40 L4-Wonders of Past

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Oxford Read and Discover level 4 Wonders Of the Past by Kathryn Harper

Introduction What is a wonder? It's something amazing. When we see it we ask, 'How is this possible?' Nature makes many wonders. People make wonders, too! What is a wonder of the past? It's something amazing that people made a long time ago. What are these wonders of the past? Where are they? What wonders are there in your country? Discover! Now read and discover more about some wonders of the past!

Chapter 1 Stonehenge The Stonehenge stone circles are in England. People transported the first stones to this place about 5,000 years ago. We don't know a lot about Stonehenge. Who built it? How did they build it? Why did they build it? It's a mystery. People built Stonehenge with bluestones and sarsen stones. There were about 80 bluestones. They came from mountains 250 kilometers away. They are very heavy —some weigh about 4 metric tons. Discover! The biggest sarsen stone weighs about 45 metric tons. That's like ten elephants! The sarsen stones are even bigger and heavier. About 4,000 years ago, people transported them from 30 kilometers away. How did people use Stonehenge? Maybe they used it as a cemetery or a place for studying the sun and the stars. Maybe it was also a temple. It's still a special place for some people today. Every year, on June 21st, lots of people go to Stonehenge to celebrate the longest day of the year.

Chapter 2 Tutankhamun's Treasures Tutankhamun was a king in Egypt more than 3,300 years ago. He died when he was only 19 years old. When he died, people put a gold mask over his face. They put his body in a coffin made of gold. Then they put the coffin into two bigger coffins. They put all three coffins in a tomb with food and many treasures. The Egyptians thought that the king needed these things after he died. Tutankhamun's tomb was in the Valley of the Kings. No one discovered it for a long, long time. Then a British archaeologist called Howard Carter discovered it in 1922. When he broke through the door, he was amazed. There were gold statues, boats, jewels, toys, masks, and even a gold bed! There were about 3,500 treasures. For ten years, Carter took the treasures from the tomb, and wrote about them. Tutankhamun became one of the most famous kings in the world. Today, many of his wonderful treasures are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in Egypt.

Chapter 3 The Great Wall of China About 2,400 years ago, there were many small countries in China. There were often wars. People didn't want enemies in their country, so they built big walls to keep them out. For more than 2,000 years, people built walls, destroyed walls, and built new walls. The Great Wall of China is really many walls. Together they are about 7,000 kilometers long. The walls are about 7 meters high. There are also many taller towers. Prisoners, soldiers, and other people built the wall. They transported the stones and bricks by hand. This work was hard and dangerous. About three million people died building the wall. Later, more than one million soldiers guarded the wall, but it was hard to stop the enemies. People also used the wall as a road. Today, tourists like to walk along the wall. Discover! For many years, people thought that you could see the Great Wall of China from the moon, but this is not true!