Khufu Pyramid Stones Calculator

How many stones are in the Great Pyramid?

The Great Pyramid of Khufu holds something like 2.3 million blocks of limestone and granite. A typical block weighs around 2.5 tons, but the granite beams over the King's Chamber are in a different league: the biggest run up to 80 tons. Add it all up and you get an estimated ~6 million tons. It once stood 146.6 m tall and now reaches only ~139 m, since the capstone and the outer casing are long gone. Formula: stones = total_volume_m3 / volume_per_stone_m3.

Applications

It comes in handy for archaeology coursework and for planning tourism around Cairo when you're visiting the Giza plateau. It also gives some context for the Grand Egyptian Museum (opened 2025), which shows off artifacts pulled from pyramid-era quarries and worker villages.

FAQ

Are all blocks the same size? Not at all. Core blocks land somewhere between 1 and 1.5 m³, and the outer casing stones and granite beams are a whole other matter.

Where did the granite come from? The granite for the inner chambers was cut at the quarries in Aswan, about 800 km to the south, then floated down the Nile.

Why use limestone outside? The Giza plateau had limestone in abundance and it was easy to cut, so it was the obvious choice. For the smooth outer face they used the fine white limestone from Tura.