Which dynasty was responsible for building the Giza pyramids?

The Giza pyramids were built during Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

The three principal monuments were constructed for successive Fourth-Dynasty rulers: Khufu commissioned the Great Pyramid, Khafre built the second pyramid, and Menkaure built the smallest. Their projects transformed the Giza Plateau into a royal cemetery during the height of Egypt’s pyramid-building tradition.

The dynasty is generally placed in the 26th century BC, although exact dates remain debated because Egyptian chronology is reconstructed from several kinds of evidence. Giza was not the only pyramid field of the period; other royal monuments were built at sites including Dahshur, Abu Rawash, and Meidum.

A common mistake is choosing the Third Dynasty because Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara is famous as the earliest large stone pyramid. The Fifth and Sixth Dynasties also built pyramids, but they came after the major Giza monuments. The workers’ settlement, temples, causeways, and cemeteries at Giza show that the site was a large ritual and logistical complex, not simply three isolated tombs.