Giza is a town on the west bank of the Nile River, near Cairo. With a population of over 2.5 million people, it is considered one of the world’s largest suburbs. Giza is famous because it is the home of the Giza Plateau, site of the Great Pyramids, the Great Sphinx and several other important ancient Egyptian pyramids and temples. The monuments were all built at a time when the Nile flowed right into the Giza Plateau; they overlooked the river and the ancient capital of Memphis. Memphis and its necropolis, including the pyramid fields at Giza, comprise a UNESCO World Heritage Site: “The capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt has some extraordinary funerary monuments, including rock tombs, ornate mastabas [flat-roofed tombs], temples and pyramids. In ancient times, the city was considred one of the Seven Wonders of the World.”