World’s Oldest Pyramid Was Found – And It’s In Kazakhstan

Earliest pyramids were thought to have been built in Egypt.

But archaeologists discovered an Egyptian-style pyramid in Kzakhstan, and it was believed to be built 1,000 years earlier than certain Egyptian pyramids.

Archaeologist Victor Novozhenov from the Kazakh National University has called it a "sensational discovery" by specialists at the Saryakinsky Archaeology Institute in Karganda led by Igor Kukushkin.

According to Novozhenov, the 3,000-year-old pyramid or mausoleum, which is located at the Sary-Arka steppes near the city of Karaganda about 3,900 miles northeast of Cairo, is similar in appearance with the Pyramid of Djoser, a great structure built for the Pharaoh Djoser in Egypt between 27^th century BC and 26^th century BC, Yahoo News reports. Both are "step pyramids," which are said to be the world's oldest man-made cut-stone structures.

But Novozhenov said that the newly discovered structure could even be 1,000 years older than the ancient Begazy-Dandybai pyramids located nearby, and was built sometime during the Bronze Age.

"Judging by the monumental construction, this mausoleum was built more than 3,000 years ago for a local king," Novozhenov said in a statement. "We are going to look inside the mausoleum this week. Everything that we find inside will be sent to the Karaganda Archaeological Museum."

Archaeologists discovered the ancient structure in 2015, but only revealed their discovery today. Images of the different artifacts were unearthed at the site were released, including the layout of the pyramid's foundations.

The mausoleum is near the city of Karaganda, which was nicknamed the "middle of nowhere" during Soviet times, and was a place for political exiles for the former USSR, Mail Online reports.

According to archaeologists, the structure includes about 27 constructions dating from different periods of history. The biggest structure is composed of five levels of stone steps and the burial chamber measures over seven meters in diameter.