Quarky Explores Cairo
Can a stick and a shadow point you north?
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Quarky is writing this for you...
The story
The Great Pyramid lines up with north almost perfectly, thousands of years before compasses. Quarky plants a stick, marks the shadow's tip through the day, and the shortest shadow points true north, a trick that turns sunlight into a map.
What you'll learn
- A shadow is shortest when the sun is highest, and it points north or south.
- Ancient builders used the sun and stars to line up huge structures.
- The Great Pyramid is aligned to north within a tiny fraction of a degree.
- Quarky takeaway: careful watching can be as powerful as fancy tools.
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