Ancient Egypt had its own Egyptologist.
Prince Khaemwaset, a son of Ramesses II, restored pyramids and tombs already over a thousand years old, including Djoser's, and re-inscribed the names of their forgotten owners.
The events
- Step Pyramid of Djoserc. 2670 BC · Saqqara. The architect Imhotep built a six-stepped pyramid at Saqqara for Pharaoh Djoser. It is the earliest monumental building made entirely of cut stone and the prototype for all later Egyptian pyramids.
- Temples of Abu Simbelc. 1264 BC · Abu Simbel, Nubia. Ramesses II, who ruled Egypt for 66 years, had two temples with colossal statues of himself carved into a Nubian cliff. In the 1960s they were cut into blocks and moved uphill to escape the Aswan Dam reservoir in a landmark UNESCO rescue.
27th century BC · 13th century BC
More amazing facts
- 2700 BC · 1937 Merit-Ptah, 'the first woman doctor in history', most likely never existed.
- 2670 BC The first dentist known by name served the king who built the first pyramid.
- 2600 BC · 2560 BC The Peruvian city of Caral, with its stepped pyramids, flourished in the same age as Egypt's pyramids — more than 4,000 years before the Incas.
- 2600 BC One of Stonehenge's stones seems to have come from Scotland, nearly 700 km away.
- 2600 BC · 1950 A board game invented in Mesopotamia 4,500 years ago was still played in the mid-20th century.
- 2600 BC One of Egypt's first smooth-sided pyramids came out 'bent'. At a height of 47 metres, Sneferu's builders changed the slope from 54° to 43°, probably fearing collapse, creating the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur.