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40 Things About The Outlandish Math Cult Leader, and Other Unusual Facts From the Ancient World

Khalid Elhassan May 22, 2020 33 min

Democritus and Protagoras - Odysseus and Nausicaa (Ulysses and Nausicaa) — 'Pythagoras and the Fishermen', by Salvatore Rosa. Wikimedia

4. Antiquity’s Most Famous Queen Was Closer to Us Than to the Pyramids

The civilization of Ancient Egypt lasted for a seriously long time: from before the construction of the Great Pyramids, to the annexation of Egypt by the Romans, circa 30 BC. To put into perspective just how long that was, consider this: we are closer in time to one of Ancient Egypt’s most famous queens, Cleopatra, than she was to the Great Pyramids.

Fewer years separate us from Cleopatra (69 – 30 BC), than separate Cleopatra from the Pyramids. Cleopatra famously committed suicide in 30 BC, or 2050 years ago at the time of this writing. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2580 BC, about 2510 years before Cleopatra was born. So we are roughly 461 years closer to Cleopatra, than she was to the Great Pyramid. And the Great Pyramid was not built at the start of Ancient Egypt’s civilization, but over five centuries after it began, sometime around 3150 BC.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.