Pyramids of Egypt STEM How many of the Seven Wonders are still with us today You can find out by using subtraction 7 6 1 Only 1 of the Seven Wonders is still with us today That one remaining wonder is the Great Pyramid located in Giza Egypt in Action Many of the world’s greatest construction projects no longer exist We only know about them because of ancient writings Between the years 484 and 425 BCE there lived a Greek historian named Herodotus Herodotus is sometimes called the father of history because he spent much of his life gathering and recording information Sometime in the 5th Century BCE Herodotus compiled a list of Seven Wonders of the World This was a list of man-made structures so vast and impressive that they were truly wondrous Six of the Seven Wonders no longer exist They were destroyed by natural disasters like floods fire and earthquakes Seven Wonders of the World 1 Great Pyramid of Giza 2 Hanging Gardens of Babylon 3 Statue of Zeus at Olympia 4 Temple of Artemis at Ephesus 5 Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 6 Colossus of Rhodes 7 Lighthouse of Alexandria STEM Fast Fact 6
The Egyptians made many pyramids but the Great Pyramid is the largest they ever built The Great Pyramid is roughly 482 feet 146 91 meters high and each side measures 756 feet 230 43 meters at the base Khafre’s Pyramid is a pyramid in Giza that was constructed sometime after the Great Pyramid was completed Khafre’s Pyramid appears to be larger than the Great Pyramid but this is only because it is built on higher ground The Great Pyramid in Giza Egypt is the only remaining wonder of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World 7
In fact the dimensions of Khafre’s Pyramid are just slightly smaller than those of the Great Pyramid Khafre’s Pyramid has a base measuring 705 feet 214 88 meters and reaches up to a height of 471 feet 143 56 meters Modern man has built bigger and taller structures than the pyramids The Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Hoover Dam are just two examples Both of those structures though were built with the aid of powerful machinery How did the Egyptians build the pyramids without bulldozers drills or explosives Burj Khalifa reaches up to the height of 2,717 feet 828 meters STEM in Action How much taller is the Great Pyramid compared to Khafre’s Pyramid Again finding the answer is simply a matter of subtracting The Great Pyramid is roughly 11 feet higher than Khafre’s Pyramid 482 471 11 What about the two pyramids bases How much larger is the base of the Great Pyramid compared to the base of Khafre’s Pyramid 756 705 51 The Great Pyramid has a base 51 feet longer than the base of Khafre’s Pyramid 8
STEM in Action About how much does the Great Pyramid weigh You can find out by using multiplication 5,000 x 2,000,000 10,000,000,000 The Great Pyramid weighs about 10 billion pounds Experts believe that the Great Pyramid was built over a period of about 20 years If so how many stones were put in place each year You can find out using division 2,000,000 20 100,000 About 100,000 stones were put in place during each year of the construction of the Great Pyramid Using simple tools the Egyptians first quarried rock from areas nearby where a pyramid was to be built Next the pyramid base was constructed Then using a system of ramps more rocks were piled on top of the base Consider these numbers The Great Pyramid is composed of about 2 million stones each weighing roughly 5,000 pounds 2,267 kilograms The Hoover Dam is a structure on a scale similar to that of the Great Pyramid but the Hoover Dam was built using modern equipment 9
