This is the only wonder of the ancient world that is still standing
This is the only wonder of the ancient world that is still standing
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
From pyramids to temples, our ancestors knew how to get things done.
More than 2,000 years ago, travelers would write about incredible sights they had seen on their journeys. Over time, seven of those places made history as the «wonders of the ancient world.» Check them out here.
The Pyramids of Giza
Massive tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, the pyramids are the only ancient wonders still standing today. The tallest of the three is called the Great Pyramid.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Legend has it that this garden paradise was planted on an artificial mountain and construct to please the wife of King Nebuchadnezzar II, but many experts say it never really existed.
Temple of Artemis
Built to honor Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, this temple was said to have housed many works of art.
Statue of Zeus
This 40-foot (12-meter) statue depicted the king of the Greek gods.
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
This elaborate tomb was built for King Mausolus and admired for its architectural beauty and splendor.
Colossus of Rhodes
A 110-foot (33.5-meter) statue honored the Greek sun god Helios.
Lighthouse of Alexandria
Towering over the Mediterranean coast for more than 1,500 years, the world’s first lighthouse used mirrors to reflect sunlight for miles out to sea.
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Угадайте, какие чудеса света описаны. Guess what Wonders of the world are described. 1. This is the only wonder of the ancient world that is still sta.
Угадайте, какие чудеса света описаны.
Guess what Wonders of the world are described.
1. This is the only wonder of the ancient world that is still standing, and it is great in every aspect. Built over 20 years, it held the record for the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 380 years.
2. Consisting of large stones in a standing position and forming a circle, it is believed to have been built around 250 BC. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Recent studies have led archaeologists to believe that it was used as a burial site in its time.
3. The literal translation of its name is Old Mountain» It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. It is believed to be an Inca site.
4. Though not man-made, its amazing peak certainly deserves a place in the top 10 wonders of the world as a natural wonder. Standing at 8848 m tall, it is the highest peak in the world above sea level, and was first conquered by Edmund Hillary a Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
5. Certainly one of the most known structures in the world, it is indeed a learning structure, standing at 5586 m tall. It used to lean by 5.5 degrees but restoration work carried out between 1991 and 200 has reduced that angle to 3.99 degrees.
6. It is a massive structure, which is actually an amphitheatre, and is the largest ever built in Italian history. It is elliptical in shape and is capable of seating 500 people. Though damaged partially by massive earthquakes and stone robbers, this marvellous feat of Roman engineering has survived all the tough tins.
7. It is a breath taking structure made of marble, and is located in India. Built over 30 years, it comprises of a dome mausoleum, and also has the shrines of its creator, the emperor Shah Jahan and his wife, Mum Begum, in whose memory
the structure was actually built. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is a symbol of iconic beauty and love.
8. This structure is also one of the most famous ones in the world. It is actually a collection of walls built across centuries by many dynasties. The whole series of walls spans 88518 km and is a fascinating wonder.
Ancient Wonders of the world
The Great Pyramid is only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that still stands.
It was built at the order of the Paraoh Cheops, who once ruled Egypt. More than 100,000 slaves labored for twenty years to build it. They had no machines, not even carts-all the work was done by human strength alone. Yet each huge block was so well laid that the Pyramid has stood for 5,000 years.
Near the Great Pyramid in Egypt stands a huge sculptured rock called the Sphynx. The face is that of a man, perhaps the Paraoh Kharfe who had it built almost 5,000 years ago. But the body is that of a lion, and between its great stone paws is a small temple. Since no one knows exactly why is the Sphynx was built, it remains a symbol of mystery- a riddle.
In Babylon, one of the great cities of the Ancient World, there was a famous garden which amazed visitors for hundreds years. It was called the Hanging Gardens, because it was built along arches and towers and looked like a wall of flowers and green shrubs. The garden was kept alive by a hidden pool on the highest terrace, from which the water was drawn to appear in a series of fountains. The gardens were built by the King Nebuchodnozzor, who mentioned in the Bible as a cruel conqueror of Jerusalem.
The greatest god of the ancient Greeks was Zeus, for whom the Roman name was called Jupiter. The greatest statue of Zeus was at Olympia, where the famous Olympic Games were held in its honor. The statue was 40 feet high-about seven times a man’s height-and was made of marble, decorated with pure gold and ivory. After 1,000 years, an earthquake tumbled it down.
The Temple of Artemis is one of the most famous temples of the ancient world. It stood for 600 years in Ephesus, a great city of Syria. The temple was sacred to Artemis, also called Diana, goodness of the moon. The finest sculptors and painters of Greece decorated this beautiful building, which was destroyed by the barbaric Goths. Only a few pieces of statues columns remained. Modern scientists dug them up.
Few remember the tiny kingdom of Caria, which once flourished in what is now southwestern Turkey. But the name of its king, Mausolus, is known of the world “mausoleum”- a massive tomb. The original Artemisia, was so magnificent that it was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.
Rhodes, an island near Greece, was so magnificent that it was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. Standing across the entrance to its big harbour, was a huge statue of the sun god Helios, famous as the Colossus of Rhodes. Although ships sailed beneath these of Liberty.
The most famous lighthouse in ancient times was the Pharos of Alexandria, the Great. It guarded the harbor of Alexandria, in Egypt, and light atop a high tower could be seen for sixty miles. To keep the beacon the powerful electric lamps behind glass lenses used in our lighthouses were not yet.
Text 4
Modern Building Materials
Part 1
Some of the most important building materials are: timber, brick, stone, concrete, metal, plastics and glass.
Timber is provided by different kinds of trees. Timbers used for building purposes are divided into two groups called softwoods and hardwoods. Timber is at present not so much used in building construction, as in railway engineering, in mining and in the chemical industry where it provides a number of valuable materials.
However, timber is still employed as a building material in the form of boards. For the interior of buildings plywood and veneer serve a number of purposes.
A brick is best described as a «building unit». It may be made of clay by moulding and baking in kilns, of concrete, of mortar or of a composition of sawdust and other materials. In shape it is a rectangular solid and its weight is from 6’/2 to 9 Ib.
There exists variety of bricks for different purposes: ordinary, hollow or porous, lightweight, multicolor bricks for decorative purposes, etc. Bricks are usually laid in place with the help of mortar. The shape and convenient size of brick enables a man to grip it with an easy confidence and, because of this, brick building has been popular for many hundreds of years. The hand of the average man is large enough to take a brick and he is able to handle more than 500 bricks in an eight-hour working day.
It is necessary, therefore, for the «would be» bricklayer to practice handling a brick until he can control it with complete mastery and until he is able to place it into any desired position.
The brick may be securely handled by placing the hand over the surface of the upper part of a brick and by placing the thumb centrally down the face of the brick with *the first joints of the fingers 1 on the opposite face. It is better to protect the thumb and the fingers with leather pads, which also prevent the skin from rough bricks.
Sometimes natural stones such as marble, granite, basalt, limestone and sandstone are used for the construction of dams and foundations. Marble, granite and sandstone are widely used for decorative purposes as well, especially with the public buildings.
Natural stoneis used for foundations and for the construction of dams. The main varieties of building stone are basalt, granite, marble, sandstone and limestone.
Metals: A luminium, principally in the form of various alloys, is highly valued for its durability and especially for its light weight, vshilebrass is frequently used for decorative purposes in facing.
Steelfinds its use in corrugated sheets for roofing, for girders, frames, etc. Various shapes are employed in construction.
Plastics are artificial materials used in construction work *for a vast number of purposes. 2 Nowadays plastics, which are artificial materials, can be applied to almost every branch of building, from the laying of foundation to the final coat of paint. Synthetic resins are the main raw material for plastics. Plastics have some good advantages as they are lighter than metals, not subject to corrosion, *and they can be easier machined. 3 Besides, they are inflammable, they can take any color and pattern, and they are good electrical insulators. More over, they possess a high resistance to chemical action.
A lot of decorative plastics, now available, have brought about a revolution in interior and exterior design. But plastics are used now not only for decoration. These materials are sufficiently rigid to stand on their own without any support. They can be worked with ordinary builders’ tools.
Laminate is a strong material manufactured from many layers of paper or textile impregnated with thermosetting resins. This sandwich is then pressed and subjected to heat. Laminate has been developed for both inside and outside use. Itresists severe weather conditions for more than ten years without serious deformation. As a structural material it is recommended for exterior work. Being used for surfacing, laminate gives the tough surface.
Foamed glassis a high-porosity heat insulating material, available in block made of fine-ground glass and a frothing agent.
Foamed glass is widely used in prefabricated house building, to ensure heat insulation of exterior wall panels, and in industrial construction.
Foamed glass has a high mechanical strength, is distinguished by moisture, vapour and gas impermeability. It is non-inflammable, offers resistance to frost, possesses a high sound adsorption, and it is easily sewn and nailed.
Structural foamed glass blocks designed to Fill ceilings, and for making interior partitions in buildings and rooms, to ensure heat and sound insulation.
For insulation mineral wool or cinder wool is often resorted to.
Text 5
Modern Building Materials
Part 2
Concrete is perhaps the most widely spread building material used nowadays. Concrete is an artificial stone, made by thoroughly mixing such natural ingredients or aggregates as cement, sand and gravel or broken stone together with sufficient water to produce a mixture of the proper consistency. It has many valuable properties. It sets under water, can be poured into moulds so as to get almost any desirable form, and together with steel in reinforced concrete it has very high strength, also resists fire. Prestressed concrete is most widely used at present while prefabricated blocks are employed on vast scale for skeleton structures.
AGGREGATES FOR CONCRETE
By the simple definition from the dictionary “aggregates are the materials, such as sand and small stones, that are mixed with cement to form concrete”. In other words aggregates (or cushioning materials) can be defined as a mass of practically inert mineral materials, which, when surrounded and bonded together by an active binder, from the rock. This rock is denoted by the general term concrete.
Aggregates have three principal functions in the concrete: they provide a relatively cheap filler for the concreting material, or binder; they provide a mass of particles which are suitable for resisting the action of applied loads, of abrasion, of percolation of moisture through the mass, and of climate factors; they reduce volume changes resulting from the action of the setting and hardening of the concrete mass.
All aggregates, both natural and artificial, which have sufficient strength and resistance to weathering, and which do not contain harmful impurities may be used for making concrete.
As aggregates such natural materials as sand, pebbles, broken stone, broken brick, gravel, slag, cinder, pumice and others can be used.
Prestressed concrete is not a new material. Its successful use has been developed rapidly during the last two decades, chiefly because steel of a more suitable character has been produced. Concrete is strong in compression but weak when used for tensile stresses.
If, therefore, we consider a beam made of plain concrete, and spanning a certain distance, it will be at once be realized that the beam’s own weight will cause the beam to “sag” or bend. This sagging at once puts the lower edge of the beam in tension, and if the cross-sectional areas is small, causes it to break, especially if the span is relatively large.
If, on the other hand, we use a beam of similar cross-section, but incorporate steel bars in the lower portion, the steel will resist the tensile stress derived from the sag of the beam, and thus assist in preventing it from breaking.
In prestressed concrete steel is not used as reinforcement, but as a means of producing a suitable compressive stress in the concrete is permanently under compression, and is consequently devoid of crack under normal loading, or so long as the “elastic limit” is not exceeded.
Prestressed concrete is not only used for beams but is now employed extensively for columns, pipes, and cylindrical water towers, storage tanks, etc.
Text 6
Design
-External features of a product; and it is especial-
-Structural and functional interrelations which transform a product into a single whole from the point of view of the consumer and from the point of view of the manufacturer.
Design to project. Design takes many forms in different contexts. In the applied arts, such as graphic design, industrial design, fashion design, functional art, and decorative art, design is considered a noun as it is a verb.
Design allows human beings to effectively communicate ideas and information. It cuts across a wide range of applied arts from fashion design to industrial design.
Design as a noun can refer to a drawing or a sketch. It could also be a graphic representation of a detailed plan for construction uses. It may also be described as a basic plan or pattern that could affect or control the environment. Design as a noun can also be used as an intent or purpose, a secret plot or ploy. In the context of a verb, design is the series of different processes involved in creating a plan meant for aesthetic and functional objects. These processes, or the design process, as it can be called, require significant time for deliberation, research, shaping and reshaping, adjustments, and redesign.
To design is to fashion in the mind, to create a plan in a systematic format, to execute plans, and to create designs. Our everyday lives are surrounded by the designs of people who are resourceful, creative and imaginative. We live in houses designed by architects, and ride in cars inspired by engineers. Our household items are product of a new form of art called industrial design.
The clothes we wear from shirts to jeans to underwear clothing are created by ingenious fashion designers, and the furniture pieces we install in our homes were created by the exceptional craftsmanship of their design makers.
To design entails careful evaluation of the product to be created, continuous planning, modeling and remodeling of the product, testing, and redesigning. People who are involved in design are usually creative, organized, and technology conscious.
They are committed to their craft and work well with others, because design is a process which cannot be achieved and perfected alone. This quality also helps them when they deal with clients whose ideas are different from theirs.
The design arena involve careers such as art directing, where you will be tasked to create visual concepts for a large number of products, from billboards to CD jackets.
Another occupation is that of a graphic designer, where you will design the packaging of books, magazines, catalogs, posters, and CD inserts. Industrial designers work in coordination with engineers to create and design everyday items, most of which are mass produced.
Which one of the seven ancient wonders of the world is still standing today?
The Great Pyramid at Giza was constructed between 2584 and 2561 BC for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu and was the tallest man-made structure in the world for almost 4,000 years. Excavations of the interior of the pyramid were only initiated in earnest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Of the original Seven Wonders only the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the ancient wonders, remains relatively intact. The Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were all destroyed. Mystery surrounds Hanging Gardens of Babylon. No one knows the who built it, where it was located, and what happened to it, are all relatively unknown. There is actually speculation it may not have existed at all.
The Pyramid took fourteen to twenty years to complete using slaves to do most of the work. The Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, each weighing 2 tons. Early estimates of the size of the workforce necessary to construct such a massive structure were in the neighborhood of 100,000 men. Today, while the question of exactly how many men it would have taken to build the Great Pyramid at Giza remains unanswered, current estimates are as low as 2,000 men. This estimate is based on research which led modern scientists to believe that the ancient Egyptians may have been more astute builders than previously thought.
This is the only wonder of the ancient world that is still standing
The Great Pyramid and its surrounding complex soon after its completion (Copyright Lee Krystek, 2010)
It’s 756 feet long on each side, 450 feet high and is composed of 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each averaging 2 1/2 tons in weight. Despite the makers’ limited surveying tools, no side is more than 8 inches different in length than another, and the whole structure is perfectly oriented to the points of the compass. Even in the 19th century, it was the tallest building in the world and, at the age of 4,500 years, it is the only one of the famous «Seven Wonders of the Ancient World» that still stands. Even today it remains the most massive building on Earth. It is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt.
Seven Quick Facts
Some of the earliest history of the Pyramid comes from a Greek the historian and traveler Herodotus of Halicanassus. He visited Egypt around 450 BC and included a description of the Great Pyramid in a history book he wrote. Herodotus was told by his Egyptian guides that it took twenty years for a force of 100,000 oppressed slaves to build the pyramid (with another 10 years to build a stone causeway that connected it to a temple in the valley below). Stones were lifted into position by the use of immense machines. The purpose of the structure, according to Herodotus’s sources, was as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu (whom the Greeks referred to as Cheops).
Herodotus, a Greek from the democratic city of Athens, probably found the idea of a single man employing such staggering wealth and effort on his tomb an incredible act of egotism. He reported that even thousands of years later the Egyptians still hated Khufu for the burden he had placed on the people and could hardly bring themselves to speak his name.
The three large pyramids at Giza: From left to right, Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu. The far pyramid is the «Great Pyramid» and the largest structure on the site. The middle one may look larger, but only because it is built on higher ground.
However, Khufu’s contemporary Egyptian subjects may have seen the great pyramid in a different light. To them the pharaoh was not just a king, but a living god who linked their lives with those of the immortals. The pyramid, as an eternal tomb for the pharaoh’s body, may have offered the people reassurance of his continuing influence with the gods. The pyramid wasn’t just a symbol of regal power, but a visible link between earth and heaven.
Indeed, many of the stories Herodotus relates to us are probably false. Engineers calculate that fewer men and less years were needed than Herodotus suggests to build the structure. It also seems unlikely that slaves or complicated machines were needed for the pyramid’s construction. It isn’t surprising that the Greek historian got it wrong, however. By the time he visited the site, the structure was already 20 centuries old, and much of the truth about it was shrouded in the mists of history.
Certainly the idea that it was a tomb for a Pharaoh, though, seems in line with Egyptian practices. For many centuries before and after the construction of the Great Pyramid, the Egyptians had interned their dead Pharaoh-Kings, whom they believed to be living Gods, in intricate tombs. Some were above-ground structures, like the pyramid, others were cut in the rock underground. All the dead leaders were outfitted with the many things it was believed they would need in the afterlife to come. Many were buried with untold treasures.
The Pyramid Complex
The Giza complex as it looked in 1904 from Eduard Spelterini’s balloon.
If we were to visit the location of the great pyramid when it was just finished, it would look very different than we see it today. Originally, the pyramid itself was encased in highly polished white limestone with a smooth surface which is now gone. At the very top of the structure would have been a capstone, which is also now missing. Some sources suggest that the capstone might have been sheathed in gold. Between the white limestone and the golden cap the pyramid would have made an impressive sight shining in the bright Egyptian sun.
Around the base of the great pyramid were four smaller pyramids, three of which still stand today. On the east side of the pyramid stood a now missing Funerary temple. Running down the hill into the valley was a stone causeway, which linked the Funerary temple with a temple in the valley. Around the pyramid were six boat shaped pits that may have contained the hulls of vessels that belonged to the pharaoh. Parts of one of these have been found and reconstructed into a 147 foot long boat that today is enclosed next to the pyramid in its own museum.
The other two large pyramids at Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre (Khufu’s son) and the Pyramid of Menkaure had not yet been built, so the Khufu’s pyramid and its associated structures stood alone, though surrounded by the dwelling places and the graves of many of those that helped construct it.
A cross-section of the Great Pyramid showing the passageways. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1997)
Opening the Pyramid
Even in ancient times, thieves breaking into the sacred burial places were a major problem and Egyptian architects became adept at designing solutions to this problem. They built passageways that could be plugged with impassable granite blocks; created secret, hidden rooms and made decoy chambers. No matter how clever the designers became, however, robbers seemed to be even smarter and with almost no exceptions, each of the great tombs of the Egyptian Kings was plundered.
In 820 A.D. the Arab Caliph Abdullah Al Manum decided to make his own search for the treasure of Khufu. He gathered a gang of workmen and, unable to find the location of a reputed secret door, started burrowing into the side of the monument. After a hundred feet of hard going they were about to give up when they heard a heavy thud echo through the interior of the pyramid. Digging in the direction of the sound, they soon came upon a passageway that descended into the heart of the structure. On the floor lay a large block that had fallen from the ceiling, apparently causing the noise they had heard. Back at the beginning of the corridor they found the secret hinged door to the outside they had missed.
Working their way down the passage they soon found themselves deep in the natural stone below the pyramid. The corridor stopped descending and went horizontal for about 50 feet, then ended in a blank wall. A pit extended downward from there for about 30 feet, but it was empty. When the workmen examined the fallen block they noticed a large granite plug above it. Cutting through the softer stone around it they found another passageway that extended up into the heart of the pyramid. As they followed this corridor upward, they found several more granite blocks closing off the tunnel. In each case they cut around them by burrowing through the softer limestone of the walls. Finally, they found themselves in a low, horizontal passage that led to a small, square, empty room. This became known as the «Queen’s Chamber,» though it seems unlikely that it ever served that function.
The secret entrance missed by the Caliph’s men when searching for treasure. (Courtesy Olaf Tausch and Wikipedia Creative Commons).
Back at the junction of the ascending and descending passageways, the workers noticed an open space in the ceiling. Climbing up they found themselves in a high-roofed, ascending passageway. This became known as the «Grand Gallery.» At the top of the gallery was a low, horizontal passage that led to a large room, some 34 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 19 feet high. It became known as the «King’s Chamber.» In the center was a huge granite sarcophagus without a lid. Otherwise the room was completely empty.
The Missing Treasure
The Arabs, as if in revenge for the missing treasure, stripped the pyramid of its fine white limestone casing and used it for building in Cairo. They even attempted to disassemble the great pyramid itself, but after removing the top 30 feet of stone, they gave up on this impossible task.
So what happened to the treasure of King Khufu? Conventional wisdom says that, like so many other royal tombs, the pyramid was the victim of robbers in ancient times. If we believe the accounts of Manum’s men, though, the granite plugs that blocked the passageways were still in place when they entered the tomb. How did the thieves get in and out?
In 1638 an English mathematician, John Greaves, visited the pyramid. He discovered a narrow shaft, hidden in the wall that connected the Grand Gallery with the descending passage. Both ends were tightly sealed and the bottom was blocked with debris. Some archaeologists have suggested this route was used by the last of the Pharaoh’s men to exit the tomb after the granite plugs had been put in place and by the thieves to get inside. Given the small size of the passageway and the amount of debris it seems unlikely that the massive amount of treasure, including the huge missing sarcophagus lid, could have been removed this way, however.
Scientists have long argued about how this massive structure was built, but the most likely theory seems to be that the Egyptians built a huge ramp that allowed them to drag the blocks into position. Because a single straight ramp (as seen in the recent movie 10,000B.C.) would have to be over a half mile long to reach the top and would need to contain as much material as the pyramid itself, engineers have suggested that the ramp was in the shape of a spiral running around the outside of the pyramid. Alternately the Egyptians may have combined a straight ramp that ran part way up the pyramid with a spiral ramp to the very top levels. Blocks were probably dragged up the ramp by a team of men and put into their final position through the use of levers (For more information on the construction of the Great Pyramid, see our page How to Build a Pyramid).
French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin advanced the theory that a spiral ramp was used on the inside of the pyramid to move the stone blocks. According to Houdin a straight external ramp was used to get materials to the 140 foot level. From there workers dragged the stones through a set of gently rising tunnels just inside the outer walls. The last tunnel would exit on the monument’s top. A 1986 microgravity survey of the pyramid discovered a peculiar anomaly: a less-dense structure in the form of a spiral within the pyramid that may turn out to be what is left of Houdin’s tunnels.
A project management group that studied the problem of building the Great Pyramid estimated that the project, using material and methods available at the time, might have required less than ten years to complete: Two or three years site preparation, five years of actual construction and two years to remove the ramps and put on the finishing touches. This could have been done with an average work force of less than 14,000 laborers and a peak force of 40,000. By examining the ruins of dwellings and workshops in the area, archeologists have estimated between 4,000 and 5,000 of these men were full-time workers committed to the project through most of the construction.
Workers complete one of the smaller pyramids on the eastern side of the Great Pyramid (Copyright Lee Krystek, 1999).
Egyptian records indicate that the laborers, while being drafted against their will, were actually well cared for by ancient standards. Regulations have been found covering the maximum amount of work allowed per day, the wages received and holidays each worker was entitled to. Also, by scheduling most of the work to be done during annual flood periods, the Pharaoh could get a lot done without impacting the normal Egyptian economy.
Was the Pyramid a Tomb?
Some have suggested that the pyramid was never meant as a tomb, but as an astronomical observatory. The Roman author Proclus, in fact, states that before the pyramid was completed it did serve in this function. We can’t put too much weight on Proclus words, though, remembering that when he advanced his theory the pyramid was already over 2000 years old.
Richard Proctor, an astronomer, did observe that the descending passage could have been used to observe the transits of certain stars. He also suggested that the grand gallery, when open at the top during construction, could have been used for mapping the sky.
Many strange (and some silly) theories have arisen over the years to explain the pyramid and its passageways. Most archaeologists, however, accept the theory that the great pyramid was just the largest of a tradition of tombs used for the Pharaohs of Egypt.
Khufu’s pyramid as it appeared in 2005. (Courtesy Nina Aldin Thune and Creative Commons)
So what happened to Khufu’s mummy and treasure? Nobody knows. Extensive explorations have found no other chambers or passageways. Still one must wonder if, perhaps in this one case, the King and his architects outsmarted both the ancient thieves and modern archaeologists and that somewhere in, or below, the last wonder of the ancient world, rests Khufu and his sacred gold.