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What Came After the Pyramids? | 13 African Monuments

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Full story, the 5-minute documentary: https://youtu.be/6C4vLcbObq0

Name a great monument in Africa. Most people stop at the pyramids, but they were only the beginning. Thirteen monuments in the order they were built, raised on a NASA satellite globe: Giza, Abu Simbel, Meroë, the stone circles of Senegal and The Gambia, El Jem, Aksum, Lalibela, Kilwa Kisiwani, Great Zimbabwe, Djenné, the Union Buildings, Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro and the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca.

- The 3D monuments are our own illustrations, not to scale; the round photos are real and dated.
- "By most counts" Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt (counts depend on definitions). "Largest church" is Guinness's listing.
- Narration: AI voice (ElevenLabs, "George"). Music: AI-generated instrumental (ElevenLabs Music). This video contains synthetic audio.

Credits
- Satellite imagery: NASA Blue Marble via NASA GIBS, public domain. Country outlines: Natural Earth. Type: Anton and Barlow (SIL OFL).
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons (author, year, licence): Great Pyramid, MusikAnimal 2015 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Abu Simbel, Abumalek ahmed mohamed 2012 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Meroë, Ahmed Amir 2019 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Wassu stone circle, Ikiwaner 2008 (CC BY-SA 3.0); El Jem from the air, Skander zarrad 2023 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Aksum stelae, Allamiro 2015 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Bete Giyorgis, Ji-Elle 2014 (CC BY-SA 3.0); Great Mosque of Kilwa, Richard Mortel 2016 (CC BY 2.0); Great Zimbabwe from the air, Janice Bell 2015 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Great Mosque of Djenné, Ruud Zwart 2005 (CC BY-SA 3.0); Union Buildings, Ruby D-Brown 2024 (CC BY 4.0); Our Lady of Peace, Didierwiki 2024 (CC0); Hassan II Mosque, Milamber's portfolio 2006 (CC BY 2.0).
- Licences: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, by/4.0, by-sa/3.0, by-sa/4.0 and creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0

Sources: UNESCO World Heritage Centre site pages (whc.unesco.org/en/list/86, 88, 1336, 1226, 38, 15, 18, 144, 364, 116); The Met essays on Aksum and Great Zimbabwe; National Geographic on the Nubian pyramids; SA History Online (Union Buildings); Guinness World Records (largest church, largest mud building); Bouygues Construction and AP (2024) on the Casablanca and Algiers minarets. The documentary's description and research record list every source.

Africa Sound & Story
Category
COUNTRY HITS
Tags
Africa, African monuments, pyramids
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