59 Fun Facts About Pyramids

Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the only one still largely intact?

The Great Pyramid of Giza, built for Khufu around 2560 BC, is the oldest of the seven wonders and the only one that survives; the others fell to earthquakes, fire or demolition.

How tall was the Great Pyramid when it was completed?

The Great Pyramid originally rose about 146 metres (481 ft); loss of its polished casing stones and apex has reduced it to roughly 138 metres.

For roughly how long did the Great Pyramid remain the tallest human-made structure on Earth?

The Great Pyramid was the tallest human-made structure for more than 3,700 years, roughly 3,800, from about 2560 BC until the 160-metre spire of Lincoln Cathedral topped it in 1311.

Roughly how many large stone blocks were quarried to build the Great Pyramid?

About 2.3 million blocks, averaging roughly 2.5 tonnes each, went into the Great Pyramid, a total mass close to 6 million tonnes.

The white limestone that once cased the Great Pyramid was shipped from which quarry?

The fine white casing limestone came from the Tura quarries on the Nile's east bank opposite Giza; the King's Chamber granite came from Aswan, far to the south, in blocks of up to 80 tonnes.

Which Abbasid caliph is said to have tunnelled into the Great Pyramid in AD 832?

Caliph al-Ma'mun's workmen forced the so-called Robbers' Tunnel into the Great Pyramid; legend says he found a jar of coins worth exactly the cost of the digging, possibly planted to placate his crew.

The Diary of Merer, a Great Pyramid supply logbook, was found in 2013 at which Red Sea site?

Pierre Tallet's team found the Diary of Merer in 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an Old Kingdom Red Sea harbour; it logs limestone shipments from Tura to the pyramid, called Akhet Khufu.

Writing around 450 BC, Herodotus claimed the Great Pyramid took how long to build?

Herodotus wrote that the pyramid itself took 20 years, after 10 years spent on its causeway, with 100,000 men working in three-month shifts; modern estimates are far lower.

Modern historians estimate roughly how many workers built the Great Pyramid?

Mark Lehner and others estimate about 20,000 to 30,000 workers; the excavated workers' town at Giza, with bakeries and cattle bones, shows paid crews fed bread, beer and beef, not slaves.

The lower 'air shafts' Waynman Dixon opened in 1872 lead from which part of the Great Pyramid?

Waynman Dixon located the Queen's Chamber's two shafts in 1872 after noticing a crack in the south wall; unlike the King's Chamber shafts they stop short of the pyramid's exterior.

What technique found the hidden cavity above the Great Pyramid's Grand Gallery in 2017?

The team nicknamed it the Big Void; muons are cosmic-ray particles that pass through rock at different rates depending on its density.

The Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt's first pyramid, was built for which Third Dynasty king?

Djoser, a Third Dynasty king of about 2650 BC, was buried beneath the Step Pyramid at Saqqara; the monument reopened to visitors in March 2020 after a 14-year restoration.

How many tiers does the Step Pyramid at Saqqara have?

The Step Pyramid rises in six tiers of diminishing size to about 62.5 metres; it began as a flat mastaba that was enlarged in stages.

Which royal official, later worshipped as a god, is credited with designing Egypt's first step pyramid?

Imhotep, the king's chancellor and high priest of Heliopolis, designed the Step Pyramid at Saqqara; centuries later he was deified as a god of medicine and healing, and his tomb has never been found.

The partially collapsed monument at Meidum is known in Egyptian Arabic by a nickname meaning what?

Locals call the Meidum monument el-heram el-kaddab, 'the false pyramid', because the collapse of its outer layers left a tower-like core rising from a mound of rubble.

The Bent Pyramid rises at about 54°, but its upper section was finished at what shallower angle?

The Bent Pyramid's slope drops from about 54° to 43° partway up, a change usually read as a mid-build response to signs of structural instability.

Sneferu's Bent Pyramid stands at which royal necropolis about 40 km south of Cairo?

The Bent Pyramid stands at Dahshur, the necropolis Sneferu founded about 40 km south of Cairo; it keeps much of its original polished limestone casing.

Egypt's first successful smooth-sided 'true' pyramid, built by Sneferu, is known by which colour name?

The Red Pyramid takes its name from the reddish limestone of its exposed core; it was originally cased in white limestone and is Egypt's third-largest pyramid.

Sneferu, builder of the Bent Pyramid, was the first pharaoh of which Egyptian dynasty?

Sneferu founded the Fourth Dynasty around 2613 BC; his son Khufu followed him and built the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Why does the pyramid of Khafre look taller than the Great Pyramid next to it, even though it is shorter?

Its bedrock sits about 10 metres higher, and it also keeps a cap of original casing stones near its summit.

Which of the three main pyramids at Giza is the smallest?

Menkaure's pyramid originally stood about 65 metres tall, less than half the height of Khufu's; its lowest courses were cased in Aswan granite rather than limestone.

The builder of the smallest Giza pyramid died before it was done; which successor finished it?

Shepseskaf, who followed him on the throne, finished the complex hastily in mudbrick; the granite casing stopped at about sixteen courses, with some blocks never dressed smooth.

How long is the Great Sphinx of Giza from paw to tail?

The Great Sphinx is about 73 metres (240 ft) long and 20 metres high, carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau, most likely in the reign of Khafre.

A popular but false story blames whose troops for shooting off the Great Sphinx's nose?

Napoleon's troops arrived in 1798, yet Frederic Norden's drawings of 1737 already show the Sphinx without its nose; chisel marks suggest it was deliberately pried off centuries earlier.

The Great Sphinx has the head of a human and the body of which animal?

The Great Sphinx pairs a lion's crouching body with a human head, probably Khafre's; Egyptian sphinxes are usually male and wingless, unlike the winged female sphinx of Greek myth.

In his Dream Stele, the pharaoh Thutmose IV refers to the Great Sphinx as which solar deity?

Thutmose IV's stele calls the Sphinx Hor-em-akhet, 'Horus in the Horizon', Hellenised as Harmachis, and promises him the throne for clearing away its sand; the statue's Old Kingdom name is unknown.

The Pyramid Texts, the oldest Egyptian funerary spells, were first inscribed in which Fifth Dynasty king's pyramid?

Unas, last king of the Fifth Dynasty, had the spells carved in his Saqqara pyramid around 2350 BC; Gaston Maspero entered it in 1881, and the tradition later fed the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead.

Which country has more surviving pyramids than any other?

Sudan has more than 200 surviving pyramids, the steep, narrow royal tombs of ancient Nubia, outnumbering Egypt's.

The Nubian pyramids of the Nile Valley were built by the rulers of which ancient kingdom?

The Kingdom of Kush ruled Nubia from Napata and later from a capital further upstream; its kings adopted pyramid burial and ruled Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.

The last Nubian royal pyramid went up around AD 350 at which site?

The royal cemetery at Meroë, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, received the last Nubian pyramid around AD 350, when the kingdom that built it collapsed.

The earliest Nubian royal pyramids, dated to 751 BC, were built at which cemetery of the Napatan kings?

El-Kurru, downstream of Jebel Barkal, holds the earliest Napatan royal pyramids; later burials moved about 25 km upstream to Nuri, beginning with Taharqa.

The tradition of royal pyramid burial in Nubia is believed to have originated with which Kushite king?

Piankhy, better known as Piye, was the first Kushite king buried beneath a pyramid; he conquered Egypt in the late eighth century BC and ruled as a Twenty-fifth Dynasty pharaoh.

Tlachihualtepetl at Cholula, the world's largest pyramid by volume, stands in which Mexican state?

The Great Pyramid of Cholula lies in the state of Puebla, east of Mexico City; built of adobe with a base about 450 metres a side, it looks like a natural hill.

According to Guinness, the world's largest pyramid has a total volume of over how many cubic metres?

The Great Pyramid of Cholula's estimated volume exceeds 4.45 million cubic metres, nearly twice the roughly 2.5 million of the taller Great Pyramid of Giza.

The overgrown 'constructed mountain' at Cholula was undisturbed in the 19th century except for what on its summit?

The Spanish built the Catholic church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios on the summit in 1594; it remained the only intrusion on the hill-like Cholula pyramid until tunnelling began in 1931.

El Castillo at Chichen Itza was built as a temple to which feathered-serpent deity of the Yucatec Maya?

El Castillo, formally Structure 5B18, was raised as the Temple of Kukulcán, the Yucatec Maya feathered serpent who corresponds to Quetzalcoatl of central Mexico.

Counting the top platform as a step, El Castillo's four stairways at Chichen Itza total how many steps?

Each of the four stairways has 91 steps; with the temple platform counted as one more, the total is 365, matching the days of the solar year.

Around the equinoxes, late-afternoon shadows on El Castillo at Chichen Itza create the illusion of what?

Near each equinox the stepped corner casts a zigzag of sunlit triangles along the north stairway that meets the carved serpent head at its foot: a serpent slithering down the stairs.

A red throne shaped like which animal was found in the inner temple inside Chichen Itza's El Castillo?

The red jaguar throne, painted and inlaid with jade discs for spots and white shell fangs, sits in the inner temple of the earlier pyramid buried inside El Castillo, beside a chacmool.

Who gave the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan its name?

The Aztecs, who found Teotihuacan in ruins centuries after its fall, gave it and its Pyramid of the Sun their Nahuatl names; the builders' own name for it is unknown.

The Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan stand along which grandly named thoroughfare?

The Avenue of the Dead, Teotihuacan's roughly 2 km main axis, runs south from the Pyramid of the Moon past the Pyramid of the Sun; later peoples mistook the platforms lining it for tombs.

The Pyramid of the Magician is the tallest structure in which Maya city of the Puuc region?

Uxmal's Pyramid of the Magician, about 35 metres tall with unusual rounded sides, was built in five superimposed stages; the city's name is often read as 'thrice-built'.

The stepped, flat-topped temple towers of ancient Mesopotamia are known by what name?

They were built by Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians and Assyrians, with cores of sun-baked brick.

Which architect designed the glass pyramid that serves as the main entrance to the Louvre?

I. M. Pei, the Chinese-American architect chosen by President Mitterrand, designed the Louvre Pyramid; critics then complained a foreigner was too unfamiliar with French culture for the job.

In what year was the Louvre Pyramid completed?

The Louvre Pyramid was completed and inaugurated in 1989, the bicentenary of the French Revolution, as part of the Grand Louvre project Mitterrand launched in 1981.

Rumour says the Louvre Pyramid has 666 glass panes; how many does the museum say it has?

The museum counts 673 panes, 603 rhombi and 70 triangles; the 666 legend traces to an official 1980s brochure that printed that figure twice.

In what year did the pyramid-shaped Luxor resort open on the Las Vegas Strip?

The Luxor opened on 15 October 1993, built by Circus Circus Enterprises for about $375 million with 2,526 rooms inside its 30-storey black-glass pyramid.

Since 1993, the Luxor's Sky Beam in Las Vegas has claimed what distinction?

The Luxor Sky Beam, billed as the most powerful man-made light in the world, was rated at 42.3 billion candela at its 1993 debut, from 39 xenon lamps of 7,000 watts each.

The Pyramid of Cestius, built around 18–12 BC as a magistrate's tomb, stands in which city?

The Pyramid of Cestius stands in Rome beside the Porta San Paolo; its steep 36-metre profile copies the pyramids of Nubia, which Roman forces had attacked in 23 BC.

The pyramid tomb of Gaius Cestius was completed in how many days?

The tomb's inscription records that Cestius's heirs finished it in 330 days, as his will required; its survival owes much to being built into the Aurelian Walls around AD 275.

The 48-storey Transamerica Pyramid, completed in 1972, is a landmark of which US city?

The Transamerica Pyramid, at 853 feet, was San Francisco's tallest building from 1972 until Salesforce Tower overtook it in 2017; its tapering shape was meant to let more light reach the street.

Which architect designed the Transamerica Pyramid?

William Pereira designed the Transamerica Pyramid; his other works include the Geisel Library at UC San Diego and the master plan for Irvine, California.

The Pyramid Fields of Memphis, including Giza, joined the World Heritage list in which year?

Memphis and its Necropolis, the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur, was inscribed in 1979 among Egypt's first World Heritage sites, covering about 16,000 hectares.

Roughly how many pyramids have been identified in Egypt?

Surveys have identified around 138 pyramids in Egypt, from the Step Pyramid at Saqqara to ruined Middle Kingdom tombs; many survive only as rubble mounds, and counts rise as ruined examples are recognised.

Who produced the first modern list of pyramids in 1842, counting 67?

Karl Richard Lepsius catalogued 67 pyramids during his Prussian expedition of 1842; his number 29, the 'Headless Pyramid' at Saqqara, vanished under sand and was relocated only in 2008.

On which side of the Nile do all of Egypt's pyramids but one stand?

Egypt's pyramids stand on the west bank of the Nile, the side of the setting sun and the dead; the lone exception is the small Third Dynasty step pyramid at Zawyet el-Maiyitin.

The mostly ruined pyramid at Abu Rawash, Egypt's most northerly, was built for which son of Khufu?

Djedefre, Khufu's son and immediate successor, built at Abu Rawash; once thought abandoned unfinished, the pyramid appears from recent excavation to have been completed at roughly Menkaure's size, then quarried away.

Which site, with fourteen pyramids of low-quality local limestone, was the main royal necropolis of the Fifth Dynasty?

Abusir, between Giza and Saqqara, holds fourteen pyramids including those of Sahure, Neferirkare and Niuserre; their low-grade local limestone marks a drop in quality after the Fourth Dynasty.

When large pyramids returned in the Middle Kingdom, what replaced stone as the main material?

Middle Kingdom kings such as Senusret II and Amenemhat III built cores of mudbrick behind stone casings; once the casing was stripped, the brick eroded into shapeless mounds.