Place:Giza, Al Jizah, Egypt

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Giza (; sometimes spelled Gizah, Gizeh or Jizah;) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 million as of 2021. It is located on the west bank of the Nile, southwest of central Cairo, and is a part of the Greater Cairo metropolis. Giza lies less than north of Memphis (Men-nefer), which was the capital city of the first unified Egyptian state from the days of the first pharaoh, Narmer.

Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau, the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples. Giza has always been a focal point in Egypt's history due to its location close to Memphis, the ancient pharaonic capital of the Old Kingdom. Its St. George Cathedral is the episcopal see of the Coptic Catholic Eparchy of Giza.

History

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Ancient era

The area in what is now Giza served as the necropolis of several pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt, during the second millennium BC. Three of these tombs, in the form of giant pyramids, are what is now the famed Giza pyramid complex.

Classical to medieval era

As ancient Egypt passed under several conquests under the Persians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, so did the area in what is now Giza. A Byzantine village named Phylake or Terso (meaning "the fortress", now Tersa) was located south of Giza and should not be confused with it.

Egyptians called the area Tipersis (also Tipersis enbabylon (which most likely refers to Babylon Fortress but may as well refer to Babylon in Mesopotamia) Tipersoi, Perso), which may correspond to Persians (as the name may be literally translated as "Persians of/from Babylon"). Eutychius gives a legend the about city's name and its foundation by Artaxerxes Ochus, while Abu Salih says it was found by a Persian king Hūš at the same time as Qasr ash-Sham.

As Muslims of the fledgling Islamic caliphate went on with their conquest of Egypt from the Byzantine Empire beginning in 639 AD, three years after their victory at the battle of Yarmouk in 636 AD, they conquered all of the land by the time they captured the city of Alexandria in 641 AD. A year later in 642 AD (year 21 in Islamic calendar), they founded the city of Giza. The exact etymology of its name is unknown. Al-Maqrizi suggested an irregular Arameo-Arabic root meaning "edge, side" to be the source. Everett-Heath suggested "on the side of the height (pyramid)". Peust also suggests a Persian etymology of the word from Middle Persian diz ("fortress, castle"), which Persians could have given to the pyramids or a fortress they found in the area.

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