Ancient Egypt
Giza
In the 26th century B. C. three kings ordered the construction of three huge pyramids that would be their tombs. The kings were Khufu, his son Khafre, and his grandson Menkure. The first of these three pyramids is known as the Great Pyramid. It was the largest pyramid ever built. It is so large that it can be seen from the moon.
King Khufu's pyramid, built 4600 years ago, has a base that is about 756 feet long. It stood 756 feet tall when it was built. It is thirty-three stories high. When it was first built it was covered with bright, white limestone. It even had some tips of solid gold. The pyramid is made up of 2,500,000 stones. The blocks weighed an average of 2 1/2 tons each. These blocks were floated down the Nile from quarries hundreds of miles away. King Khufu hired 100,000 men to build the Great Pyramid. They worked three months a year for twenty years. The men that built the pyramids were farmers who could not farm during the months when the Nile River overflowed. They were paid for their work with housing, food, and clothing. Unlike the earlier pyramids the burial chamber in the Great Pyramid is inside the pyramid instead of underground.
Khafre's pyramid is only about 10 feet lower that his father's. Menkure's pyramid is much smaller at only 218 feet tall. Three small pyramids built for Khufu's queens stand near his pyramid. Several temples and rectangular tombs of Khufu's relatives are near these pyramids. The three pyramids stand next to the Sphinx near the town of Giza.
The Sphinx
The Sphinx is a structure with the head of a human and the body of a lion. It is over 4500 years old. The head of the Sphinx was carved from a solid piece of rock. The paws and legs were made from stone blocks added to the body. The head looked like the Pharaoh Khafre. The Sphinx is 240 feet in length. It is 66 feet tall with the legs. The Sphinx was built to remind the Egyptians that the pharaohs had extraordinary powers. The powers were from both nature and the gods.
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