【推荐2】The Giza Pyramids (金字塔), built to last forever, have done just that. The tombs could date back to Egypt’s Old Kingdom and were constructed some 4,500 years ago. Egypt’s pharaohs (法老)expected to become gods in the afterlife. To prepare for the next world they built temples to the gods and massive pyramid tombs for themselves, which were filled with all the things each ruler would need to guide and support himself in the next world.

The ancient wonders at Giza were so impressive that even today scientists can’t be sure how the pyramids were built. Yet they have learned much about the people who built them. The builders were skilled, well-fed Egyptian workers who lived in a nearby city. Archaeological (考古的)digs on the attractive site have shown a highly organized community, rich with resources.

If the Pyramids helped to build ancient Egypt, they also preserved it. Giza allows us to explore an ancient world. “Many people think of the site as just a tomb in the modern sense, but it’s a lot more than that,” says Peter Der Manuelian with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “In these decorated tombs you have wonderful scenes of every aspect of life in ancient Egypt—so it’s not just about how Egyptians died but how they lived.”

Tomb art displays ancient farmers working on their fields and fishing. Words and texts also allow research into Egyptian grammar and language. “Almost any subject you want to study about the culture is available on the tomb walls at Giza,” Der Manuelian says.

To help make these precious resources accessible to all, Der Manuelian heads the Giza Project, an enormous collection of Giza photographs, plans, drawings, object records, and diaries that enables online visits to the site.

【推荐3】The Iroquois lived in the northeastern great lakes region of North America in the 16th century. Back then, their lives depended on the natural resources of the forests, especially the birch tree（桦树）, which was everywhere in that area. The birch tree has white bark, and this tough protective outer layer of the tree is waterproof, which made it useful for making things like cooking containers and a variety of other tools.

The Iroquois would cut the bark and fold it into any shape they needed. The most important use of the bark, by far, was the canoe. Since the northeastern region of North America is interconnected by many streams and waterways, water transportation by canoe was essential. The canoes allowed these people to travel over a vast area that today would take a few hours to fly over. The Iroquois made canoes of all types, for travel on small streams or on large open ocean waters. They could travel throughout the area, only having to portage（转陆路运输）occasionally. Since the canoes were so light, carrying them over land to another nearby stream wasn't difficult task.

Having an efficient means of transportation helped the Iroquois to form a federation（联盟）linked by natural waterways. This efficiency of the birch bark canoe also made an impression on newcomers to the area. French traders in the 17th century adopted the design of the birch bark canoe, and they found they could travel more than 1,500 kilometers a month.

Besides the bark, the Iroquois also used the wood of the birch tree. The young trees were used as supports for houses. Branches were folded into snow shoes. And the Iroquois were all good at running very fast over the snow in these birch branch snow shoes. If you ever tried walking in snow shoes, you would know it wasn't easy.