1. May 2008 by AY.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World that still survives. The other six are:

1) The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were built on the banks of the Euphrates river by King Nebuchadnezzar II.

2) The gigantic gold statue of Zeus was built by the sculptor Pheidias at Olympia.

3) The temple of Artemis was erected in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus in honour of the Greek goddess of hunting and wild nature.

4) The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a huge tomb constructed for King Maussollos, Persian satrap of Caria.

5) The Colossus of Rhodes was a massive statue erected by the Greeks in honour of Helios the sun-god.

6) The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built by the Ptolemies on the island of Pharos.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built near the ancient city of Memphis for Pharaoh Khufu in the period of the Fourth Dynasty, between 2613 and 2494BC. The Greeks refered to it as the Pyramid of Cheops. A true wonder, it is immense: according to Mysteries of the Unknown, it covers a ground area of 13.1 acres (32,4 hectares), composed of some 2.3 million limestone blocks average two-and-a-half tonnes each, enough stone to build a wall of foot-square cubes two-thirds around the globe at the equator, a distance of 16,600 miles (26 500km).

The oldest statue in the world is the Great Sphinx of Egypt. Carved out of limestone, it stands 19,8 metres (65 ft) high and is 73 metres (240 ft) long.

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22. April 2008 by AY.

April 22nd 0296    St Gaius ends his reign as Catholic Pope 
April 22nd 0536    St Agapitus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope 
April 22nd 1056    Supernova Crab nebula last seen by the naked eye 
April 22nd 1073    Pope Alexander II buried/Ildebrando chosen as Pope Gregory VII 
April 22nd 1145    19th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet 
April 22nd 1164    Raynald of Dassel names Guido di Crema as anti-pope Paschalis III 
April 22nd 1370    Bastille begins being built in Paris 
April 22nd 1500    Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers Brazil & claims it for Portugal 
April 22nd 1509    Henry VIII ascended to throne of England 
April 22nd 1521    French king Fran?ois I declares war on Spain 
April 22nd 1526    1st slave revolt occurs in SC 
April 22nd 1529    Treaty of Saragosa: Spain & Portugal divide eastern hemisphere 
April 22nd 1648    English army claims king Charles I responsible for bloodshed 
April 22nd 1659    Lord protector Cromwell disbands English parliament 
April 22nd 1662    Royal Society incorporates 

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