Fact: The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2560 BCE and stood as the tallest man-made structure for over 3,800 years. Fun fact: It was originally covered in smooth white limestone casing stones that reflected sunlight, making it shine like a gem. The pyramid contains an estimated 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing between 2.5 and 15 tons.

Fact: Cleopatra VII was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek family that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's conquest. Fun fact: She was the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language, and she famously wore Roman-style clothing to appeal to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Fact: Papyrus was made from the pith of the papyrus plant (Cyperus papyrus), which grew abundantly along the Nile. Fun fact: The English word "paper" comes from "papyrus". The Egyptians kept their papyrus scrolls in wooden boxes and used them for everything from religious texts to legal documents and personal letters.

Fact: The Great Sphinx of Giza has a lion's body and a human head, believed to represent Pharaoh Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BCE). Fun fact: The Sphinx originally had a carved beard and a nose, but the nose was lost sometime in the medieval period. It is the largest monolith statue in the world, measuring 73 meters (240 feet) long and 20 meters (66 feet) high.

Fact: The Nile flows from its sources in East Africa (Lake Victoria and the Ethiopian Highlands) northward to the Mediterranean Sea. Fun fact: This unique flow created "Upper Egypt" in the south and "Lower Egypt" in the north (based on elevation), which is why the Nile Delta is in northern Egypt despite being called Lower Egypt.

Fact: In the afterlife judgment ceremony, the heart was weighed against Ma'at's feather of truth. Fun fact: The brain was removed through the nose with hooks and discarded because Egyptians thought it had no purpose. The stomach, liver, intestines, and lungs were stored in canopic jars, but the heart remained inside the body.

Fact: Discovered in 1799 by French soldiers, the Rosetta Stone became the key to understanding hieroglyphs. Fun fact: The stone is a decree from Pharaoh Ptolemy V (196 BCE). Jean-François Champollion deciphered it in 1822 by comparing the Greek text (which he could read) with the hieroglyphs. The stone weighs about 760 kg (1,680 lbs).

Fact: Tutankhamun became pharaoh around age 9 and ruled for only about 10 years, dying at around age 19 (c. 1323 BCE). Fun fact: He was a minor pharaoh, but his tomb (discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter) was nearly intact, containing over 5,000 artifacts, including his famous solid gold death mask weighing 11 kg (24 lbs).

Fact: Archaeological evidence shows Egyptians used a dental cream as early as 3000–5000 BCE. Fun fact: Their toothpaste ingredients included powdered ashes of ox hooves, myrrh, eggshells, and pumice. They used frayed twigs as toothbrushes. This dental care helped Egyptians have relatively healthy teeth for the ancient world.

Fact: The first pyramid was the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, built around 2670 BCE for Pharaoh Djoser by his architect Imhotep. Fun fact: The Step Pyramid began as a mastaba (flat-roofed tomb) and was expanded upward in six steps. The Great Pyramid at Giza came later, about 200 years after Djoser's pyramid.