Giza (/ˈɡiːzə/; sometimes spelled Gizah or Jizah; Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [el ˈgiːze]) is the third-largest city in Egypt and the capital of the Giza Governorate. It is located on the west bank of the Nile, 4.9 km (3 mi) southwest of central Cairo, and is a core city of the Greater Cairo metropolis.
Giza lies less than 20 km (12.43 mi) 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.
The "city" of Giza is the capital of the Giza Governorate, and is located near the northeast border of this governorate. The city's population was reported as 2,681,863 in the 2006 national census, while the governorate had 6,272,571 at the same census, without specifying what the city is. The former figure corresponds to the sum of 9 kisms.
Technically, Giza may not be an incorporated municipal unit (and therefore not a city) at all. In a typical Egyptian fashion, there are two districts within the Governorate with the same name: a kism/qasm and associated markiz. Some 9 urban kisms of Giza Governorate form collectively a contiguous area of 98.4km2 directly opposite side of the Nile from Cairo, and recorded a preliminary count of 4,146,340 in 2017 census count, not including the Al-Ḥawāmidiyah kism separated by Giza markiz. It is unclear if the 9 urban kisms represent a single entity; the structure may be similar to that of 23 wards of Tokyo in that all local units are simply subordinate to the Prefecture of Tokyo without any intermediate municipal structure.
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