The southern part of the Giza Plateau, spreading out from Menkaure's pyramid and its three queens' pyramids, is the most peaceful section of the complex. Fewer tour groups make it this far, the ground is rougher, and the sense of the plateau as a vast ancient necropolis rather than a tourist attraction is strongest here. Subsidiary tombs and mastabas are scattered across the desert in various states of preservation.
From this area you get the best view of all three pyramids lined up against the sky — the classic image that tells you how they were laid out in relation to each other, descending in size from north-east to south-west, their alignment roughly matching the belt stars of Orion (a theory proposed in 1994 by Robert Bauval, though archaeologists dispute whether this was intentional). The ground here has not been excavated to the same degree as the eastern and western cemeteries, and there is a real sense of unexplored territory.