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TIL the Pyramids were ordered to be disassembled and their blocks used to build dams on the Nile. The chief architect personally opposed, but knew he’d be replaced if he defied orders. So he prepared a false cost analysis showing that freshly quarried stone would cost less: thus saving the Pyramids.

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X00YD TIL the same artist, Jacque Louis David, painted the Death of Marat, the Oath of the Horatii, and two of the best-known portraits of Napoleon
4X65J TIL of Rudloe Manor, the UK's own Area 51. For years, the RAF’s secret service worked in underground tunnels and chambers beneath the manor on UFO investigations. It's existence was consistently denied by the MOD, but in 2007, during a release of declassified files, it was finally confirmed.
ZpXMD TIL a Dutch hotel chef was sued by her colleagues after she baked a cannabis-infused space cake for a surprise. Several employees got violently ill from eating the cake, she was fined the equivalent of 800 dollars.
oBeXo TIL that there is a village in India whose main export are men! This village prepares men to become bouncers for nightclubs and bars. They do so by having a 2 hour workout in the morning, followed by a 2 hour workout in the afternoon, in combination with high-protein food.
womN8 TIL: The "Festival of Drunkeness" in Ancient Egypt celebrates the sensory elements of life and pleases the goddess Hathor and participants believed alcohol saved humanity. There was drinking, dancing, and sex to the point of passing out and being woken by temple bells the next day for prayer.