Bent Pyramid of Sneferu belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 2600 BCE at Dahshur, Egypt. The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
The angle changes halfway up — 54 degrees, then about 43 — a live experiment in how steep a stone mountain can be.
How it was made
Much of the original casing still clings, which is rare. Two entrances and two chambers show Sneferu’s builders thinking on their feet.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It never needed a Greek list to be a wonder: the labour, the alignment, or the survival is enough.
Together with the Red Pyramid, it is the workbook for Giza: failure, correction, then a true smooth-sided tomb.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 2600 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 11 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.