Giza

   Modern name for the area near modern Cairo that was the main burial site for the rulers of Dynasty 4. The site is dominated by the three pyramid complexes of Khufu and Khufu’s son, Khafre, and grandson, Menkaure. The Sphinx appears to have been constructed under Khafre but was renovated by the later king, Thutmose IV. The pyramids are surrounded by the tombsof the wives, children, and officials of the monarchs. The most important early excavations here were carried out by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia in 1817 and the British John Perring and Howard Vyse from 1837–1838. In more modern times, the site has been excavated by several expeditions, the most notable led by Auguste Mariettein 1853; FlindersPetriefrom 1880–1881; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts under George Reisner from 1902–1939, whose discoveries included the tomb of Hetepheres, which was examined from 1924–1927; the Italian Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1903; the Austrian Hermann Junker from 1912–1929; the American Clarence Fisher for the University of Pennsylvania in 1915; and Egyptian archaeologists Selim Hassan from 1929–1939, Abdel-Moneim Abu Bakr for the University of Cairo from 1949–1976, an Egyptian team that excavated one of the boat graves beside the pyramid of Khufu in 1954; and more recently Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner in 1978, 1980, and since 1989. The University of Cairo resumed work in the area in 2000.

Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier