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Quick & curious · History

When the Great Pyramid was built, mammoths were alive.

A last group on Wrangel Island survived until about 4,000 years ago – centuries after the pyramid was built.

Life-size model of a shaggy woolly mammoth with long curved tusks in a museum hall
Photo: HTO · Public domain · Original

The story behind it

When the Great Pyramid was built, mammoths were still alive.

The pyramid was built around 2600 BC. On the Siberian mainland, woolly mammoths had already vanished around 10,000 years ago. Small groups held out longer: on St. Paul Island until 5,600 years ago, on Wrangel Island even until about 4,000 years ago.

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia: Woolly mammoth (accessed 2026-10-07)
  2. Wikipedia: Great Pyramid of Giza (accessed 2026-10-07)

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