{"id":967,"date":"2005-10-01T22:07:20","date_gmt":"2005-10-02T03:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=967"},"modified":"2011-05-01T18:32:43","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T23:32:43","slug":"designed-by-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=967","title":{"rendered":"designed by the desert?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The great pyramids of ancient Egypt remain a  mystery almost 5000 years after they were <a href=\"http:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/desert.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-968\" title=\"desert\" src=\"http:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/desert.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"130\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a>constructed.They are the  oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only ones that  still survive. But what exactly inspired the Egyptians to build these  massive monuments?<\/p>\n<p>Boston University geologist Farouk El-Baz believes that ancient  architects may have gotten the idea from conical hills that appear in Egypt&#8217;s Western Desert. According to El-Baz, the builders recognized how  well a pyramid-shaped hill endured the desert&#8217;s destructive, eroding  wind, by channeling it up the slope to drift away harmlessly at its  peak. Since they wanted the pyramids to last, they built them in the  same shape. And, says El-Baz, the Great Sphinx, too, may have been  suggested by naturally occurring desert landforms, this time by  wind-eroded rocks called yardangs, or &#8220;mud lions,&#8221; which, as his photos  show, can look awfully sphinxlike.<\/p>\n<p>So, did the desert really help design these icons of ancient Egypt? Not  everyone agrees with El-Baz&#8217;s theory, but it sure beats the idea that  the pyramids were designed by space aliens.<\/p>\n<h6><em>This article appeared in the October 2005 issue of the children&#8217;s science magazine <\/em>Muse.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The great pyramids of ancient Egypt remain a mystery almost 5000 years after they were constructed.They are the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only ones that still survive. But what exactly inspired the Egyptians &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=967\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-childrens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1027,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/1027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}