The first of five clues. Each one below gives a little more away.
I was the tallest thing humans had built for three thousand eight hundred years.
I am aligned to true north more accurately than most modern buildings.
I was originally smooth, white, and blinding in the sun.
I was raised by paid workers, not slaves — we found their bakeries.
Giza, Egypt, and a pharaoh inside.
Pyramid
Two point three million blocks, and the base is level to within two centimetres across 230 metres. Built with instruments we would not recognise.
The Great Pyramid was finished around 2560 BC, stood 146 metres, and held the record for tallest structure until Lincoln Cathedral. It contains roughly two and a half million blocks, and the base is level to within about two centimetres across two hundred and thirty metres — an accuracy achieved, as far as anyone can tell, with water channels, plumb lines and stars. It was originally sheathed in polished white limestone from Tura, which was stripped in the Middle Ages to build Cairo. The remains of the workers' town, with its bakeries and cattle bones, argue strongly against slavery.
Reading five clues at once is not the game. In the real thing they arrive one at a time and every wrong guess costs an hour. Play mystery #28 · today's mystery · the vault
Previous: mystery #27. Next: mystery #29. Or try #36, #37, #38, #39, #40, #41.