Monday, November 25, 2024

This will change how you think about ancient Rome 🤯

The Egyptian pyramids were older to the Romans than the Romans are to us.

World History

F rom a vast distance, it's easy to mentally group ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Rome, and Greece all together. They all have fascinating divine pantheons, ruins that still define our landscape, and surprisingly advanced technology. But they existed and thrived at very different points in history. Ancient Egypt dates all the way back to around 3000 BCE, whereas ancient Rome lasted into the Middle Ages, falling in 476 CE. That's a gigantic range of time.

In fact, there's more time between the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza (around 2575-2465 BCE) and the ancient Roman civilization than there is between ancient Rome and the present day. According to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BCE, which means even to the very first Roman citizens, the Giza pyramids were more than 1,700 years old, whereas the fall of the Western Roman Empire occurred around 1,550 years ago.

Yes, ancient Egyptian civilization and ancient Rome famously overlapped. Cleopatra, who was born around 70 BCE, was deeply involved in Roman politics during her two-decade rule — including through her relationships with Roman statesmen Julius Caesar and Mark Antony — and Egypt eventually fell to the Romans around 30 BCE. But the iconic ancient Egyptian pyramids had been around for more than a millennium before Cleopatra, who was the last of the Egyptian pharaohs. The last pharaoh to be interred in a pyramid, meanwhile, was Ahmose, who reigned in the 16th century BCE. The Pyramids of Giza were even ancient to Ahmose; they were built in the 25th and 26th centuries BCE as tombs for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.

Together with

Feeling Stressed and Sleepless? This Might Be Why (And How To Fix It!)

Do you ever feel constantly on edge, struggle to unwind after a long day, or wake up unrested? These could be signs of a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium Breakthrough offers a complete solution with seven powerful forms specifically chosen to support stress management, promote healthy sleep, and more. Help yourself unlock a new level of well-being with Magnesium Breakthrough during BiOptimizer's Black Friday sale and get 25% off sitewide.

Get 25% Off

Thank you for supporting our sponsors! They help us keep History Facts free.

By the Numbers

Year the Eastern Roman Empire (aka the Byzantine Empire) fell

1453

Running time (in hours) of the 1963 film Cleopatra

Did you know?

The Great Pyramid of Giza used to be shiny.

The towering, sandy structure we see today at the Giza pyramid complex is still impressive, but the Great Pyramid is missing its original finishing touches. When it was first constructed, the whole structure was cased in a layer of highly polished limestone, which needed a great deal of skill to cut for a smooth finish. Very few polished stones remain on the pyramid's surface today; many were lost in earthquakes, and others were probably just repurposed for other buildings.