• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Egypt Travel Blog

  • Cities & Regions
    • Cairo
    • Giza
    • Luxor
    • Aswan
    • Abu Simbel
    • Alexandria
    • The Red Sea
    • Siwa
  • The Sites
    • The Pyramids & Sphinx
    • Downtown Cairo Sites
    • Luxor Sites
    • Aswan Sites
    • Abu Simbel
    • Alexandria Sites
    • Edfu
    • Kom Ombo
    • Abydos
    • Dendera
    • Siwa
  • Museums
    • All Cairo Area Museums
    • Old Egyptian Museum
    • Grand Egyptian Museum
    • National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
    • Abdeen Palace Museum
    • Royal Carriages Museum
    • Manial Palace Museum
    • Nubian Museum
    • Sharm el-Sheikh Museum 
  • Food & Dining
  • Hotel Reviews
    • Greater Cairo Hotels
    • Luxor Hotels
    • Red Sea Hotels
    • Alexandria Hotels
  • Travel Advice
  • Trips
  • News
  • The Podcast

Who “rediscovered” the Great Pyramid at Giza?

August 3, 2019 by Egypt Travel Blog

Note: This question was posted by a user on the question-and-answer website Quora. The answer below was provided by Egypt Travel Blog there and is re-posted here for our readers’ benefit as well.

There are several important points to make in answering this question. The first and most important is that the Great Pyramid at Giza was never lost or hidden, so it could never be discovered or rediscovered. The area around the Pyramids in Giza has been inhabited continuously since the time of the pyramids’ construction, and unlike many other ancient monuments in Egypt and elsewhere, we have no record of the Great Pyramid ever having been covered completely by sand to obscure its view or location.

We do know from the historical records that the Sphinx was once buried up to its neck in sand, which means that it is likely that rising sand dunes may have also covered the base of the Great Pyramid at times. But the majority of this structure has always been visible and it’s location known since it was constructed.

We in the West often speak of ancient sites being “rediscovered” at various points in history when mentions of them in our own historical records have subsided over time and when someone from our area visits this “forgotten” site and re-publicizes it. In other words, references to and knowledge of these sites may have disappeared from writings, scholarship, and conversations in Western societies, while common knowledge of the site may have persisted uninterrupted in societies located physically and geographically closer to them.

This type of “lost site” or “lost city” lore – and fallacy – can be understood well when we consider tales of the “rediscovery” of Petra in Jordan, for example. Petra was never actually lost. People continued to live around it and pass by it when traveling for thousands is years, although those included very few Europeans. When a Swiss explorer happened to come across this site in 1812, we in the West tend to say he “rediscovered” it because he publicized its existence to Western audiences who had largely never heard of this ancient but locally well known site before.

However, he didn’t just stumble upon it by accident. Bedouins who long knew of it’s existence and saw it frequently led him there when he got wind of it and asked to be taken to it. But to his friends, colleagues, and fans back home in Europe, it seemed as if he had “rediscovered” a site which to them had been lost to or previously unknown within their far-removed collective knowledge.

However, unlike Petra in Jordan or similar sites in Egypt, Giza, where the Great Pyramid lies, is not in a remote inaccessible region. It is in an area that is only about 200 km from the Mediterranean Sea and located along one of history’s most well-trafficked waterways, the Nile River. So everyone from great leaders and conquerors to the most junior of soldiers in invading armies to travelers to merchants of the Mediterranean and Far East to passing pilgrims along the land route to Mecca have all been seeing and passing on word of the highly-visible Great Pyramid’s existence continuously throughout history.

The Great Pyramid of Giza has never been lost or hidden and it has remained alive in the collective wisdom of those in the Far West, the Far East, and everywhere in between since the first stones rose from the hot Sahara sand more than 4,500 years ago. Therefore, the Great Pyramid at Giza never needed to be rediscovered.

Click here to see the full answer thread on Quora and give our new substantive answer an upvote while you’re there.

Filed Under: Quora

Other Neat Stuff

The Mystery of King Tut’s “Other Worldly” Burial Dagger Finally Solved

Although the entire field of Egyptology is only about 200 years old, dating back to the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone and the unlocking of the ancient hieroglyphic script in which the civilization’s history was recorded, the study of ancient Egyptian history and artifacts is still accelerating at an astonishing pace. With the application of […]

New archaeological finds in Egypt continue to astonish

Important discoveries out of Egypt have again been flooding the global news as archaeologists continue to explore beneath the sands of the Saqqara necropolis near Cairo, which is home to temples, burial grounds, and pyramids of the once-mighty ancient empire. Over the last year, researchers have unearthed at least 210 sarcophagi not touched since their burial two millennia ago, including the coffin of Queen Neit, […]

More Unsealed Mummies Discovered at Saqqara

If you’ve ever wandered around the rocky grounds of the Saqqara royal necropolis, the site of the Pharaoh Djoser’s famous Step Pyramid just south of the most famous pyramids at Giza, you’ve likely walked above hundreds of undiscovered treasures, mummies, and noble tombs still hidden in the ground beneath your feet. Frequent readers of the […]

Step Pyramid Interior Reopens to the Public

The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Sakkara is one of the most unique pyramids in Egypt and the oldest pyramid still standing anywhere in the world. While most of the other famous pyramids nearby at Giza and Dashur have been generally open for the public to go inside of them to explore the narrow passageways […]

Mummies on the Move

There have been quite a few recent developments about mummies in Egypt lately, including the largest discovery of mummies in over a century near Luxor, which was followed by the eruption of a minor a controversy over where those mummies will now be housed (national officials prefer the new Grand Egyptian Museum while local Luxor […]

Pet Mummies

We all know that the ancient Egyptians mummified the dead bodies of their loved ones with elaborate rituals and scientific rigor, whether they were a revered pharaoh or, if non-royal Egyptians could afford it, a beloved family member. But even in modern times, we can understand that human love and affection extend beyond just our […]

New Major Mummy Discovery Unveiled in Luxor

The largest new discovery of ancient Egyptian mummies in over a century has been revealed to the public by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities at a ceremony in the southern city of Luxor, resting place to hundreds of ancient pharaohs, other royalty, high court officials, and evidently more middle class folks as well. The discovery, which […]

New Discovery Makes Pharaohs Look Modern, Sort Of

A team of archaeologists work in northern Egypt have discovered the site of an ancient settlement that makes even the Pharaohs and the Pyramids look young, relatively speaking. The discovery was made in the town of Tel el-Samara, which is located north of Cairo in the fertile Nile Delta region. Egypt’s most famous pyramids at […]

Tracing the Physical Legacy of Cleopatra

On this year’s International Women’s Day today, Egypt Travel Blog would like to pay homage to one of ancient Egypt’s most famous figures and a woman whose life and legacy are worthy of remembrance. Cleopatra is one of the most famous women in all of human history. She was a beloved queen of an ancient […]

New Discoveries

One of the amazing things about Egypt is that the entire country is still an active archaeological site. With over five thousand years of history under its sands, the slice that we know about and have uncovered so far is by no means all there is to be discovered. When you visit the Pyramids couples, […]

Ancient Knowledge and Modern Remembrance

It’s National Library Week in the United States, so it’s as good of a time as any to talk about one of the world’s most famous libraries – the ancient Library of Alexandria. After the death of Alexander the Great and the founding of the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt, the Library of Alexandria was created […]

Visiting the Pyramids of Giza

Egypt’s most popular historical site, and one of the most well known the world over, is of course the Pyramids, the most famous of which are located just outside of Cairo. The greater Cairo area is a sprawling metropolis of nearly 20 million people spread out over dozens of suburbs on both sides of the […]

Luxor Temple

Despite its prominent name, Luxor Temple is actually the second most famous temple in Luxor behind the much larger and greater Temple of Karnak just down the road. However, Luxor Temple has several unique features of its own that merit a visit and some independent attention. The first and most obvious aspect of Luxor Temple […]

The Valley of the Queens

The Valley of the Queens in the area of Luxor is a lesser visited royal necropolis in which various family members of several dynasties of pharaohs were laid to rest. As the name suggests, many queens were buried here in elaborate tombs befitting their status and wealth, but many princesses and even princes had dedicated […]

World’s Oldest Haute Couture

Anyone a fan of vintage fashion? How about 5000 year old couture? One of the neat things about Egypt is that its advanced civilization was good at both recording and preserving its own history. Unlike most other of the world’s great ancient civilizations whose moist climates caused the disintegration of its remnants thousands of years […]

Primary Sidebar

Check out our hit podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Join our “Egypt Insider” email list!

Loading

Beware – Scams, Taboos, Faux Pas, & Other Crazy Stuff

“Dr.” Sherif and the Great Papyrus “Institute” Scam

All About Camels… and the Pyramids Camel Scam

What NOT to Wear in Egypt

Cairo’s Chaotic Traffic

Taking the Right Type of Taxi in Cairo & Giza

The Super Aggressive “Taxi Jumpers” at the Giza Pyramids

Discoveries, Artifacts, and Unique Takes on Egyptian History

The Mystery of King Tut’s “Other Worldly” Burial Dagger Finally Solved

New archaeological finds in Egypt continue to astonish

More Unsealed Mummies Discovered at Saqqara

Step Pyramid Interior Reopens to the Public

Mummies on the Move

Pet Mummies

New Major Mummy Discovery Unveiled in Luxor

New Discovery Makes Pharaohs Look Modern, Sort Of

Egypt Travel Blog and the Egypt Travel Blog Podcast are produced in partnership with Jetset.Ninja and Egypt Elite.
. .