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N ear the Nile River on the Giza Plateau not far from Egypt’s capital city of Cairo stand the pyramids, long considered among the greatest wonders of the world. More than 100 pyramids remain in Egypt.They all have four triangular sides rising from a square base and meeting at a point.The Giza pyramids were built between 2589 BCE and 2504 BCE, a period of 85 years, during a time known as the Pyramid Age. Guarded by the Great Sphinx of Giza (a sphinx is a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human), the Great Pyramid of Cheops, also called Khufu, is perhaps the most famous, and the largest pyramid ever built. It is the only surviving “wonder” of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (as defined by the engineer and writer Philo of Byzantium in 225 BCE).The Great Pyramid was the focal point of a complex that featured several small pyramids, boat pits, a mortuary temple, and flat-roofed tombs. WhyWereThey Built? The predominant archaeological theory, which Herodotus, a fifth-century Greek from the democratic city of Athens, put forth is that the pyramids are immense tombs for kings from this period.Those on the Giza Plateau were built for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.Ancient Egyptians viewed

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Mysterious Places