The Great Pyramid Of all the seven wonders of the ancient world, only one is still standing today: the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza, Egypt. Surprisingly, it is by far the oldest of the Seven Wonders. At the time of the ancient Greeks it was already more than 2,000 years old. For more than 4,000 years, the 481-foot-tall pyramid was the tallest structure ever built by man. It is as tall as a fifty-story building. No other building reached that height until the creation of the Eiffel Tower in 1887 (Putnam 20). The pyramid's square base, 756 feet long on each side, is 13 acres, or the size of seven city blocks. The five largest cathedrals in Europe could all fit into the pyramid at the same time (The Pyramids). How was this majestic structure born? Why was it built and how, and who built it? Some writers have called the pyramids mysterious, but recent archaeologists have found many answers to these questions. When you know how and why the pyramids were built, the achievements of the Egyptians seem even more impressive. The pyramids were the tombs of ancient Egyptian kings, or pharaohs. The pharaohs wanted to ensure that after their death they would ascend to heaven and be worshiped as gods. According to Dr. Zahi Hawass, director of archeology at Giza, building a pyramid was a way "to help the king become a god." The pyramid shape may have originated from prehistoric Egyptian burial mounds, which were made of mounded earth. The shape had religious significance, as the ancient Egyptians believed that the Earth was formed as a mound emerging from a vast sea. “The pyramid was essentially this mound of creation,” says the official Egyptian website about the pyramids. The pyramid was a "cocoon" (The Pyr...... middle of paper ....... WGBH Educational Foundation. 1997. Web. 5 April 2004. .Mann, Elizabeth. The Great Pyramid. New York: Miyaka, 1996. Print.Morell, Virginia. “The Pyramid Builders.” National Geographic, November 2001: 78–99. Print.Putnam, James: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Print. “Britannica Student Encyclopedia Premium Service, 2004. Web. 1 April 2004. The Pyramids. Egypt State Information Service. nd Web. 5 April 2004. .Scarre, Chris, ed. The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World: The Great Monuments and How They Were Built : Thames & Hudson, 1999. Print.Stocks, Denys A. “Immutable Laws of Friction: Preparing and Inserting Stone Blocks into the Great Pyramid of Giza, September 2003.” Web. 2 April. 2004.