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Fascinating Biblical and Biblical Era Archaeology

Khalid Elhassan May 4, 2025 17 min

Archaeology - Ashurbanipal in a chariot, inspecting booty and prisoners from Babylon — Ashurbanipal in a chariot, inspecting booty and prisoners from Babylon. Wikimedia

14. A Civilization That Spanned Thousands of Years

Archaeology - How the Great Pyramids looked in the days of ancient Egypt — How the Great Pyramids looked in the days of ancient Egypt. Quora

Ancient Egypt’s civilization lasted for a seriously long time, from before the Great Pyramids construction to the annexation of Egypt by the Romans, circa 30 BC. To put it into perspective, consider this: we are temporally closer to Ancient Egypt’s queen Cleopatra than she was to the Great Pyramids. Fewer years separate us from Cleopatra (69 – 30 BC), than separate Cleopatra from the Great Pyramid’s construction.

Cleopatra committed suicide in 30 BC, or 2055 years ago at the time of this writing in 2025. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2580 BC, about 2510 years before Cleopatra was born. So in 2025 Cleopatra is roughly 455 years closer to us than she was to the construction of the Great Pyramid. And the Great Pyramid was not built at the start of the ancient Egyptian civilization, but more than 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.