Fossils in Great Pyramid limestone with the Great Pyramid of Giza in the background.

Something Is Hidden in the Stone: Fossils in the Great Pyramid

WHAT DO YOU NOTICE?

Look at the shapes, lines and patterns. What catches your eye first?

Hold onto your idea.

The stone is about to give us another clue.

Don't name it yet. Look carefully at the shapes preserved inside the limestone. Some are round. Some repeat. Some almost look as though they were drawn into the rock.

The fossils in the Great Pyramid were already preserved within the limestone before ancient Egyptian builders quarried and used the stone. To understand how they got there, we have to follow the evidence much farther back in time.

WHAT DO YOU WONDER?

What questions does this stone make you want to ask?

LOOK CLOSER

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS?

Make a theory. What could have left these shapes inside the stone?

Nummulite fossils preserved in limestone associated with the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Diagram showing how an ancient marine environment formed fossil-bearing limestone later used at Giza.

Fossil detective activity showing nummulites and other fossil shapes preserved in limestone.

Timeline comparing millions-year-old marine fossils with the Great Pyramid built about 4,500 years ago.

Fossil, rock and location evidence scientists use to investigate fossil-bearing limestone at Giza.

Great Pyramid investigation showing limestone being quarried, moved, lifted and placed by ancient Egyptian builders.