The Pyramids stand at the edge of the desert, on the western side of the Nile, but an hour or two's distance from the city. After crossing the ferry, the stranger imagines them close at hand, though he has still a good long mile to traverse. A near view is generally disappointing; and it is not until the visitor begins to make comparisons, that the fact of their exceeding vastness comes home to the mind. The base of the Great Pyramid of Cheops is nearly 800 feet square, covering a surface of eleven acres; and its height is 461 feet, being 117 feet higher than St. Paul's Cathedral. It is a common feat of travellers to ascend, with the aid of a couple of Arab guides, to the summit; which may be reached by an active man in about twenty minutes.

金字塔矗立在尼罗河西部沙漠的边缘地带，但是距离城市有一两个小时的路程。穿过渡轮之后，对这里不熟悉的人都会觉得它们近在咫尺，然而我们还需穿过很远的一段距离才能到达那里。近景通常令人失望，旅行者只有在对比中才能由衷地感受到它那超乎寻常的巨大。胡夫大金字塔的底部近800平方英尺，占地面积为11英亩，高度为461英尺，比圣保罗大教堂高出117英尺。在几个阿拉伯向导的帮助下，旅行者们通常会攀至塔顶，一个体力充沛的人大概20分钟就能到达。

"The view from the top," says Stanley, "has the same vivid contrast of life and death which makes all wide views in Egypt striking—the desert and the green plain: only the view over the desert—the African desert—being much more extensive here than elsewhere, one gathers in better the notion of the wide, heaving ocean of sandy billows, which hovers on the edge of the Valley of the Nile. The white line of the minarets of Cairois also a peculiar feature—peculiar, because it is strange to see a modern Egyptian city which is a grace instead of a deformity to the view. You see also the strip of desert running into the green plain on the east of the Nile, which marks Heliop'olis and Goshen."

斯坦利说：“塔顶的景色就像生和死一样差异巨大。这使得纵观之下，埃及所有的景象——沙漠和绿洲：只有沙漠地区(非洲沙漠)才能看到的景象，比任何地区的沙漠都要更加地宽广，这样人们才能对那片盘旋在尼罗河河谷边缘的广阔的、起伏的沙漠海洋有一个更好的概念。开罗尖塔的白线也独具一格，因为你看到的不是一座残缺的、而是一座优雅的现代化的埃及，这点是很奇怪的。你还可以看到沙漠地带延伸到尼罗河东部的绿色平原，那里就是黑里欧波里斯和歌珊地。”