When the Great Pyramid was being built, what was the capital of Egypt?

During the golden age of pyramid construction in Egypt's Old Kingdom, around 2560 BCE, the nation's political and cultural heart was the great (Review) city of Memphis. Strategically founded at the apex of the Nile Delta, where the river valley of Upper Egypt meets the fertile plains of Lower Egypt, Memphis was the perfect location to govern a unified kingdom. It was a bustling metropolis filled with palaces, temples, and artisan workshops, serving as the seat of power for the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty, including Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid.

The famous Giza Plateau, where the Great Pyramid stands, was not the city itself but rather its royal necropolis, or "city of the dead." The pharaohs and their courts lived and ruled in vibrant Memphis, and from there they oversaw the construction of their monumental tombs across the Nile River. This arrangement separated the realm of the living from the realm of the eternal, with the river serving as a symbolic passage between the two.

While other cities, such as Thebes and later Alexandria, would eventually rise to prominence as Egypt's capital in different eras, Memphis held its status as the dominant center of civilization for over 3,000 years. During the entire period when the iconic pyramids of Giza were being raised, all roads and all power led back to Memphis.