Pyramids

Construction of the pyramid, which stood 43 feet tall and roughly 130 feet wide, began within 5 to 30 years of the Tierra Blanca Joven eruption.

The Maya Built This Monumental Pyramid Out of Volcanic Rock

New research cites the colossal construction as evidence of the civilization's rapid recovery from a devastating eruption

Researchers estimate that ancient builders used roughly 226,085,379 square feet of rock, dirt and adobe to construct the three main pyramid complexes in Teotihuacán's city center. Pictured here is the Pyramid of the Sun.

Mexico's Ancient Inhabitants Moved Land and Bent Rivers to Build Teotihuacán

Architects of the Mesoamerican city transformed the landscape in ways that continue to impact modern development today, a new study finds

Experts transported the boat in a shock-absorbing metal container carried by a remote-controlled vehicle imported from Belgium.

Why King Khufu's Solar Boat Is on the Move After 4,600 Years

Officials transported the pharaoh's wooden ship from the Pyramids of Giza to its new home at the Grand Egyptian Museum

Beneath the ruins of the Bubasteion temple, archaeologists discovered “megatombs” crammed with burials. The coffins pictured date to more than 2,000 years ago.

Inside the Tombs of Saqqara

Dramatic new discoveries in the ancient Egytptian burial ground. A special report produced with Smithsonian Channel

Akhenaten, father of Tutankhamun and husband of Nefertiti, ruled Egypt between roughly 1353 and 1336 B.C.

Art Meets Science

Is This the Face of King Tut's Father, Pharaoh Akhenaten?

New 3-D reconstruction visualizes what KV55, a mummy long thought to be the ancient Egyptian ruler, may have looked like

A curatorial assistant found the wood fragments in a misfiled cigar box bearing the image of Egypt's old flag.

Cool Finds

Missing Great Pyramid Artifact Found in Cigar Box in Scotland

The wood fragments—among just three items ever taken from the Giza tomb—date to the fourth millennium B.C.

Newton held unconventional religious beliefs and dabbled in alchemy and the occult.

Isaac Newton Thought the Great Pyramid Held the Key to the Apocalypse

Papers sold by Sotheby's document the British scientist's research into the ancient Egyptians and the Bible

The Meroe pyramids in northeastern Sudan sit about1,650 feet from the banks of the Nile. Now, the site's royal bath is at risk of damage from record flooding.

Record Flooding Threatens Millennia-Old Pyramids in Sudan

Rising water levels could damage ancient structures at Meroe and Nuri

The vast trench dug by treasure hunters is visible at the center of this image.

Treasure Hunters Destroy 2,000-Year-Old Heritage Site in Sudan

Illegal gold diggers dug an enormous trench at Jabal Maragha in the eastern Sahara Desert

Meroe, 150 miles north of Khartoum, served as a necropolis for the kings and queens of Kush for close to 600 years.

Why Sudan's Remarkable Ancient Civilization Has Been Overlooked by History

The African nation's pyramids and other archaeological sites are only now emerging from the shadow of its more storied neighbor to the north

loading icon