The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the most remarkable engineering feats in history, which, despite being built 4,500 years ago, still fascinates experts with the complexity and skill of its workmanship.

However, new research has shown that the pyramid is actually slightly lopsided due to an ancient construction glitch, leading to the west side of the structure being longer than the east side. This means that the base does not form a perfect square.

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The pyramid - which was originally covered in a facade of white limestone - was built as a tomb probably around 2560 BC during the reign of Pharoah Khufu.

However, the limestone casing was largely removed centuries ago, likely, for use as building material, according to Glen Dash from the Glen Dash Research Foundation. The organisation has been examining the structure in an attempt to understand how the pyramid looked when it was first built.

As part of this research, the Dash team set out to determine where the original edges of the limestone casing were positioned. Using this data, they calculated the original lengths of each side of the pyramid, finding that the west side was out by 14.1 centimetres.

In a structure whose sides measure more than 200 metres long, this is not substantial, especially given the constraints of ancient technology. However, the fact that the rest of the pyramid's construction was so incredibly precise means the latest findings are surprising.

Leaving this error aside, modern experts continue to be fascinated by how the ancient Egyptians were able to construct the pyramid with such accuracy.

"The data show that the Egyptians possessed quite remarkable skills for their time," Dash writes in a report, which can be viewed here. "We can only speculate as to how the Egyptians could have laid out these lines with such precision using only the tools they had.

"We hope to eventually figure out how the Egyptians laid out the pyramid with such precision and, in doing so, hope to learn much about the tools and technology they had at their disposal," he said.

In November 2017, the discovery of a mysterious hidden void deep inside the pyramid caused quite a stir among the scientific community. Subsequently, one professor has proposed, speculatively, that this void may house an iron throne built from metal brought to Earth by meteorites.