---
title: "Which came first, the Great Pyramid of Giza or the United Stat"
description: "the Great Pyramid of Giza vs the United States: the Great Pyramid of Giza came first, by 4,336 years — 2,560 BCE against 1776. What happened in each case."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/great-pyramid-vs-united-states/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the Great Pyramid of Giza or the United States?

**Which came first, the Great Pyramid of Giza or the United States?: the Great Pyramid of Giza**

2,560 BCE — 4,336 years before the United States

the Great Pyramid of Giza came first, by 4,336 years. Khufu's pyramid was completed at Giza.

## Side by side

|  | the Great Pyramid of Giza | the United States |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 2,560 BCE | 1776 |
| Date | — | 1776-07-04 |
| Category | landmark | country |
| What happened | Khufu's pyramid was completed at Giza. | The Declaration of Independence was adopted. |

## the Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid was finished around 2560 BC and remained the tallest structure on Earth for about 3,800 years, until Lincoln Cathedral's spire in 1311. The comparison worth holding on to is Cleopatra: she was born in 69 BC, roughly 2,500 years after the pyramid was built, and lived roughly 2,000 years before us. The pyramid was more ancient to Cleopatra than Cleopatra is to anyone reading this.

## the United States

The date used here is the Declaration, 4 July 1776, which is the one people mean. Two others have equal claim: Britain recognised independence in 1783, and the Constitution took effect in 1789, so the current government is younger than the country by thirteen years. The United States is older as a state than Germany (1871), Italy (1861), Canada (1867) and modern Japan (1868).

## Common questions

### Which came first, the Great Pyramid of Giza or the United States?

the Great Pyramid of Giza, by 4,336 years — 2,560 BCE against 1776.

### When did the Great Pyramid of Giza start?

2,560 BCE. Khufu's pyramid was completed at Giza.

### When did the United States start?

1776. The Declaration of Independence was adopted.

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## Sources

- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]