It is illegal to climb the pyramids today. Tourists can still go inside the pyramids. At the time of this publication, it has been recommended to travel with caution to the Middle East due to civil and political unrest.
A short virtual tour around the pyramids
The Pyramids as they looked to Demetrius and Diomede in 250 BC. The larger one at the right was built by King Kheops for his own tomb; the one at the left by King Kephren. In front of Kheops’ Pyramid are smaller tombs for his family. In front of Kephren’s Pyramid is a raised stone causeway leading down toward the Nile Valley, past the Sphinx, and ending at a valley temple. In the lower left corner is a smaller Pyramid under construction (it’s finished in this picture, and moved to the upper left). It shows how inclines allowed slaves to drag the stones from one level to another. From 3000 BC, when the Pyramids were built, to about 650 AD, the sides of the tombs were covered with smooth white limestone. Nobody could climb the Pyramids in those days. Then the Arabs conquered Egypt, and, to build their own cities, they removed this smooth, white outer casing. This left the great steps of brown stone we see today. The Pyramids stand about one hundred feet above the level of the Nile, on a table-land at the edge of the Sahara Desert. (public domain drawing from History of Europe Ancient and Medieval by James Henry Breasted and James Harvey Robinson, Copyright 1920)