It wasn't a hot, parched landscape back in its day, though. Climate changed just a couple of thousand years before Menes, and held on for a while after before Menes came along. The feature above the entrance to Khufu's pyramid offers what was there before the pyramid was built...a couple of mounds that were quite important to the entire centre of what the Giza complex offers with its Sphinx and Sphinx temples and subsequent pyramids.

The location is the important bit. It offers great mathematical properties that equate to the cosmos and Earth, as well as Egypt itself. It does look like the sun had a lot to say about this though.

Cheers