Pyramid Myths Answered

[COLOR=black][FONT=Arial]There are tens of pyramid myths that can be found all over the internet. Some of these errors have arisen simply due to bad research, but in many cases there has been an intent to deceive. Authors such as Tsarion, Sitchin, Hancock, Melchizedek and tens of others are intent on spreading their own version of [FONT=arial]history to support the theories in their books. [/FONT][/FONT]Without the pyramids, what they say vanishes into a cloud of silliness.
[B]
1) We don't know when the pyramids were built[/B].[B] I was told that they were created over 10, 000 years ago.[/B]
"...historical accounts from the classical historian Herodotus who saw the Great Pyramid in 440 bc. His [I]History[/I] contains the first comprehensive account of Egypt to have survived intact, and he attributes the Great Pyramid to Cheops. This, when combined with the presence of Cheops’ cartouche on some of the inner chambers of the Pyramid, places him as the pyramid’s builder..."

"...Many of the building blocks have annotations on them. In the Great Pyramid Cheop's name is written on stones used to build the roof of the King's chamber. There is another stone from the Great Pyramid that bears the inscription, "The Craftsmen gang, How powerful is the White Crown of Khnum Khufu! (Cheops)".

Tests were also done on the mortar used, it was found - to within an accuracy of 400 years - that the pyramid is certainly not thousands of years older. [B]

2) How come pyramids appear in Mexico? Doesn't that mean the cultures were linked?[/B]
No, the Egyptian pyramids were built a couple of thousand years before the Mexican ones. The building methods between the two are completely different. The purposes of the pyramids also differs: egytptian pyramids were tombs, Mexican were altar platforms. [FONT=Arial]If the Mexican and Egyptian pyramid builders were one and the same, why do these cultures share no words, myths, gods, symbols, or more importantly, genetic data?

[B]3) But Atlantis and the Pyramids...?[/B]
This connection was invented largely by fake psychic Edgar Cayce, made even more murky by Sitchin. However, modern woo-woo author Michel Tsarion has added a whole new strata of lies to what Cayce and Sitchin said. Long story short, the 'Atlanteans' were alleged to have gone from the doomed Atlantis to Ireland, then Egypt. 1) Ireland was under a massive glacial flow in the period Tsarion alleges and was uninhabitable. 2) No genetic connection can be found between the Irish and Egyptians.

[B]4) The Pyramids were built using fantastic machines, lights, planes...[/B]
The only metal that the ancient egyptians posessed was copper, which would render it impossible for them to create the many things they're credited with.
[B]
5) Okay - So how did they cut the stones without metal?[/B]
Wooden plugs and pounding stones, of which we've excavated hundreds.
[/FONT] [B]
6) The technology to build the Pyramids appeared suddenly[/B]
No, in fact we have excavated the precursors to the pyramid at Giza and know that the technology was developed through trial and error over a long period of time. The Egyptians also built unsuccessful pyramids which have now either fallen down or that are not symmetrical. If they used alien technology then the aliens were frequently wrong in their advice. [FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]The Sumerian culture, who the egyptians may have got the first ideas for building step pyramids (ziggurats) from, had been building very large structures like this for at least 500 years before the pyramids were built.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[B]7) The Pyramid is made of 2.3 million limestone blocks, Each block weighing over 2 tons.[/B]
The standard estimate for the number of blocks in the pyramid [I]was [/I]about 2.3 million, a figure we now known to be wrong, as it was based on the idea that the pyramid was of the same construction throughout - it isn't. Only key stones (like those in the base layer, those surrounding passageways, etc) and SOME of the blocks in the outer casing layer that people see today are in any way even - but most are a mass of different sizes and shapes, not all set perfectly in the construction - in fact in places the building work is sloppy.

Think of the pyramid as being a stone core with rubble packed around it, then an outer casing of large stones holding that in place, then the polished limestone facing stones on top of that. Even the final casing stones were held in place by packing rubble, mortar and sand because the layer behind them was so uneven.

A new estimation showing how many blocks there would be in the pyramid IF they were all of the same size, and they're not, is actually: [FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]603,728[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] . As they're not uniform (much of the construction is more rubble than blocks) the figure is far less - or actually come to think of it more blocks, but much smaller, basically randomly shaped rubble.
[B]
8) How did they quarry and drag even these thousands of stones to the construction site?[/B]
Many blocks were dug out of the site (particularly the base), not transported to it.

[FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]"...the whole pyramid site was open-cast quarried into blocks, leaving a square core for the center of the pyramid (the core is
approximately 412.7 ft square, and rises approx. 46.25 feet high). These blocks were then stored outside a low wall; made of mortared stone that surrounds the core (the outside dimensions of the wall are approx. 887.3 feet square).

This core gives the pyramid stability from the downward and horizontal forces that will develop from the superimposed loads of blocks of stones that are piled up, as the pyramid rises. Also, from the prevailing north-west winds that exert enormous pressures on the huge areas of the pyramid's faces, thus increasing these forces further
.
Leveling of the entire pyramid site was accomplished by flooding the area inside the wall with water, leaving just the high spots. These them were cut down to the level of the surface of the water. Next, some of the water was released and the high spots again were cut down to the water's surface. This process was repeated until the entire pyramid site, between the core and the
four walls, was leveled down to the base of the pyramid's platform...."[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[B]9) All the pyramid blocks were created with incredible precision and to the same size.[/B]
[FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]"...The stones construction behind the outer casing is not only irregular, they are also progressively smaller toward the top. Behind the backing stones, the core stones are actually even more irregular. We know this because, in the 1830s, [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/egyptologists.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Howard Vyse[/COLOR][/U][/URL] blasted a hole in the center of the south side of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/04dyn02.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khufu's[/COLOR][/U][/URL]'s [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/greatpyramid1.htm"][U][COLOR=#606420]Pyramid[/COLOR][/U][/URL] while looking for another entrance. This wound in the pyramid can still be seen today, and in it, we can see how the builders dumped great globs of mortar and stone rubble in wide spaces between the stones. Here, there are big blocks, small chunks of rock, wedge shaped pieces, oval and trapezoidal pieces, as well as smaller stone fragments jammed into spaces as wide as 22 centimeters between larger blocks...."

[B]10) Multiply the Pyramid's height and it's the distance to the Sun/Moon
[/B]This would be impossible as the distance from the Earth to the Sun and Moon changes constantly; but primarily, the height used to make this calculation is also wrong.

[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][B]11) The Great Pyramid is set precisely at 31ºN 31ºW. [/B]
No, it's at 29 58′ 45.03″ N, 31 8′ 3.69″ E.
[FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][B]
12) The Pyramid is set exactly at the centre of the earth's landmass. [/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][B]The Great Pyramid is located at the center of the land mass of the earth. The east/west parallel that crosses the most land and the north/south meridian that crosses the most land intersect in two places on the earth, one in the ocean and the other at the Great Pyramid. [/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]

This is a myth. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]http://www.catchpenny.org/pyramid.html[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]

[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][B]13) The length of a base is 9131 PI from corner to corner in a straight line. The length of a base side at the base socket level is 9131 pyramid inches or 365.24 pyramid cubits. The length of a base side at sidereal socket level is 9131.4 pyramid inches or 365.256+ pyramid cubits[/B].

The 'pyramid inch' was an invention; strangely, partly due to a Victorian reaction against the introduction of the metre. It doesn't exist. Measuring the pyramid at the height given is arbitrary, intended to give the answer that the equation seems to give, and only possible if the pyramid inch was real.

[B]14) The perimeter of the base divided by 100 = 365.24, the number of days in a year.[/B]
Not even close to the true perimeter size. It measures about 755 feet per side. Go on, do the math, you know you want to...

[B]15) The Egyptians placed the pyramids so that you could see the solstice between them. How could they have known when that was?[/B]
This was also worked out independently by other civilisations later. It needs a couple of sticks and some observation. Even better, just have a few generations record the information from visual observation.
[B]
16) The Egyptians seem to have known how many days in a year there are with better precision than anyone for years after them.[/B]
True, but they were still wrong. Their sytem of observation, added to by the observations of the Babylonians and Sumerians, was close to the real figure. Does this imply that the Egyptians had a level of maths we had not suspected? No, they did have sophisticated maths, gained in part from the cultures around and before them. They also developed geometry and algebra: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mathematics]Egyptian mathematics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/url]

"...The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus and Rhind Mathematical Papyrus are so called mathematical problem texts. They consist of a collection of problems with solutions. These texts may have been written by a teacher or a student engaged in solving typical mathematics problems.[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mathematics#cite_note-AI-0"][1][/URL]
[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mathematics#cite_note-AI-0"]
[/URL]
An interesting feature of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian"]Ancient Egyptian[/URL] mathematics is the use of unit fractions. The Egyptians used some special notation for fractions such as 1 / 2,1 / 3 and 2 / 3 and in some texts for 3 / 4, but other fractions were all written as [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_fraction"]unit fractions[/URL] of the form 1 / [I]n[/I] or sums of such unit fractions. Scribes used tables to help them work with these fractions. The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll for instance is a table of unit fractions which are expressed as sums of other unit fractions.

During the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Kingdom"]New Kingdom[/URL] (ca 1550 - 1070 BC) mathematical problems are mentioned in the literary [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_Anastasi_I"]Papyrus Anastasi I[/URL], and the Papyrus Wilbour from the time of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_III"]Ramesses III[/URL] records land measurements. In the worker's village of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_el-Medina"]Deir el-Medina[/URL] several [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracon"]ostraca[/URL] have been found that record volumes of dirt removed while quarrying the tombs.[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mathematics#cite_note-AI-0"][1][/URL][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mathematics#cite_note-Katz-3"][4][/URL]
[B]
17) The curvature designed into the faces of the pyramid exactly matches the radius of the earth. [/B]
It doesn't.

[B]18) The average height of land above sea level for the earth is 5449 inches ([/B][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black][FONT=arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=black]454.083 feet)[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][B]. This is also the height of the pyramid. [/B]
No, the pyramid was originally 488 feet high. The authors of a number of 'strange' pyramid facts continually use the wrong height of the pyramid to make other false claims, such as:

[B]19) The height of the pyramid to the missing apex formed by extending the sides is 5813 PI. The perfect formula height of the pyramid including the missing apex is 5813.2355653763+ PI, calculated from perimeter of base (sidereal s ocket level) divided by 2 Pi.The height to the missing apex is 5812.98 PI. The height of the pyramid without the capstone is 5496 PI. [/B]

All wrong, as they're based on a faulty figure for height and perimeter.

[B]20) The pyramids are usually called tombs, but no mummies have ever been found in them.[/B]
Not true. This alludes to the fact that the main tomb in the Great Pyramid was found empty. We still don't know if it was a fake tomb designed to fool tomb robbers and if the actual tomb still lies somewhere beneath.
[B]
21) The pyramid is almost perfectly aligned to true north.[/B]
There are a number of ways this could be done using star alignments.
[B]
22) The three pyramids at Giza are an exact representation of the belt of Orion.[/B]
It's only by taking away the other tombs around them there that they look like they are. They're a [I]mirrored[/I], slightly off to one side version of Orion, that doesn't actually portray Orion's makeup exactly (the smaller pyramid is about a third of a mile off inthe wrong direction for that - the point being that if it is Orion then it's based purely on ground-based observations. It could still represent Orion though, the Egyptians were astronomers too, and believers for a time that the spirit ascended to the heaven via the stars. But, the worry is that if they'd intended to create the three as a tribute to Orion/Death then it seems logical to think that they would have sat together in a walled setting, or had visual indications of their connection placed into the overall site. IN fact this isn't the case, and elements of the site had to be changed to accomodate the later pyramids. Though it's still feasible that they did intend to portray Orion, no such plan seems to have been put in place, so there is doubt.

[B]23) Perfectly crafted stones were used to create the Pyramid(s)[/B] revisited:
"...At first glance, the sides of the [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/giza.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Giza[/COLOR][/U][/URL] Pyramids, stripped of most of their smooth outer casing during the Middle Ages, look like regular steps. These are actually the courses of backing stones, so called because they once filled in the space between the pyramid core and outer casing. However, a closer examination reveals that the steps are not at all regular. In fact, rather then regular, modular, squared blocks of stone neatly stocked, there is considerable "slop factor", even in the Great [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/greatpyramid1.htm"][U][COLOR=#606420]Pyramid[/COLOR][/U][/URL] of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/04dyn02.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khufu[/COLOR][/U][/URL].
Not only are the backing stones irregular, they are also progressively smaller toward the top. Behind the backing stones, the core stones are actually even more irregular. We know this because, in the 1830s, [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/egyptologists.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Howard Vyse[/COLOR][/U][/URL] blasted a hole in the center of the south side of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/04dyn02.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khufu's[/COLOR][/U][/URL]'s [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/greatpyramid1.htm"][U][COLOR=#606420]Pyramid[/COLOR][/U][/URL] while looking for another entrance. This wound in the pyramid can still be seen today, and in it, we can see how the builders dumped great globs of mortar and stone rubble in wide spaces between the stones. Here, there are big blocks, small chunks of rock, wedge shaped pieces, oval and trapezoidal pieces, as well as smaller stone fragments jammed into spaces as wide as 22 centimeters between larger blocks.

In the [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/khafrep.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Pyramid[/COLOR][/U][/URL] of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/khafre.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khafre[/COLOR][/U][/URL], [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/giza.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Giza[/COLOR][/U][/URL]'s second largest structure, event the coursing of the base core stones is not uniform. The builders tailored blocks to fit the sloping bedrock that they left protruding in the core as they leveled the surrounding court and terrace. In fact, in this pyramid's northeast and southeast corners, where the downward slope of the plateau left no bedrock in the core, the builders used enormous limestone blocks, two courses thick, to level the perimeter.

Higher up, the core is made up of very rough, irregular stones. The upper third of the pyramid core appears to be stone blocks in regular stepped courses, but on closer inspection, the heights of these steps range from ninety centimeters to 1.20 meters, and the widths of the steps vary from 23 centimeters to a meter.

Just as in the case of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/04dyn02.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khufu's[/COLOR][/U][/URL]'s [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/greatpyramid1.htm"][U][COLOR=#606420]Pyramid[/COLOR][/U][/URL], [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/khafrep.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]that[/COLOR][/U][/URL] of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/khafre.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khafre[/COLOR][/U][/URL]'s core is made up of loose, irregular fill. There are seams and gaps in the stepped core blocks, and through these we can see limestone chips and rubble. [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/belzoni.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Giovanni Belzoni[/COLOR][/U][/URL], the "strong man of Egyptology", cleared out a robbers tunnel in 1818 that was dug through the center of the north side of the pyramid. However, he experienced problems because the core fabric of the pyramid kept collapsing. Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi, who surveyed the [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramids.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]pyramids[/COLOR][/U][/URL] between 1963 and 1975, wrote, "... this was due without doubt to the incompactness of the internal masonry and the lack of mortar, so that the blocks are not always in contact at the sides, and cannot mutually support each other.
[IMG]http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramidcore2.jpg[/IMG] However, although considerable irregularity shows in the inner core of even the largest and finest pyramids at [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/giza.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Giza[/COLOR][/U][/URL], the builders did not simply pile up rubble as, in all probability, they built the core slightly ahead of the casing. There is evidence that they built up these pyramids in large chunks of structure.

The first [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramids.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]pyramids[/COLOR][/U][/URL] of Egypt were step pyramids, which are not true pyramids, lacking the smooth outer casing. Many pyramid theorists assume that a stepped core makes up the bulk of every pyramid. Indeed, the [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/maidum.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]pyramid at Meidum[/COLOR][/U][/URL] does have such a core, made up with fine sharp corners and faces. In fact, the first true pyramids were indeed conversions of step pyramids. However, we actually do not know whether the largest pyramids of the [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/hdyn4.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]4th Dynasty[/COLOR][/U][/URL], those usually best known to the world, are built with an inner step pyramid.
The gash that [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/egyptologists.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Howard Vyse[/COLOR][/U][/URL] made in [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/04dyn02.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khufu[/COLOR][/U][/URL]'s [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/greatpyramid1.htm"][U][COLOR=#606420]Pyramid[/COLOR][/U][/URL], which extends some nine meters deep into its south wall starting about eighteen courses above the base reveals nothing close to regular [IMG]http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramidcore4.jpg[/IMG] stairs. Not a single vertical joint corresponds with another. None of the blocks are the same size, and there are no clear impressions of regular rising joints. Even the horizontal joints are not very clear.

However, in the eastern face of this cut, the courses are not regular, but there could be two crude steps of perhaps a large inner structure which is possibly a crude stepped core. A similar crude structure can be seen in the cores of the partially destroyed or unfinished queen's pyramids of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/04dyn02.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khufu[/COLOR][/U][/URL] and [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/menkaure.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Menkaure[/COLOR][/U][/URL], and in the gash in the north face of Menkaure's [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/menkaurep.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Pyramid[/COLOR][/U][/URL]. It appears likely that the cores of these pyramids are composed of great, rectangular blocks of crude [IMG]http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramidcore5.jpg[/IMG] masonry, a sort of "chunk approach" to assembling an inner step pyramid that lacks the beautifully finished faces and corners of Meidum.

Irregardless of the irregularity of their cores, the [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/giza.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Giza[/COLOR][/U][/URL] Pyramids do have the most massive, large block masonry of all Egyptian [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramids.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]pyramids[/COLOR][/U][/URL]. These classic pyramids of popular imagination were built in only three generations and yet, all of the other pyramids of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/kings.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]kings[/COLOR][/U][/URL] (excluding queens and other satellite pyramids) contain only 54 percent of the total mass of the pyramids of [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/snefru.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Sneferu[/COLOR][/U][/URL], his son [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/04dyn02.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khufu[/COLOR][/U][/URL], and grandson [URL="http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/khafre.htm"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]Khafre[/COLOR][/U][/URL]. Many of the characteristics of these pyramids are very precise, but while they are not as perfect as many might imagine, they nevertheless represent true landmarks in human achievement...."

Finally the big question - how were they built? Well, a couple of years ago a French researcher came up with a viable idea that has some growing proof; that the pyramids were built from the inside out using ramps and pulleys. He found marks at points in the internal construction for wooden beams where he said they would be, and other evidence. The great pyramid was later examined internally using radar, and there are clear indications that these ramps exist. Stay tuned, it seems that an answer is not too far away!

MelT
[/COLOR]

 

Coorrrrr....it's gone quiet...

This is an interesting read about the myth of the 'pyramid inch' from FAQ file regarding the Great Pyramid - read the rest of the article there.

1.) The Pyramid baselines record the exact length of the solar year
(3665.242 - accurate to a thousandth of an inch) using units called
the "pyramid inch" and the "sacred cubit".

2.) The Pyramid encodes an extremely accurate value for Pi.

There is no evidence in any literature or from archaeology that the
"sacred cubit" and "pyramid inch" are units of measure used by the
ancient Egyptians. According to Petrie, the Egyptians did use a
cubit measure equal to 20.632 +- 0.004 inches. The sacred cubit and
pyramid inch were first mention by 19th century pyramidologists.
The two most significant of these are John Taylor who wrote a book
"The Great Pyramid: Why Was it Built? And Who Built It?" and Piazzi
Smyth who wrote after Taylor in the 1860's "Our Inheritance in the
Great Pyramid." Piazzi Smyth was the astronomer royal of Scotland
and as such lent early pyramidology some credibility in some circles.

(Smyth is in fact the chief culprit in starting this "cult". His book
went through many printings and was translated in several languages
and spread pyramidology all over the world.)

These two were British-Israelites who believe that the white peoples of
northwest Europe, particularly those of Great Britain and those who
migrated to the U.S are descendants of the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel.
According to them the pyramid was built by some Biblical patriarch
such as Job or Enoch. The pyramid allegedly encodes statistics
about the form and measure of the earth and also contains a map of
Bible history and future prophecy. (The prophecies have all failed
so far. Rutherford thought the millennium would begin by 1977;
Davidson set a date of Aug. 1953; Smyth thought that the millennium
would start no later than 1960.)

They claim that the ancients built the pyramid using an English unit
of measure, the inch. The sacred cubit equals 25 inches. To be sure
the inch unit did change some over the years. The primitive or
"pyramid inch" is 1.00106 British inches. The difference was estimated
using the early (1830s) measurements of the pyramid baseline which was
9140 inches to a side. Multiply that by 4 and you get 36,560 inches
as the sum of all four baselines. Well, modify the inch a little and
hypothesize a sacred cubit of 25 inches and (viola!) the baseline of
the pyramid is 365.242 sacred cubits, a figure equal to the length of
the solar year in days. This idea was first proposed by John Taylor
over 130 years ago.

Here is a picture to illustrate this idea:

. ------------
side .'|`. top |`. '|
view .' | `. view | `. .' |
.' | `. | `' |
.' | `. | .' `. |
------------------ |.' `.|
<- 9140 inches --> ------------
<- 9140 inches ->


If one side is 9140 inches then the perimeter of the
base is 9140x4 or 36560 -- pretty close to the number
of days in a century.

Petrie's measurements show that the actual lengths
were between 9120 and 9130 inches showing that the
claim is wrong.

Note that this inch idea is strictly inferred. It has no basis in
fact beyond the curious relationships alleged by pyramidologists.

 

This is the source of many myths:

During the late nineteenth century a strange intellectual phenomenon, pyramidology, found its way to both sides of the Atlantic. In his book, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, Peter Tompkins relates in full how modern pyramidology, as distinct from its ancient counterpart, (1) got its start.

As discussed in Secrets of the Great Pyramid and also in Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, in 1859 John Taylor, an eccentric British publisher, produced a work entitled The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built? And Who Built It? Accordingly, Taylor posited that the architect who had planned and supervised the building of the Great Pyramid of Cheops was not an Egyptian but probably the biblical patriarch Noah. Later pyramidologists suggested that its designer was Melchizedek,(2) but in many other ways they accepted Taylor's hypothesis.

Although Taylor had never been to Egypt, the Great Pyramid had long interested him. What he ascertained from his study of it was that the architectural proportions of the Great Pyramid had many interesting geometric and mathematical properties. For example, Taylor discovered that the ratio of the perimeter of the base of the pyramid to twice its height gave a fairly close approximation of the number , or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Taylor believed that this important universal constant was intentionally incorporated in the dimensions of the pyramid. The presence of the ratio was regarded as particularly amazing in view of the fact that there is no historical record of anyone having calculated an accurate value for it until many centuries after the construction of the Great Pyramid.

With this geometric proportion in mind, Taylor searched for other related properties. He noted that is approximately equal to 366/116.5. Of course, it is an irrational number and therefore cannot be precisely represented as such a fraction. Taylor, however, was intrigued by the similarity of the number 366 in the numerator of this ratio to the number of days in a year. By manipulating the number 366 and other dimensions of the pyramid, he concluded that its builders had used a unit of length which differed from the British inch by only a few thousandths of an inch. Twenty-five of these "pyramid inches" made a "pyramid cubit," and 10 million pyramid cubits approximates the length of the radius of the earth on its polar axis fairly closely. These and a series of similar calculations provided what Taylor considered to be adequate evidence that the Great Pyramid had been built as a model of the earth, to serve as a record for mankind of the important dimensions and proportions of the globe.(3 )

Taylor's ideas would probably never have become popular except for Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, a British Israelite and the Astronomer-Royal of Scotland. Not only did Smyth accept Taylor's basic assumptions, but he built on them and popularized pyramidology in Great Britain, America, and on the European continent as well. He published a number of works on the subject including Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid(1864), Life and Work at the Great Pyramid (1867) and On the Antiquity of Intellectual Man (1868).

Smyth set himself the task of testing Taylor's ideas. As Taylor had done, he studied the measurements and observations made by others who had taken an interest in the pyramid. He did not allow the matter to rest there, however. Largely at his own expense, Smyth traveled to Egypt and spent considerable time in collecting vast quantities of data relating to the pyramid. As a result, he not only convinced himself of the validity of Taylor's claims, but discovered many more facts demonstrating, as he thought, the special nature of the pyramid. The number and variety of geometric, mathematical, physical, geographical and astronomical measurements made by Smyth is truly amazing. A brief description of few such characteristics of the Great Pyramid serve to indicate Smyth's perseverance, attention to detail, and imagination in searching for evidence that the pyramid was more than a mere pharaoh's tomb.

The architecture of both the exterior and the interior of the pyramid supplied Smyth with the majority of the "proofs" for his conjecture. He verified the existence of the ratio by simple trigonometry and a careful measurement of the ascending angle of one of the few remaining casing stones which had originally covered the exterior of the pyramid. He also went to great trouble to measure accurately the length of a side of the base of the pyramid.(4 )Using this length, he satisfied himself that the "pyramid inch" had indeed been the unit of length used in building the Great Pyramid,(5 )and that this and other pyramid dimensions were closely related to the length of the year in days as supposed by Taylor.

Smyth derived a complex set of numerical interrelationships between such things as the number of stones used in the construction of the inner chambers of the pyramid, the volume and shape of the stone coffer found in the King's Chamber of the pyramid, the number of faces and angles of the pyramid, and the number of courses of masonry between various chambers within the pyramid, among many other things. For some reason Smyth considered relationships of involved combinations of numbers such as 25, 50, 10, 366, and 9 as particularly significant. He felt that these numbers were included in the pyramid's dimensions as a record of the "perfect" standards of measurement that God intended man to use.(6 )

Besides linear measurements, Smyth spent much time investigating other physical properties of the pyramid such as the temperature and barometric pressure in the inner chambers and the weight and density of the stone coffer in the King's Chamber.(7) Again, he derived supposedly important relationships between these measurements, and he concluded that perfect units of weight and temperature were embodied in these dimensions.(8 )

The pyramid was found to have interesting geographical and astronomical properties. For example, it is oriented so that its sides point almost precisely due north and south. Smyth believed that it was so constructed by intention, and that this proved that the earth's crust had not shifted significantly since the time that the pyramid was built. He also maintained that the parallel of latitude and the meridian which intersect at the Great Pyramid traverse more land area (as opposed to water) than any other parallels or meridians.(9 )Taylor's thesis that the pyramid was a model of the earth was reinforced in Smyth's mind by his verification of the fact that the distance of the earth from the sun is approximately ten raised to the ninth power multiplied by the height of the Great Pyramid.(10) He regarded these numbers as significant, for some unknown reason. These are but a few of the hundreds of measurements and calculations that he put forward as evidence of the pyramid's special nature.

While it is doubtlessly true that the pyramid does have many of the interesting properties ascribed to it by pyramidologists, the real difficulty lies in judging what one can reasonably infer from the presence of them. For example, Taylor and Smyth were both certain that the ratio was present in the pyramid's dimensions by design, and that this indicated some special knowledge on the part of the builders of the pyramid-likely knowledge of divine origin. Yet Taylor himself was aware of the belief apparently held by Egyptians of earlier periods that the pyramid had been constructed so that the area of one of its faces would equal the square of its height.(11)

The mathematical sophistication required to achieve this is not great, and in any case a trial and error calculation would soon lead to a close approximation of this proportion. The point is this: if, in fact, the pyramid builders had intended to incorporate the above mentioned proportion, then the ratio of the perimeter of the base to twice the height would be 3.145, which differs from only in the third decimal place. This is essentially as accurate an approximation of as Smyth was able to claim from his investigation. So, the ratio could occur as a completely coincidental by-produce of a design which would not have been concerned at all with the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Thus the inference that the ratio must have been consciously included is unwarranted.

Many of Smyth's calculations and the inferences he based upon them seem artificial and arbitrary. What, for example, is the significance of the number 109 as used in relating the height of the pyramid to the distance of the earth from the sun? What meaning does the number ten million have, other than the fact that there are approximately ten million pyramid inches in the polar radium of the earth? The pyramid is a rich source of the kind of data Smyth worked with, and it would be surprising if he had been unable to come up with some interesting number combinations after manipulating such data.