環球之旅:神祕的埃及金字塔
古埃及金字塔是奴隸制帝王的陵墓，最宏大的當爲吉薩三座大金字塔。塔基呈方形，每邊長230米，高146米，用230餘萬塊巨石(每塊平均重達2.5噸)壘成，國王墓室用一塊400噸重的石板壘成。整體規模雄偉壯觀，設計科學，構造複雜，歷時30年建成。古希臘時即被稱爲世界七大奇蹟之一，1980年列入世界遺產名錄。
Built 4,000 years ago, the three great pyramids at Giza, in the Egyptian desert remain the most colossal1 buildings ever constructed.
矗立在埃及沙漠中吉薩的三座大金字塔建於4000年前，它們一直都是有史以來最宏大的建築。
The pyramids were built by Egyptians under the orders of the Egyptian leader, whose title was Pharaoh2. There was a sequence of Pharaohs culminating3 around 2615 B.C., with the Pharaoh Cheops who built the biggest thing ever built, the Great Pyramid, also known as Khu?fu. Cheops built a pyramid 770 feet on one side and 481 feet tall. How ancient builders managed to build these massive structures has never been fully answered but the effort clearly required brains and brawn.
金字塔是埃及人在他們的領袖——名爲法老——的命令下建造的。在公元前2615年左右，幾任法老相繼統治埃及，基奧普斯法老建造了有史以來最大的金字塔——大金字塔，也被稱爲胡夫金字塔。胡夫金字塔每邊長770英尺，高481英尺。古代的建築者是如何建造這些龐然大物的，這一直是個未解之謎，但很明顯它需要付出大量的腦力和體力。
Was there engineering genius involved? Yes, there was. For example, when you're putting the block right at the top, how are you going to lug5 a block of stone that weighs several tons 480 feet up a structure? How are you going to do it, and how are you going to do it without leaving scratches6 on all the rest of the structure? And how many people does it take to drag a block weighing several tons 480 feet up into the sky? Approximately, 2.3 million blocks of stone were cut, transported and assembled to create the Great Pyramid.
有工程天才的參與嗎？是的，有。比如，當你要把一個石塊放在頂端時，你該如何把一個幾噸重的石塊提升到480英尺的高度呢？應該怎樣做？怎麼做纔不至於在塔身留下刮痕？把幾噸重的石塊提舉到480英尺的高處又需要多少人力呢？爲了建造大金字塔，人們切割、運輸、壘砌了大約230萬塊石頭。
The Pharaohs may have set out to build magnificent tombs for themselves, but in the end they created monuments to human potential. There's a universal message in the pyramids. The pyramids belong to Egypt, but the pyramids also belong to the world. That's why we can all identify the pyramids as an early monument of human greatness.
法老們的初衷是爲自己建造豪華的陵墓，而最終他們創建的卻是昭示人類潛能的紀念碑。金字塔蘊含着一種共同的信息，金字塔屬於埃及，但它也屬於世界。因此我們完全可以把金字塔作爲展示人類偉大文明的早期紀念物。
For being a man?made wonder that has survived the sands of time1, the pyramids rise to the number two spot.
由於歷經歲月的滄桑，金字塔位列十大人工奇觀排行榜第2名。
