Ancient Thebes, Egypt

ANCIENT THEBES (Egypt)

This ancient city on the Nile near Luxor in Upper Egypt--about 300 miles south of Cairo--was Egypt's capital during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Most of its monuments are 1,000 years younger than the pyramids, and include the Temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Colossi of Memnon, and the hidden tombs in the Valleys of the Kings (like King Tut's) and Queens.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Great Sphinx of Giza

THE GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA (Giza, Egypt)

This limestone statue of a reclining lion's body with a man's head--a symbol of mystery--has been gazing away from the Great Pyramids at Giza on an east-west line for four and a half millennia. Carved from the bedrock of the plateau, it is 240 feet long and 66 feet high. It may once have worn a long pharaonic beard and been painted bright colors.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Great Pyramid

THE GREAT PYRAMID (Giza, Egypt)

On a plateau outside of Cairo, Egypt, the Great Pyramid stands surrounded by other pyramids, temples, tombs, cemeteries, and the mysterious Great Sphinx. The only survivor of the Ancient World's Seven Wonders, it dates to the mid-third millennium BCE and stands over 450 feet high. The chambers inside once held tombs... and treasures!

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Whale Valley

WHALE VALLEY (Wadi Al-Hitan, Egypt)

The dramatic landscape of Wadi Al-Hitan in Egypt's Western Desert is known as "Whale Valley" for its fossil evidence of the evolution of whales from land-based to ocean-going mammals. The many high-quality fossils allow paleontologists to observe transitional fossils of archaeocetes (the now-extinct "ancient whales") in the process of losing their hind legs.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)