The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure on Earth for almost 3,900 years.
Only around 1311 did the spire of Lincoln Cathedral in England top it; the spire fell in 1548.
The events
- Great Pyramid of Gizac. 2560 BC · Giza. The Great Pyramid, built for Pharaoh Khufu at Giza, rose about 146 metres high. It remained the tallest human-made structure for nearly four millennia and is the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World.
- The spire of Lincoln Cathedralc. 1311 · Lincoln, England. Around 1311 a spire some 160 m tall was raised on the central tower of Lincoln Cathedral. It was the first structure in millennia to top the Great Pyramid, and it stood until a storm brought it down in 1548.
26th century BC · 14th century
More amazing facts
- 2560 BC · 2000 BC When the Great Pyramid of Giza was built, woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island — the last of them died out only around 2000 BC.
- 2560 BC · 31 BC · 1969 Cleopatra (born 69 BC) lived closer in time to the Moon landing (about 2,040 years) than to the building of the Great Pyramid (about 2,490 years).
- 2560 BC The oldest inscribed papyrus is a logbook of stone deliveries for the Great Pyramid.
- 2560 BC The Great Pyramid was not built by slaves.
- 2560 BC · 1323 BC · 30 BC Tutankhamun lived almost exactly halfway between the Great Pyramid and Cleopatra: he died about 1,240 years after the pyramid was built and about 1,290 years before Cleopatra.
- 2560 BC · 196 BC The Rosetta Stone is closer in time to us than to the Great Pyramid.