Were the Mayan or Egyptian pyramids built first?

Mesoamerican peoples built pyramids from around 1000 B.C. up until the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century. (Egyptian pyramids are much older than American ones; the earliest Egyptian pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser, was built in the 27 century BC).



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The oldest and largest known monument built by the Mayan civilisation has been found in Mexico. Called Aguada Fénix, it is a huge raised platform 1.4 kilometres long. Aguada Fénix was built around 1000 BC, centuries before the Maya began constructing their famous stepped pyramids.

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It was the Egyptians who built the pyramids.

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Most of the pyramids that are in Mexico, were built by Mesoamerican Ancient Civilizations such as the Toltecs, the Tarascan, the Maya, the Aztecs, and the Totonac.

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Ruins That Pre-Date The Pyramids One of the main sites to discover that dates from before the pyramids is Abydos. It dates from around 7,000 years ago - thousands of years before the pyramids. Still, most of the actual ruins one will find there (like the Temple of Seti I) were built long after the pyramids.

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Archeologists say there are a variety of factors at play, including soaring population growth, climate change and political strife. “The overwhelming information was that there was climate instability,” says Charles Golden, an anthropology professor at Brandeis University.

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The Mayans and Egyptians fit in with many ofuniv~rsal religious themes. Both had a form of polytheistic belief, they believed that the four cardinal directions had important meaning to the flow of life, their world was flat and they were the center of it, they depended on the gods and the gods depended on them.

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The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.



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