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Photo of the Day

December 07, 2002

Pyramids of Giza, Giza, Egypt, 1990

Photograph by James L. Stanfield

"Memorials to Egyptian kings, the pyramids of Giza still rise above the desert after 4,000 years. Builders may have used water-filled ditches as a check on levels. Stone—not sun-dried mud brick—promised permanence for these monuments, only survivors of the ancient world's classic seven wonders."

(From the National Geographic book Builders of the Ancient World: Marvels of Engineering, 1986)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Ibn Battuta: Prince of Travelers," December 1991, National Geographic magazine)