Woolly Mammoths Were Still Alive When the Great Pyramid Was Built
The last woolly mammoths died on Wrangel Island around 2000 BC, about 500 years after the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed.
About this fact
While most woolly mammoths went extinct around 10,000 years ago, a small population survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until about 2000 BC. The Great Pyramid was completed around 2560 BC, meaning these isolated mammoths lived for another 500+ years after this ancient wonder was built. The island population had been cut off from the mainland for thousands of years, leading to genetic isolation and dwarfism - these final mammoths were about the size of modern Asian elephants. They finally succumbed to a combination of genetic problems from inbreeding, climate change, and possibly human arrival on the island. This overlap in time shows how recent human civilization really is in geological terms.