Pyramid Puzzles: teacher key

Ancient Egypt, grade 5 edition, written for 5th grade. How do you stack more than two million stones into a tomb for a king? Here is what we know about the builders, the blocks and the Sphinx.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Why was the Great Pyramid built?
   • As a school
   • As the tomb of a king named Khufu (answer)
   • As a market
2. Where did the smooth white outer stone come from?
   • A mountain in Greece
   • The Sphinx
   • A quarry at Tura (answer)
3. What do researchers agree about how the pyramids were built?
   • Ramps of some kind were used (answer)
   • Machines lifted the blocks
   • Boats carried each block up
4. How were the pyramid workers paid?
   • In coins
   • Not at all
   • In food such as grain (answer)
5. Who shot the Sphinx's nose off, according to a story that is not true?
   • Khafre
   • Napoleon's soldiers (answer)
   • Farmers
6. What does the drawing from 1737 show?
   • The nose already destroyed (answer)
   • A new nose
   • A hat

Words

• limestone: soft stone
• quarry: stone pit
• sledges: sleds
• ramps: sloped paths
• Sphinx: lion statue