The granite for the King’s Chamber was quarried at Aswan in southern Egypt.
Most of the Great Pyramid of Giza was built from limestone quarried locally on the Giza Plateau, but its important inner chambers used granite transported from Aswan. The King’s Chamber is faced entirely with granite, including its walls and massive ceiling beams.
Aswan lies more than 900 kilometres south of Giza. Ancient workers could move the stone northward by boat on the Nile, probably using waterways and harbours connected to the pyramid-building area. Even so, quarrying, shaping, loading and positioning these blocks was a remarkable logistical undertaking; some granite beams weigh between roughly 25 and 80 tonnes.
A common mix-up is to name Tura, another important Egyptian quarrying area. Tura supplied the fine white limestone used for the Great Pyramid’s outer casing, while Aswan supplied granite for the King’s Chamber and relieving chambers. The chamber also contains Khufu’s granite sarcophagus, though the pyramid was found without the king’s burial.