Built 4，000 years ago， the three great pyramids at Giza， in the Egyptian desert remain the most colossal1 buildings ever constructed. For being a man-made wonder that has survived the sands of time， the pyramids rise to the number two spot.
The pyramids were built by Egyptians under the orders of the Egyptian leader， whose title was Pharaoh①. There was a sequence of Pharaohs culminating around 2615 B.C.， with the Pharaoh Cheops who built the biggest thing ever built， the Great Pyramid， also known as Khu fu. Cheops built a pyramid 770 feet on one side and 481 feet tall. How ancient builders managed to build these massive② structures has never been fully answered but the effort clearly required brains and brawn.
Was there engineering genius involved？ Yes， there was. For example， when you’re putting the block right at the top， how are you going to lug a block of stone that weighs several tons 480 feet up a structure？ How are you going to do it， and how are you going to do it without leaving scratches③ on all the rest of the structure？ And how many people does it take to drag a block weighing several tons 480 feet up into the sky？ Approximately④， 2.3 million blocks of stone were cut， transported and assembled to create the Great Pyramid.
The Pharaohs may have set out to build magnificent tombs for themselves， but in the end they created monuments to human potential⑤. There’s a universal message in the pyramids. The pyramids belong to Egypt， but the pyramids also belong to the world. That’s why we can all identify the pyramids as an early monument of human greatness.
① Pharaohn. 法老（古埃及国王）；暴君
② massiveadj. 大而重的，粗大的；巨大的，大量的
③ scratchn. 抓痕，擦伤
④ approximatelyadv. 大概，近乎
⑤ potentialn. 可能性，潜力，潜能
神秘的金字塔
矗立在埃及沙漠中吉萨的三座大金字塔建于4，000年前，它们一直都是有史以来最宏大的建筑。由于历经岁月的沧桑，金字塔位列十大人工奇观排行榜第二名。
金字塔是埃及人在他们的领袖——名为法老——的命令下建造的。在公元前2615年左右，几任法老相继统治埃及，基奥普斯法老建造了有史以来最大的金字塔——大金字塔，也被称为胡夫金字塔。胡夫金字塔每边长770英尺，高481英尺。古代的建筑者是如何建造这些庞然大物的，这一直是个未解之谜，但很明显它需要付出大量的脑力和体力。
有工程天才的参与吗？是的，有。比如，当你要把一个石块放在顶端时，你该如何把一个几吨重的石块提升到480英尺的高度呢？应该怎样做？怎么做才不至于在塔身留下刮痕？把几吨重的石块提举到480英尺的高处又需要多少人力呢？为了建造大金字塔，人们切割、运输、垒砌了大约230万块石头。
法老们的初衷是为自己建造豪华的陵墓，而最终他们创建的却是昭示人类潜能的纪念碑。金字塔蕴含着一种共同的信息，金字塔属于埃及，但它也属于世界。因此我们完全可以把金字塔作为展示人类伟大文明的早期纪念物。
