Historical photos of ancient ruins that last for millennia

If the world has changed rapidly in the past tens or hundreds of years, there are wonders of the ancient world that have persisted with time for thousands of years.

The Great Sphinx of Egypt in the Giza Plateau is a giant statue with a length of 73m, a height of 20m and was built during the reign of King Khafre 4,500 years ago. Pictured is the British army gathered around this statue after the battle of Tel-El-Kebir in 1882.

If this photo is not a black and white photo, you probably mean that this is a photograph taken today. That's because the Great Pyramid of Giza - built 4,500 years ago, has barely changed in centuries.

The Acropolis of Athens is the most famous ancient fortification in the world perched on a rocky outcrop. It is also home to the remains of a number of ancient buildings of great historical and architectural significance of the ancient world, the most famous being the Parthenon . The Temple of Athena was built in the 5th century BC under Pericles.

Treasury (or Al-Khazneh) is a great wonder remaining in the ancient city of Petra , Jordan. The city is believed to have flourished around 400 BC and experts believe the structure was a royal mausoleum. In the 1800s, Europeans discovered the monument and the site gradually became a tourist attraction. This close-up circa 1900 photo shows the impressive pillars and carvings of the Treasury.

The giant stone circle of Stonehenge in Somerset, England is believed to date back 4,500 years, but its purpose and function remains a mystery. These rocks are carefully arranged according to the movement of the sun so they could be a kind of Stone Age calendar or a place of worship or burial. Over the past century, the site has been restored and studied further.

The statue of a person's face (called Moai) scattered across Chile's Easter Island has existed for centuries. The tallest statue can be as high as 9m and it is not clear how these statues were built. Modern archaeologists are investigating why these statues were built. Some recent studies suggest that the locations where the statues are located are related to freshwater sources.

Located about 48km northeast of Mexico City is the ancient city of Teotihuacán and a series of historical sites. Among them is the Pyramid of the Sun - a structure up to 66m high and believed to date from around 100 AD.

One of Turkey's most famous ancient sites is Ephesus . This city of about 250,000 people is home to many historic sites, including Hadrian's Temple that dates back to the second century AD. To date, many diverse monuments in this millennium city have not been excavated.

One of the most famously destroyed cities in the world, Pompei was once swallowed up by lava and ash when the Vesuvius Volcano erupted in AD 79. Before the tragedy happened, the city was a thriving commercial and cultural center. When the ruins of Pompei were discovered in the 16th century, they were still almost unbelievably preserved thanks to a layer of ash sealed for millennia.

Tikal, located in northern Guatemala, was once an ancient city of the Maya civilization. This place once prospered in 300 BC and became crowded with large squares and pyramids. The photo above was taken by British explorer Alfred Maudslay. He was the one who re-mapped and excavated the site during the 1880s.