12. Woolly Mammoths Were Still Around When the Pyramids Were Built
Most woolly mammoths were hunted by humans into extinction and disappeared from the continental mainland of Eurasia and North America between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago. The last mainland population, in the Kyttyk Peninsula in Siberia, vanished about 9650 years ago. However, small populations survived in offshore islands, such as Saint Paul Island in Alaska, where woolly mammoths existed until 5600 years ago.
The last known population survived in Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean, until 4000 years ago, or roughly 2000 BC. That was well into the era of human civilization and recorded human history. By the time the last woolly mammoth died, the ancient Egyptian civilization had been around for more than a thousand years. The Great Pyramids of Giza, whose construction concluded around 2560 BC, were already centuries old before woolly mammoths finally went extinct.
