of seven monks that set out from Jerusalem to visit the famous ascetics in Egypt, wherein they report that they "saw Joseph's granaries, where he stored grain in biblical times." This late 4th century usage is further confirmed in the geographical treatise "Cosmographia", written by Julius Honorius around 376 AD, which explains that the Pyramids were called the "granaries of Joseph" ('). This reference from Julius is important, as it indicates that the identification was starting to spread out from pilgrim's travelogues. In 530 AD, Stephanos of Byzantium added more to this idea when he wrote in his "Ethnica" that the word "pyramid" was connected to the Greek word πυρός ("puros"), meaning wheat.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In the seventh century AD, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Egypt, ending several centuries of Romano-Byzantine rule. A few centuries later, in 820 AD, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'mun (786–833) is said to have tunneled into the side of the structure and discovered the ascending passage and its connecting chambers. Around this time a Coptic legend gained popularity that claimed the antediluvian king Surid Ibn Salhouk had built the Pyramid. One legend in particular relates how, three hundred years prior to the Great Flood, Surid had a terrifying dream of the world's end, and so he ordered the construction of the pyramids so that they might house all the knowledge of Egypt and survive into the present. The most notable account of this legend was given by Al-Masudi (896–956) in his "Akbar al-zaman", alongside imaginative tales about the pyramid, such as the story of a man who fell three hours down the pyramid's well and the tale of an expedition that discovered bizarre finds in the structure's inner chambers. "Al-zaman" also contains a report of Al-Ma'mun's entering the pyramid and discovering a vessel containing a thousand coins, which just so happened to account for the cost of opening the pyramid. (Some speculate that this story is true, but that the coins were planted by Al-Ma'mun to appease his workers, who were likely frustrated that they had found no treasure.)


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 987 AD, the Arab bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim relates a fantastical tale in his "Al-Fihrist" about a man who journeyed into the main chamber of a pyramid, which Bayard Dodge argues is the Great Pyramid. According to al-Nadim, the person in question saw a statue of a man holding a tablet and a woman holding a mirror. Supposedly, between the statues was a "stone vessel [with] a gold cover." Inside the vessel was "something like pitch," and when the explorer reached into the vessel "a gold receptacle happened to be inside." The receptacle, when taken from the vessel, was filled with "fresh blood," which quickly dried up. Ibn al-Nadim's work also claims that the bodies of a man and woman were discovered inside the Pyramid in the "best possible state of preservation." The author al-Kaisi, in his work the "Tohfat Alalbab," retells the story of Al-Ma'mun's entry but with the additional discovery of "an image of a man in green stone", which when opened revealed a body dressed in jewel-encrusted gold armor. Al-Kaisi claims to have seen the case from which the body was taken, and asserts that it was located at the king's palace in Cairo. He also writes that he himself entered into the pyramid and discovered myriad preserved bodies.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Arab polymath Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (1163–1231) studied the pyramid with great care, and in his "Account of Egypt", he praises them as works of engineering genius. In addition to measuring the structure (alongside the other pyramids at Giza), al-Baghdadi also writes that the structures were surely tombs, although he thought the Great Pyramid was used for the burial of Agathodaimon or Hermes. Al-Baghdadi ponders whether the pyramid pre-dated the Great flood as described in Genesis, and even briefly entertained the idea that it was a pre-Adamic construction. A few centuries later, the Islamic historian Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442) compiled lore about the Great Pyramid in his "Al-Khitat". In addition to reasserting that Al-Ma'mun breached the structure in 820 AD, Al-Maqrizi's work also discusses the sarcophagus in the coffin chambers, explicitly noting that the pyramid was a grave.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: By the Late Middle Ages, the Great Pyramid had gained a reputation as a haunted structure. Others feared entering, because it was home to animals like bats.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: A hillock forms the base on which the pyramids stands. It was cut back into steps and only a strip around the perimeter was leveled, which has been measured to be horizontal and flat to within . The bedrock reaches a height of almost above the pyramid base at the location of the Grotto.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Along the sides of the base platform a series of holes are cut in the bedrock. Lehner hypothesizes that they held wooden posts used for alignment. Edwards, among others, suggested the usage of water for evening the base, although it is unclear how practical and workable such a system would be.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks. Approximately 5.5 million tonnes of limestone, 8,000 tonnes of granite, and 500,000 tonnes of mortar were used in the construction.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Most of the blocks were quarried at Giza just south of the pyramid, an area now known as the Central Field.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The white limestone used for the casing originated from Tura ( south of Giza) and was transported by boat down the Nile. In 2013, rolls of papyrus called the Diary of Merer were discovered, written by a supervisor of the deliveries of limestone and other construction materials from Tura to Giza in the last known year of Khufu's reign.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The granite stones in the pyramid were transported from Aswan, more than away. The largest, weighing 25 to 80 tonnes, form the roofs of the "King's chamber" and the "relieving chambers" above it. Ancient Egyptians cut stone into rough blocks by hammering grooves into natural stone faces, inserting wooden wedges, then soaking these with water. As the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded, breaking off workable chunks. Once the blocks were cut, they were carried by boat either up or down the Nile River to the pyramid.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby workers' camps associated with construction at Giza suggest that it was built instead by thousands of conscript laborers.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Worker graffiti found at Giza suggest haulers were divided into "zau" (singular "za"), groups of 40 men, consisting of four sub-units that each had an "Overseer of Ten".


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: As to the question of how over two million blocks could have been cut within Khufu's lifetime, stonemason Franck Burgos conducted an archaeological experiment based on an abandoned quarry of Khufu discovered in 2017. Within it, an almost completed block and the tools used for cutting it had been uncovered: hardened arsenic copper chisels, wooden mallets, ropes and stone tools. In the experiment replicas of these were used to cut a block weighing about 2.5 tonnes (the average block size used for the Great Pyramid). It took four workers 4 days (with each working 6 hours a day) to excavate it. The initially slow progress sped up six times when the stone was wetted with water. Based on the data, Burgos extrapolates that about 3,500 quarry-men could have produced the 250 blocks/day needed to complete the Great Pyramid in 27 years.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: A construction management study conducted in 1999, in association with Mark Lehner and other Egyptologists, had estimated that the total project required an average workforce of about 13,200 people and a peak workforce of roughly 40,000.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The first precise measurements of the pyramid were made by Egyptologist Flinders Petrie in 1880–1882, published as "The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh". Many of the casing-stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid fit together with high precision, with joints, on average, only wide. On the contrary, core blocks were only roughly shaped, with rubble inserted between larger gaps. Mortar was used to bind the outer layers together and fill gaps and joints.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The block height and weight tends to get progressively smaller towards the top. Petrie measured the lowest layer to be high, whereas the layers towards the summit barely exceed .


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The accuracy of the pyramid's perimeter is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only in length and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The completed design dimensions are measured to have originally been high by long at each of the four sides of its base. Ancient Egyptians used seked – how much run for one cubit of rise – to describe slopes. For the Great Pyramid a seked of palms was chosen, a ratio of 14 up to 11 in.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Some Egyptologists suggest this slope was chosen because the ratio of perimeter to height (1760/280 cubits) equals 2π to an accuracy of better than 0.05 percent (corresponding to the well-known approximation of π as 22/7). Verner wrote, "We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it". Petrie concluded: "but these relations of areas and of circular ratio are so systematic that we should grant that they were in the builder's design". Others have argued that the ancient Egyptians had no concept of pi and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments and that the observed pyramid slope may be based on the seked choice alone.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The sides of the Great Pyramid's base are closely aligned to the four geographic (not magnetic) cardinal directions, deviating on average 3 minutes and 38 seconds of arc, or about a tenth of a degree. Several methods have been proposed for how the ancient Egyptians achieved this level of accuracy:


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction techniques. One mystery of the pyramid's construction is its planning. John Romer suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and later constructions, laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a 1-to-1 scale. He writes that "such a working diagram would also serve to generate the architecture of the pyramid with precision unmatched by any other means".


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The basalt blocks of the pyramid temple show "clear evidence" of having been cut with some kind of saw with an estimated cutting blade of in length. Romer suggests that this "super saw" may have had copper teeth and weighed up to . He theorizes that such a saw could have been attached to a wooden trestle support and possibly used in conjunction with vegetable oil, cutting sand, emery or pounded quartz to cut the blocks, which would have required the labour of at least a dozen men to operate it.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: At completion, the Great Pyramid was cased entirely in white limestone. Precisely worked blocks were placed in horizontal layers and carefully fitted together with mortar, their outward faces cut at a slope and smoothed to a high degree. Together they created four uniform surfaces, angled at 51°50'40" (a Seked of palms). Unfinished casing blocks of the pyramids of Menkaure and Henutsen at Giza suggest that the front faces were smoothed only after the stones were laid, with chiseled seams marking correct positioning and where the superfluous rock would have to be trimmed off.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The height of the horizontal layers is not uniform but varies considerably. The highest of the 203 remaining courses are towards the bottom, the first layer being the tallest at . Towards the top, layers tend to be only slightly over in height. An irregular pattern is noticeable when looking at the sizes in sequence, where layer height declines steadily only to rise sharply again.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: So-called "backing stones" supported the casing which were (unlike core blocks) precisely dressed as well and bound to the casing with mortar. Nowadays, these stones give the structure its visible appearance, following the dismantling of the pyramid in the Middle Ages. In 1303 AD, a massive earthquake had loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were said to have been carted away by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in 1356 for use in nearby Cairo. Many more casing stones were removed from the site by Muhammad Ali Pasha in the early 19th century to build the upper portion of his Alabaster Mosque in Cairo, not far from Giza. Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Today a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen "in situ" on each side, with the best preserved on the north below the entrances, excavated by Vyse in 1837.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The mortar was chemically analyzed and contains organic inclusions (mostly charcoal), samples of which were radiocarbon dated to 2871–2604 BC. It has been theorized that the mortar enabled the masons to set the stones exactly by providing a level bed.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: It has been suggested that some or all of the casing stones were cast in place, rather than quarried and moved, yet archaeological evidence and petrographic analysis indicate this was not the case.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Petrie noted in 1880 that the sides of the pyramid, as we see them today, are "very distinctly hollowed" and that "each side has a sort of groove specially down the middle of the face", which he reasoned was a result of increased casing thickness in these areas. A laser scanning survey in 2005 confirmed the existence of the anomalies, which can be, to some degree, attributed to damaged and removed stones. Under certain lighting conditions and with image enhancement the faces can appear to be split, leading to speculation that the pyramid had been intentionally constructed eight-sided.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The pyramid was once topped by a capstone known as a pyramidion. The material it was made from is subject to much speculation; limestone, granite or basalt are commonly proposed, while in popular culture it is often solid gold or gilded. All known 4th dynasty "pyramidia" (of the Red Pyramid, Satellite Pyramid of Khufu (G1-d) and Queen's Pyramid of Menkaure (G3-a)) are of white limestone and were not gilded. Only from the 5th dynasty onward is there evidence of gilded capstones; for instance, a scene on the causeway of the Sahure speaks of the "white gold pyramidion of the pyramid Sahure’s Soul Shines".


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Great Pyramid's pyramidion was already lost in antiquity, as Pliny the Elder and later authors report of a platform on its summit. Nowadays the pyramid is about shorter than it was when intact, with about 1,000 tonnes of material missing from the top.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 1874 a mast was installed on the top by the Scottish astronomer Sir David Gill who, whilst returning from work involving observing a rare Venus transit, was invited to survey Egypt and began by surveying the Great Pyramid. His results measuring the pyramid were accurate to within 1 mm and the survey mast is still in place to this day.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The internal structure consists of three main chambers (the King's-, Queen's- and Subterranean Chamber), the Grand Gallery and various corridors and shafts.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: There are two entrances into the pyramid: the original and a forced passage, which meet at a junction. From there, one passage descends into the Subterranean Chamber, while the other ascends to the Grand Gallery. From the beginning of the gallery three paths can be taken:


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Both the King's and Queen's Chamber have a pair of small "air-shafts". Above the King's Chamber are a series of five Relieving Chambers.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The original entrance is located on the north side, east of the centerline of the pyramid. Before the removal of the casing in the middle ages, the pyramid was entered through a hole in the 19th layer of masonry, approximately above the pyramid's base level. The height of that layer – – corresponds to the size of the entrance tunnel which is commonly called the Descending Passage. According to Strabo (64–24 BC) a movable stone could be raised to enter this sloping corridor, however it is not known if it was a later addition or original.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: A row of double chevrons diverts weight away from the entrance. Several of these chevron blocks are now missing, as the slanted faces they used to rest on indicate.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Numerous, mostly modern, graffiti is cut into the stones around the entrance. Most notable is a large, square text of hieroglyphs carved in honor of Frederick William IV, by Karl Richard Lepsius's Prussian expedition to Egypt in 1842.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 2016 the ScanPyramids team detected a cavity behind the entrance chevrons using muography, which was confirmed in 2019 to be a corridor at least long, running horizontal or sloping upwards (thus not parallel to the Descending Passage). Whether or not it connects to the Big Void above the Grand Gallery remains to be seen.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Today tourists enter the Great Pyramid via the Robbers' Tunnel, which was long ago cut straight through the masonry of the pyramid. The entrance was forced into the 6th and 7th layer of the casing, about above the base. After running more-or-less straight and horizontal for it turns sharply left to encounter the blocking stones in the Ascending Passage. It is possible to enter the Descending Passage from this point but access is usually forbidden.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The origin of this Robbers' Tunnel is the subject of much scholarly discussion. According to tradition the chasm was made around 820 AD by Caliph al-Ma'mun's workmen with a battering ram. The digging dislodged the stone in the ceiling of the Descending Passage which hid the entrance to the Ascending Passage, and the noise of that stone falling then sliding down the Descending Passage alerted them to the need to turn left. Unable to remove these stones, however, the workmen tunneled up beside them through the softer limestone of the Pyramid until they reached the Ascending Passage.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Due to a number of historical and archaeological discrepancies, many scholars (with Antoine de Sacy perhaps being the first) contend that this story is apocryphal. They argue that it is much more likely that the tunnel had been carved shortly after the pyramid was initially sealed. This tunnel, the scholars continue, was then resealed (likely during the Ramesside Restoration), and it was this plug that al-Ma'mun's ninth-century expedition cleared away. This theory is furthered by the report of patriarch Dionysius I Telmaharoyo, who claimed that before al-Ma'mun's expedition, there already existed a breach in the pyramid's north face that extended into the structure before hitting a dead end. This suggests that some sort of robber's tunnel predated al-Ma'mun, and that the caliph simply enlarged it and cleared it of debris.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: From the original entrance, a passage descends through the masonry of the pyramid and then into the bedrock beneath it, ultimately leading to the Subterranean Chamber.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: It has a slanted height of 4 Egyptian feet (1.20 m; 3.9 ft) and a width of . Its angle of 26°26'46" corresponds to a ratio of 1 to 2 (rise over run).


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: After , the lower end of the Ascending Passage is reached; a in the ceiling, which is blocked by granite stones and might have originally been concealed. To circumvent these hard stones, a short tunnel was excavated that meets the end of the Robbers' Tunnel. This was expanded over time and fitted with stairs.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The passage continues to descend for another , now through bedrock instead of the pyramid superstructure. Lazy guides used to block off this part with rubble to avoid having to lead people down and back up the long shaft, until around 1902 when Covington installed a padlocked iron grill-door to stop this practice. Near the end of this section, on the west wall, is the connection to the vertical shaft that leads up to the Grand Gallery.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: A horizontal shaft connects the end of the Descending Passage to the Subterranean Chamber, It has a length of , width of and height of . A is located towards the end of the western wall, slightly larger than the tunnel, the ceiling of which is irregular and undressed.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Subterranean Chamber, or "Pit", is the lowest of the three main chambers and the only one dug into the bedrock beneath the pyramid.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Located about below base level, it measures roughly north-south by east-west, with an approximate height of .


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The western half of the room, apart from the ceiling, is unfinished, with trenches left behind by the quarry-men running east to west. A niche was cut into the northern half of the west wall. The only , through the Descending Passage, lies on the eastern end of the north wall.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Although seemingly known in antiquity, according to Herodotus and later authors, its existence had been forgotten in the Middle Ages until rediscovery in 1817, when Giovanni Caviglia cleared the rubble blocking the Descending Passage.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Opposing the entrance, a blind corridor runs straight south for and continues slight bent another , measuring about squared. A Greek or Roman character was found on its ceiling with the light of a candle, suggesting that the chamber had indeed been accessible during Classical antiquity.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In the middle of the eastern half, a large hole is opened up, called Pit Shaft or Perring's Shaft. The upmost part may have ancient origins, about squared in width and in depth, diagonally aligned with the chamber. Caviglia and Salt enlarged it to the depth of about . In 1837 Vyse directed the shaft to be sunk to a depth of , in hopes of discovering the chamber encompassed by water that Herodotus alludes to. It is slightly narrower in width at about . No chamber was discovered after Perring and his workers had spent one and a half years penetrating the bedrock to the then water level of the Nile, some further down. The rubble produced during this operation was deposited throughout the chamber. Petrie, visiting in 1880, found the shaft to be partially filled with rainwater that had rushed down the Descending Passage. In 1909, when the Edgar brothers' surveying activities were encumbered by the material, they moved the sand and smaller stones back into the shaft, leaving the upper part clear. The deep, modern shaft is sometimes mistaken to be part of the original design.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Ludwig Borchardt suggested that the Subterranean Chamber was originally planned to be the burial place for pharaoh Khufu, but that it was abandoned during construction in favour of a chamber higher up in the pyramid.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Ascending Passage connects the Descending Passage to the Grand Gallery. It is long and of the same width and height as the shaft it originates from, although its angle is slightly lower at 26°6'.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The lower end of the shaft is plugged by three granite stones, which were slid down from the Grand Gallery to seal the tunnel. They are , and long respectively. The uppermost is heavily damaged, hence it is shorter. The end of the Robbers' Tunnel concludes slightly below the stones, so a short tunnel was dug around them to gain access to the Descending Passage, since the surrounding limestone is considerably softer and easier to work.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Most of the joints between the blocks of the walls run perpendicular to the floor, with two exceptions. Firstly, those in the lower third of the corridor are vertical. Secondly, the three girdle stones that are inserted near the middle (about 10 cubits apart), presumably to stabilize the tunnel.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Well Shaft (also known as the Service Shaft or Vertical Shaft) links the lower end of the Grand Gallery to the bottom of Descending Passage, about further down.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: It takes a winding and indirect course. The upper half goes through the nucleus masonry of the pyramid. It runs vertical at first for , then slightly angled southwards for about the same distance, until it hits bedrock approximately above the pyramid's base level. Another vertical section descends further, which is partially lined with masonry that has been broken through to a cavity known as the Grotto. The lower half of the Well Shaft goes through the bedrock at an angle of about 45° for before a steeper section, long, leads to its lowest point. The final section of connects it to the Descending Passage, running almost horizontal. The builders evidently had trouble aligning the lower exit.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The purpose of the shaft is commonly explained as a ventilation shaft for the Subterranean Chamber and as an escape shaft for the workers who slid the blocking stones of the Ascending Passage into place.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Grotto is a natural limestone cave that was likely filled with sand and gravel before construction, before being hollowed out by looters. A granite block rests in it that likely originated from the portcullis that once sealed the King's Chamber.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Horizontal Passage links the Grand Gallery to the Queen's Chamber. Five pairs of holes at the start suggest the tunnel was once concealed with slabs that laid flush with the gallery floor. The passage is wide and high for most of its length, but near the chamber there is a step in the floor, after which the passage increases to high. Half of the west-wall consists of two layers that have atypically continuous vertical joints. Dormion suggests the entrances to magazines laid here and have been filled in.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Queen's Chamber is exactly halfway between the north and south faces of the pyramid. It measures north-south, east-west, and has a pointed roof that apexes at tall. At the eastern end of the chamber there is a niche high. The original depth of the niche was , but it has since been deepened by treasure hunters.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Shafts were discovered in the north and south walls of the Queen's Chamber in 1872 by British engineer Waynman Dixon, who believed shafts similar to those in the King's Chamber must also exist. The shafts were not connected to the outer faces of the pyramid or the Queen's Chamber; their purpose is unknown. In one shaft Dixon discovered a ball of diorite, a bronze hook of unknown purpose and a piece of cedar wood. The first two objects are currently in the British Museum. The latter was lost until recently when it was found at the University of Aberdeen. It has since been radiocarbon dated to 3341–3094 BC. The northern shaft's angle of ascent fluctuates and at one point turns 45 degrees to avoid the Great Gallery. The southern shaft is perpendicular to the pyramid's slope.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The shafts in the Queen's Chamber were explored in 1993 by the German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink using a crawler robot he designed, "Upuaut 2". After a climb of , he discovered that one of the shafts was blocked by a limestone "door" with two eroded copper "handles". The National Geographic Society created a similar robot which, in September 2002, drilled a small hole in the southern door only to find another stone slab behind it. The northern passage, which was difficult to navigate because of its twists and turns, was also found to be blocked by a slab.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Research continued in 2011 with the Djedi Project which used a fibre-optic "micro snake camera" that could see around corners. With this, they were able to penetrate the first door of the southern shaft through the hole drilled in 2002, and view all the sides of the small chamber behind it. They discovered hieroglyphics written in red paint. Egyptian mathematics researcher Luca Miatello stated that the markings read "121" – the length of the shaft in cubits. The Djedi team were also able to scrutinize the inside of the two copper "handles" embedded in the door, which they now believe to be for decorative purposes. They additionally found the reverse side of the "door" to be finished and polished, which suggests that it was not put there just to block the shaft from debris, but rather for a more specific reason.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Grand Gallery continues the slope of the Ascending Passage towards the King's Chamber, extending from the 23rd to the 48th course, a rise of . It has been praised as a "truly spectacular example of stonemasonry". It is high and long. The base is wide, but after two courses – at a height of – the blocks of stone in the walls are corbelled inwards by on each side. There are seven of these steps, so, at the top, the Grand Gallery is only wide. It is roofed by slabs of stone laid at a slightly steeper angle than the floor so that each stone fits into a slot cut into the top of the gallery, like the teeth of a ratchet. The purpose was to have each block supported by the wall of the Gallery, rather than resting on the block beneath it, in order to prevent cumulative pressure.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: At the upper end of the Gallery, on the eastern wall, there is a hole near the roof that opens into a short tunnel by which access can be gained to the lowest of the Relieving Chambers.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The floor of the Grand Gallery has a shelf or step on either side, wide, leaving a lower ramp wide between them. There are 56 slots on the shelves, with 28 on each side. On each wall, 25 niches have been cut above the slots. The purpose of these slots is not known, but the central gutter in the floor of the Gallery, which is the same width as the Ascending Passage, has led to speculation that the blocking stones were stored in the Grand Gallery and the slots held wooden beams to restrain them from sliding down the passage. Jean-Pierre Houdin theorized that they held a timber frame that was used in combination with a trolley to pull the heavy granite blocks up the pyramid.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: At the top of the gallery, there is a step onto a small horizontal platform where a tunnel leads through the Antechamber, once blocked by portcullis stones, into the King's Chamber.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 2017, scientists from the ScanPyramids project discovered a large cavity above the Grand Gallery using muon radiography, which they called the "ScanPyramids Big Void". Key was a research team under Morishima Kunihiro, a professor at Nagoya University, that used special nuclear emulsion detectors. Its length is at least and its cross-section is similar to that of the Grand Gallery. Its existence was confirmed by independent detection with three different technologies: nuclear emulsion films, scintillator hodoscopes, and gas detectors. The purpose of the cavity is unknown and it is not accessible. Zahi Hawass speculates it may have been a gap used in the construction of the Grand Gallery, but the Japanese research team state that the void is completely different from previously identified construction spaces.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: To verify and pinpoint the void, a team from Kyushu University, Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo and the Chiba Institute of Technology planned to rescan the structure with a newly developed muon detector in 2020. Their work was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The last line of defense against intrusion was a small chamber specially designed to house portcullis blocking stones, called the Antechamber. It is cased almost entirely in granite and is situated between the upper end of the Grand Gallery and the King's Chamber. Three slots for portcullis stones line the east and west wall of the chamber. Each of them is topped with a semi-circular groove for a log, around which ropes could be spanned.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The granite portcullis stones were approximately thick and were lowered into position by the aforementioned ropes which were tied through a series of four holes at the top of the blocks. A corresponding set of four vertical grooves are on the south wall of the chamber, recesses that make space for the ropes.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Antechamber has a design flaw: the space above them can be accessed, thus all but the last block can be circumvented. This was exploited by looters who punched a hole through the ceiling of the tunnel behind, gaining access to the King's Chamber. Later on, all three portcullis stones were broken and removed. Fragments of these blocks can be found in various locations in the pyramid (the Pit Shaft, the Original Entrance, the Grotto and the recess before the Subterranean Chamber).


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The King's Chamber is the upmost of the three main chambers of the pyramid. It is faced entirely with granite and measures east-west by north-south. Its flat ceiling is about 11 cubits and 5 digits () above the floor, formed by nine slabs of stone weighing in total about 400 tons. All the roof beams show cracks due to the chamber having settled .


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The walls consist of five courses of blocks that are uninscribed, as was the norm for burial chambers of the 4th dynasty. The stones are precisely fitted together. The facing surfaces are dressed to varying degrees, with some displaying remains of bosses not entirely cut away. The back sides of the blocks were only roughly hewn to shape, as was usual with Egyptian hard-stone facade blocks, presumably to save work.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The only object in the King's Chamber is a sarcophagus made out of a single, hollowed-out granite block. When it was rediscovered in the Early Middle Ages, it was found broken open and any contents had already been removed. It is of the form common for early Egyptian sarcophagi, rectangular in shape with grooves to slide the now missing lid into place with three small holes for pegs to fixate it. The coffer was not perfectly smoothed, displaying various tool marks matching those of copper saws and tubular hand-drills.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The internal dimensions are roughly by , the external by , with a height of . The walls have a thickness of about . The sarcophagus is too large to fit around the corner between the Ascending and Descending Passages, which indicates that it must have been placed in the chamber before the roof was put in place.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In the north and south walls of the King's Chamber are two narrow shafts, commonly known as "air shafts". They face each other and are located approximately above the floor, from the eastern wall, with a width of and a height of . Both start out horizontally for the length of the granite blocks they go through before changing to an upwards direction. The southern shaft ascends at an angle of 45° with a slight curve westwards. One ceiling stone was found to be distinctly unfinished which Gantenbrink called a "Monday morning block". The northern shaft changes angle several times, shifting the path to the west, perhaps to avoid the Big Void. The builders had trouble calculating the right angles, resulting in parts of the shaft being narrower. Nowadays they both commute to the exterior. If they originally penetrated the outer casing is unknown.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The purpose of these shafts is not clear: They were long believed by Egyptologists to be shafts for ventilation, but this idea has now been widely abandoned in favour of the shafts serving a ritualistic purpose associated with the ascension of the king's spirit to the heavens.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The idea that the shafts point towards stars or areas of the northern and southern skies has been largely dismissed as the northern shaft follows a dog-leg course through the masonry and the southern shaft has a bend of approximately , indicating no intention to have them point to any celestial objects.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In 1992, as part of the Upuaut project, a ventilation system was installed in both air shafts of the King's Chamber.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Above the roof of the King's Chamber are five compartments, named (from lowest upwards) "Davison's Chamber", "Wellington's Chamber", "Nelson's Chamber", "Lady Arbuthnot's Chamber", and "Campbell's Chamber".


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: They were presumably intended to safeguard the King's Chamber from the possibility of the roof collapsing under the weight of stone above; hence they are referred to as "Relieving Chambers".


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The granite blocks that divide the chambers have flat bottom sides but roughly shaped top sides, giving all five chambers an irregular floor, but a flat ceiling, with the exception of the uppermost chamber which has a pointed limestone roof.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Nathaniel Davison is credited with the discovery of the lowest of these chambers in 1763, although a French merchant named Maynard informed him of its existence. It can be reached through an ancient passage that originates from the top of the south wall of the Grand Gallery. The upper four chambers were discovered in 1837 by Howard Vyse after discovering a crack in the ceiling of the first chamber. This allowed the insertion of a long reed, which, with the employment of gunpowder and boring rods, forced a tunnel upwards through the masonry. As no access shafts existed for the upper four chambers – unlike Davison's Chamber – they were completely inaccessible until this point.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Numerous graffiti of red ochre paint were found to cover the limestone walls of all four newly discovered chambers. Apart from leveling lines and indication marks for masons, multiple hieroglyphic inscriptions spell out the names of work-gangs. Those names, which were also found in other Egyptian pyramids like that of Menkaure and Sahure, usually included the name of the pharaoh they were working for. The blocks must have received the inscriptions before the chambers became inaccessible during construction. Their orientation, often side-ways or upside down, and their sometimes being partially covered by blocks, seems to indicate that the stones were inscribed before being laid.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The Pyramid Temple, which stood on the east side of the pyramid and measured north to south and east to west, has almost entirely disappeared. Only some of the black basalt paving has remained. There are only a few remnants of the causeway which linked the pyramid with the valley and the Valley Temple. The Valley Temple is buried beneath the village of Nazlet el-Samman; basalt paving and limestone walls have been found but the site has not been excavated.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, sister-wife of Sneferu and mother of Khufu, is located approximately east of the Great Pyramid. Discovered by accident by the Reisner expedition, the burial was intact, although the carefully sealed coffin proved to be empty.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: On the southern end of the east side are four subsidiary pyramids The three that remain standing to almost full height are popularly known as the Queens' Pyramids (G1-a, G1-b and G1-c). The fourth, smaller satellite pyramid (G1-d), was so ruined that its existence was not suspected until the first course of stones and, later, the remains of the capstone were discovered during excavations in 1991–93.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Three boat-shaped pits are located east of the pyramid. They are large enough in size and shape to have held complete boats, though so shallow that any superstructure, if there ever was one, must have been removed or disassembled.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Two additional boat pits, long and rectangular in shape, were found south of the pyramid, still covered with slabs of stone weighing up to 15 tons.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: The first of these was discovered in May 1954 by the Egyptian archaeologist Kamal el-Mallakh. Inside were 1,224 pieces of wood, the longest in length, the shortest . These were entrusted to a boat builder, Haj Ahmed Yusuf, who worked out how the pieces fit together. The entire process, including conservation and straightening of the warped wood, took fourteen years. The result is a cedar-wood boat long, its timbers held together by ropes, which was originally housed in the Giza Solar boat museum, a special boat-shaped, air-conditioned museum beside the pyramid. It is now in the Grand Egyptian Museum.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: During construction of this museum in the 1980s, the second sealed boat pit was discovered. It was left unopened until 2011 when excavation began on the boat.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: A notable construction flanking the Giza pyramid complex is a cyclopean stone wall, the Wall of the Crow. Mark Lehner discovered a worker's town outside of the wall, otherwise known as "The Lost City", dated by pottery styles, seal impressions and stratigraphy to have been constructed and occupied sometime during the reigns of Khafre (2520–2494 BC) and Menkaure (2490–2472 BC). In the early 21st century, Lehner and his team made several discoveries, including what appears to have been a thriving port, suggesting the town and associated living quarters, which consisted of barracks called "galleries", may not have been for the pyramid workers after all, but rather for the soldiers and sailors who used the port. In light of this new discovery, as to where then the pyramid workers may have lived, Lehner suggested the alternative possibility they may have camped on the ramps he believes were used to construct the pyramids, or possibly at nearby quarries.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: In the early 1970s, the Australian archaeologist Karl Kromer excavated a mound in the South Field of the plateau. It was found to contain artefacts including mudbrick seals of Khufu, which he identified with an artisans' settlement. Mudbrick buildings just south of Khufu's Valley Temple contained mud sealings of Khufu and have been suggested to be a settlement serving the cult of Khufu after his death. A worker's cemetery used at least between Khufu's reign and the end of the Fifth Dynasty was discovered south of the Wall of the Crow by Hawass in 1990.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Authors Bob Brier and Hoyt Hobbs claim that "all the pyramids were robbed" by the New Kingdom, when the construction of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings began. Joyce Tyldesley states that the Great Pyramid itself "is known to have been opened and emptied by the Middle Kingdom", before the Arab caliph Al-Ma'mun entered the pyramid around 820 AD.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: I. E. S. Edwards discusses Strabo's mention that the pyramid "a little way up one side has a stone that may be taken out, which being raised up there is a sloping passage to the foundations". Edwards suggested that the pyramid was entered by robbers after the end of the Old Kingdom and sealed and then reopened more than once until Strabo's door was added. He adds: "If this highly speculative surmise be correct, it is also necessary to assume either that the existence of the door was forgotten or that the entrance was again blocked with facing stones", in order to explain why al-Ma'mun could not find the entrance. Scholars such as Gaston Maspero and Flinders Petrie have noted that evidence for a similar door has been found at the Bent Pyramid of Dashur.


title: Great Pyramid of Giza

text: Herodotus visited Egypt in the 5th century BC and recounts a story that he was told concerning vaults under the pyramid built on an island where the body of Khufu lies. Edwards notes that the pyramid had "almost certainly been opened and its contents plundered long before the time of Herodotus" and that it might have been closed again during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt when other monuments were restored. He suggests that the story told to Herodotus could have been the result of almost two centuries of telling and retelling by pyramid guides.


title: Paul Rudd

text: Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July 2015. He was named one of "Forbes" Celebrity 100 in 2019. In 2021, he was named "People" magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive".


title: Paul Rudd

text: His films include "Clueless" (1995), "" (1995), "Romeo + Juliet" (1996), "Wet Hot American Summer" (2001), "" (2004), "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (2005), "Knocked Up" (2007), "This Is 40" (2012), and "" (2021). He currently plays Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with "Ant-Man" (2015) and most recently appearing in "" (2019). He also provided the voice of John in the film "Nerdland" (2016).


title: Paul Rudd

text: In addition to his film career, Rudd has appeared in numerous television shows, including the NBC sitcom "Friends" as Mike Hannigan, along with guest roles on "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!", "Reno 911!" and "Parks and Recreation", and has also hosted "Saturday Night Live" multiple times. He starred in a dual role in the Netflix comedy series "Living with Yourself", which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. He starred in the miniseries "The Shrink Next Door" (2021).


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd was born in Passaic, New Jersey, the son of English-born Jewish parents. His father, Michael Rudd (1943–2008), was a historical tour guide and former vice-president of TWA. His mother, Gloria Irene Granville, was a sales manager at television station KSMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. His parents were both from London, with his father hailing from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton, and both were descended from Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who moved to England from Belarus, Poland, and Russia. Rudd's paternal family's original surname, Rudnitsky, was changed by his grandfather to Rudd, and his maternal family's surname was originally Goldstein; his parents were second cousins. Rudd had a Bar Mitzvah service in Ontario, Canada. Growing up, he loved reading the British comics "The Beano" and "The Dandy", which his uncle in the UK sent him.


title: Paul Rudd

text: When he was 10 years old, Rudd's family moved to Lenexa within Johnson County, Kansas. Because of his father's occupation, his family also spent three years in Anaheim, California. In Johnson County, Rudd attended Broadmoor Junior High and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. He attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater and belonged to the Sigma Nu fraternity's Nu Chapter. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with fellow actor Matthew Lillard. He also spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford. While attending acting school, he worked as a DJ at bar mitzvahs. After graduation, he worked a variety of odd jobs, including glazing hams at the Holiday Ham Company in Overland Park.


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd made his acting debut in 1991 where he starred in a "Super Nintendo" commercial. In 1992, he starred in the television drama "Sisters", as Kirby Quimby Philby. In 1994, he appeared in "Wild Oats" for six episodes. He left "Sisters" in 1995 to appear in the comedy film "Clueless" with Alicia Silverstone. He also appeared in "" as Tommy Doyle, "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet", "The Locusts", "Overnight Delivery", "The Object of My Affection", and "200 Cigarettes". He was in the cast of the 1999 film "The Cider House Rules" that received a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.


title: Paul Rudd

text: He played FBI Agent Ian Curtis in Benny Chan's 2000 Hong Kong action film "Gen-Y Cops". In 2002, he was cast on the sitcom "Friends" as Mike Hannigan, who dates and then marries Phoebe Buffay, played by Lisa Kudrow. In 2006, he appeared in several episodes of "Reno 911!" as "Guy Gerricault" (pronounced "jericho"), the coach of a lamaze class, and then portrayed a drug lord in the "" film. He guest-starred as a has-been 1990s rock star, Desmond Fellows, on the television series "Veronica Mars", in the 2007 episode "Debasement Tapes".


title: Paul Rudd

text: The year 2004 marked the start of his work with director/producer Judd Apatow, first on the film "" as Brian Fantana with Steve Carell, David Koechner and Will Ferrell, produced by Apatow and again in 2005 in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" with Carell and Seth Rogen, directed by Apatow. He subsequently worked with Apatow in 2007's "Knocked Up", as frustrated husband Pete, married to Leslie Mann's character. In that film, he co-starred with Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, and Jay Baruchel. He also was the narrator for the 2007 edition of the long-running sports documentary series "Hard Knocks", as the team featured that season (the Kansas City Chiefs) was the team he supports. This was the only season not to feature the series' regular narrator, Liev Schreiber.


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd appeared as John Lennon in the comedy film "" in 2007 and as the drug-addled surf instructor in Nicholas Stoller's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" in 2008 with Jason Segel and Jonah Hill, both of which Apatow produced. Rudd appeared in uncredited cameos in "Year one" (2009) and "Bridesmaids" (2011). In 2012, he starred and also co-produced with Apatow on the film "Wanderlust" with Jennifer Aniston. He starred in the comedy film "This Is 40" with Leslie Mann, a spinoff from "Knocked Up", which was directed and produced by Apatow. He reprised his role as Brian Fantana in the 2013 sequel "".


title: Paul Rudd

text: In 2007, he starred in "The Oh in Ohio" and "The Ten", which reunited him with David Wain and Michael Showalter, and then in "Over Her Dead Body" with Eva Longoria the next year. In his next comedy which he also wrote, "Role Models", he and co-star Seann William Scott portray energy drink salesmen forced to perform community service in a child mentoring program.


title: Paul Rudd

text: In 2009, Rudd again appeared with Jason Segel in "I Love You Man" where he and Segel play buddies who bond over their shared love for the rock band Rush. Both Rudd and Segel are themselves fans of the band. Also in 2009, Rudd co-created the TV series "Party Down" with John Embom, Rob Thomas and Dan Etheridge. He lent his voice to the DreamWorks computer-animated movie "Monsters Vs. Aliens".


title: Paul Rudd

text: In 2010, Rudd reunited with Steve Carell for the first time since "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" for the Jay Roach-directed comedy "Dinner for Schmucks". In 2012, he had a supporting role in the drama "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", playing Mr. Anderson, a teacher of Charlie, played by Logan Lerman. He starred in the 2011 comedy-drama film "Our Idiot Brother" with Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Mortimer. It was the fifth film that Rudd starred in with Elizabeth Banks. He had previously appeared with her in "Wet Hot American Summer" (2001), "The Baxter" (2005), "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (2005) and "Role Models" (2008).


title: Paul Rudd

text: In 2012, Rudd signed to appear on four episodes of NBC's "Parks and Recreation" as Bobby Newport, a candidate for City Council and a rival of Amy Poehler's character Leslie Knope, a role for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series. In 2014, he began providing voiceovers for Hyundai television commercials. He has also voiced the audiobook recordings of John Hodgman's books "The Areas of My Expertise" (2005) and "More Information Than You Require" (2008).


title: Paul Rudd

text: On December 19, 2013, Rudd was officially confirmed as cast in the 2015 Marvel film "Ant-Man". He played lead character Scott Lang/Ant-Man. Rudd reprised his role in "" (2016) as well as "Ant-Man"s 2018 sequel, "Ant-Man and the Wasp"; he also co-wrote the latter. Rudd returned alongside Evangeline Lilly in "" (2019), which received critical acclaim and went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time. He is set to reprise his role in 2023 with "".


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd reprised his role as Andy from "Wet Hot American Summer" in the Netflix prequel "", alongside an ensemble cast including Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler and Elizabeth Banks, all reprising their roles from the 2001 film. In 2016, he appeared in the comedy-drama film "The Fundamentals of Caring", alongside Selena Gomez, and lent his voice to the animated films "The Little Prince" and "Sausage Party". He also lent his voice to a struggling actor named John in the animated comedy film "Nerdland" (2016), alongside Patton Oswalt. Rudd was also cast as the lead in "The Catcher Was a Spy" (2018), playing Moe Berg, a catcher for the Boston Red Sox who joined the OSS during World War II.


title: Paul Rudd

text: In August 2018, Rudd was cast in Netflix's comedy series "Living with Yourself", alongside Aisling Bea. He also executive produced the series, which premiered on October 18, 2019.


title: Paul Rudd

text: From 2004 until 2021, during all appearances on the late night comedy shows hosted by comedian Conan O'Brien, when promoting his projects Rudd would explain the clip that is about to be shown, but would then throw to a clip from the 1988 movie "Mac and Me" instead. Rudd admitted that he "never imagined" that the running gag would last so long. "There's something so tricky about it. Cause here I am. I'm gonna sell my wares on TV. Like, 'Here's something from what I just filmed.' It just seemed — and still does to a large extent — kind of insincere," he said.


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd has also appeared in Broadway plays, the first being "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" as Joe Farkas in 1997. The next year he appeared in "Twelfth Night" with Kyra Sedgwick and Max Wright at the Lincoln Center Theatre. In 2006, he appeared in the Broadway production of Richard Greenberg's "Three Days of Rain" with Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts at the Bernard Jacobs Theater. In 2012, Rudd appeared in the Broadway production of Craig Wright's "Grace" at the Cort Theatre. Starring alongside Rudd was Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington, and seven-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner.


title: Paul Rudd

text: in the original London production of Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things", and again Off-Broadway for three months starting in October 2001. Two years later, the film was made with all of the original cast.


title: Paul Rudd

text: In 2003, Rudd married Julie Yaeger, whom he met (shortly after working on "Clueless") in his publicist's office, where she worked. Yaeger has since become a screenwriter and producer. They live in Rhinebeck, New York, with their two children: son Jack Sullivan, born in 2006, and daughter Darby, born in 2010.


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd is a fan of MLB's Kansas City Royals, Kansas Jayhawks sports, and of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, for whom he narrated the 2007 season of HBO's "Hard Knocks."


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 1, 2015. He unveiled the 2,554th star on the mile-long strip of plaques on Hollywood Boulevard. He said, "I remember being a kid and walking this boulevard and reading the names and thinking about what so many other millions of people thought about, which is, you know, 'Who's that?'"


title: Paul Rudd

text: Rudd is a supporter of the Stuttering Association for the Young (SAY), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young people who stutter. He hosted its 6th Annual All-Star Bowling Benefit on January 22, 2018. He told "Vanity Fair" that he became an advocate for stuttering awareness after portraying a character who stuttered in a play. He is also a founder of the charity The Big Slick, a celebrity sports event in Kansas City every June to support Kansas City's Children's Mercy Hospital.


title: Paul Rudd

text: Since 2014, Rudd and fellow actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan have been co-owners of Samuel's Sweet Shop, a candy store in Rhinebeck, New York that they saved from closing when the previous owner, a friend of theirs, died unexpectedly.


title: Machu Picchu

text: Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain range. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province above the Sacred Valley, which is northwest of Cusco. The Urubamba River flows past it, cutting through the Cordillera and creating a canyon with a tropical mountain climate.


title: Machu Picchu

text: For most speakers of English or Spanish, the first 'c' in "Picchu" is silent. In English, the name is pronounced or , in Spanish as or , and in Quechua ("Machu Pikchu") as .


title: Machu Picchu

text: The Incas, in contrast to the Maya, had no written language, and no European visited the site until the 19th century, so far as is known. There are, therefore, no written records of the site while it was in use. The names of the buildings, their supposed uses, and their inhabitants are all the product of modern archaeologists, on the basis of physical evidence, including tombs at the site.


title: Machu Picchu

text: Most recent archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is the most familiar icon of Inca civilization. The Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later, at the time of the Spanish conquest. According to the new AMS radiocarbon dating, it was occupied from c. 1420–1532. Historical research published in 2022 claims that the site was probably called Huayna Picchu by the Inca, as it exists on the smaller peak of the same name.


title: Machu Picchu

text: Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are the "Intihuatana", the "Temple of the Sun", and the "Room of the Three Windows". Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give visitors a better idea of how they originally appeared. By 1976, 30% of Machu Picchu had been restored and restoration continues.


title: Machu Picchu

text: Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historic Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide internet poll.


title: Machu Picchu

text: In the Quechua language, "machu" means "old" or "old person", while "pikchu" means either "portion of coca being crunched" or "pyramid; pointed, multi-sided solid; cone". Thus the name of the site is sometimes interpreted as "old mountain". The site is on a narrow saddle between two mountain peaks: Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu.