It has always pained me a great deal that so many people all over the world are genuinely fascinated by ancient Egypt and yet they are so woefully misinformed by sensationalist media, so-called documentaries based in pseudoscience, and the fantasy world of Hollywood. No other ancient civilization is so universally recognized and yet so thoroughly misunderstood. Sadly, Egyptologists are often so frustrated by this that they want nothing to do with the situation; it’s not just a matter of educating people, it’s completely reeducating them, trying to reverse the damage caused by ‘The Mummy’ and even the Discovery Channel.
When I tell people that I’m studying Egyptology, people always assume that this means pyramids and mummies, the only things they know about Egypt. In fact these areas are so popular that they are overrun by untrained theorists and most Egyptologists shun them rather than tackling all of the misinformation. Sometimes I can hardly blame them; even as a lowly student, I was once approached at a conference by a man who wanted to show me the home experiments that he’d carried out, pulling miniature pyramid blocks in his backyard! The sad thing though is that many people prefer madcap theories to the truth, especially when genuine research is presented in dry academic speak rather than the exciting Indiana Jones-style of tv.
Once I was actually asked in all seriousness for my professional opinion on whether alien build the pyramids. The man said: ‘There’s so much discussion of the alien theory that there must be something to it, right?’. Well, my short answer would be, ‘No. There isn’t anything to it at all.’ My longer answer will follow, with a thorough dissection of the central arguments of the alien theory and why they are wrong. I think the main reason the theory is so popular is that people like to believe in things, things that are much bigger than themselves, whether it’s god or aliens. But often people also want proof and they seek to find it in the pyramids and other ancient monuments. It’s no wonder that the pyramids are incredible enough that they inspire people to believe the unbelievable. I myself don’t think there’s anything wrong with postulating that there might be other life out there in the universe, but I also don’t believe in robbing humanity of pride in its achievements.
I think it’s rather more inspiring to think that human beings, our own ancestors, created such spectacular monumental achievements. However, some people see the concept of civilization as progressive, that humans only continue to improve upon the past, so they think that just because we are uncertain about how the pyramids were built and we ourselves would struggle to replicate their achievement, it is impossible that humans of the past could have done it.
They say that since the pyramids of Giza were built about 4500 years ago, people back then couldn’t have been skilled enough to do it. However, we’re ignoring that numerous remarkable developments were happening all those millennia ago. There are many things that were discovered in the distant past that still serve us today. The Egyptians made many brilliant innovations (something I will have to write more about in another post): simple things that we still use today, which have barely changed over the millennia since they first conceived, from the earliest forms of paper and ink, to the 24 hour day.
People say that since we wouldn’t be able to build pyramids today, that the Egyptians couldn’t have done it, but it’s not just building of the pyramids that couldn’t be replicated today. It’s hard to imagine ever being able to pull together the resources, power, money, skilled craftsmen, and architects needed to build one of the great gothic cathedrals in this day and age. It just couldn’t happen. This isn’t something to be ashamed of though, we simply use different technologies and have different priorities these days. While we couldn’t build another Notre Dame Cathedral or Great Pyramid, modern structures like the Eiffel Tower or the Gherkin wouldn’t have been possible back then either. Pyramids were possible simply because the entire economy, resources, and population of the Egyptian civilization was under the control of a single omnipotent ruler, who could mobilize them all into a monumental building project.
To argue that just because we don’t know every detail about how the pyramids were built would be a logical fallacy (an argument from ignorance) and does not prove that aliens must have built them. We have so much evidence that strongly indicates that the Egyptians themselves were responsible for building the pyramids. We have archaeological evidence of their construction: remains of the quarries, roads, tools, records of the workers and the towns in which they lived. We know why they built them and we can even observe their lengthy and imperfect evolution before they reached their architectural peak with the Great Pyramid.
To properly address the issues out there, I will cite from a number of websites that support the theory that aliens built the pyramids and some of the comments that individuals have posted there, and explain why they are incorrect. I randomly chose a number of sites from the top Google search hits for aliens and pyramids. I don’t want to single anyone out or anything, so I won’t use any names attached to the comments. The various websites from which they derive are listed at the end of this post.
I am no great pyramid expert myself, so I must acknowledge an enormous debt to the work of Mark Lehner and Dieter Arnold, from whom most of my information derives, along with other Egyptological sources, all of which are also listed at the end. I’d recommend Lehner’s ‘The Complete Pyramids’ as the best general book on the subject if you want to learn more. It is very readable with lots of illustrations and diagrams.
Why were the pyramids built?
Referring to the alien theory, someone states: ‘It’s the most sensible theory. Why would ancient Egyptians build such monstrosities just to bury their kings?’ Alien theorists say that it’s a mystery why the Egyptians or other ancient people would build such immense monuments. Therefore, it must have been aliens. But why on earth would the aliens want to build these monuments? And on earth? That makes even less sense. We definitely know the purpose behind the building of the pyramids.
They were used as tombs for the ancient Egyptian kings, but they represented much more than just a grave. They were iconic symbols of the supreme power of the ruler; what better way of showing your subjects who’s boss, than conscripting them to build you a monolith that dominates the entire landscape? Above all, they were monuments to divine Egyptian kingship, the place where the king would be transformed into a god. One of the most important Egyptian myths tells how an ancient king named Osiris was murdered by his evil usurping brother, who in turn was eventually defeated by the rightful heir to the throne, Osiris’ son Horus. In death, Egyptian kings were thought to take on the role of Osiris, the ruler of the underworld, while their son assumed the role of Horus and the kingship. And although deceased, the former king would join the eternal cycle of life to be reborn everyday with the sun god. The pyramid was thought to facilitate this. This also legitimized the rule of the successor to the throne, since the pyramid was a symbol of his father’s new divinity.
There are a number of reasons why these tombs were built in a pyramidal form. First of all, they developed out of an older form of monumental royal tombs called mastabas, which were flat-roofed rectangular buildings, that an enterprising architect named Imhotep then decided to adapt by stacking one on top of the other into a step pyramid form. Also, the pyramid was intended as a place of rebirth. An Egyptian creation myth tells of the birth of the world as a primeval mound rising out of the waters of chaos. The pyramid is a stylized mound.
In a country where the sun is always shining, the sun god Re was the supreme deity, and the king aspired to join him in being reborn every dawn. The pyramid form echoed the rays of the sun and its staircase like form allowed it to serve as an instrument of ascension. Each of the pyramids was capped with a pyramidal stone block, or pyramidion, and the carvings on the one from Amenemhat III’s pyramid at Dashur confirm its celestial role for the king; it is inscribed with a pair of eyes looking up at the sundisk and hieroglyphs that read ‘Amenemhat beholds the perfection of Re’.
The ancient names for the pyramids themselves reveal a great deal about their purpose as royal monuments and symbolic locations for the king’s divine transformation and journey to heaven. The Great Pyramid is called ‘Khufu’s horizon’, and the other two Giza pyramids are called ‘Great is Khafre’ and ‘Menkaure is Divine’. Other pyramid names include ‘Djedefre is a Sehed-Star’ and Sahure’s ‘Rising of the Ba-Spirit’. Just because the Egyptians were interested in the celestial aspect of the afterlife though, doesn’t mean they had to be inspired by aliens. People throughout history have been fascinated by the stars, and I don’t think anyone’s calling Galileo an alien.
The pyramids themselves were clearly part of Egyptian religious tradition, forming the focal point for the worship of the deceased king. Some of the rituals involved cleaning, dressing, and offering food and drink to statues of the king, who was undoubtedly human rather than green or tentacled. We actually have records of the day-to-day activities centred around the pyramids. The Abusir papyri preserve detailed records of the daily activities at the pyramids and of the people who worked there, including schedules of priest and guard duties; inventories of pyramid temple equipment; financial accounts; lists of goods supplied and stored; and records of architectural inspections.
The Egyptians had strong cultural, religious, and political reasons for building the pyramids and there is no reason to question their purpose.
Some internet sites claim that the pyramids were never used as tombs, perhaps because they now lie empty.
This is because they were robbed in antiquity for the treasures that would have been buried with the king. There are still huge stone sarcophagi in many of the pyramids that were clearly used to hold the royal mummy. Funerary texts are also written inside the burial chambers of pyramids built after the Giza ones. The temples attached to the pyramids were used for mortuary rituals at the funeral.
Alien theorists often say that the pyramids couldn’t have been built by such ‘primitive’ ancient people and it’s strange that the pyramids suddenly just appeared out of nowhere
The main idea that most people use to support the theory of alien pyramid builders is, and I quote, ‘that ancient man was ‘primitive’, ‘living in mud huts’, and too ‘stupid’ to build such sophisticated constructions. One website states: ‘In the period 2500 BC man did not have the tools or knowledge necessary to build the pyramids, so only aliens could have done it. The angle of the slope of the sides is so precise only aliens could achieve this. The blocks are so heavy and the pyramid so tall only aliens could achieve this. How the aliens built the pyramids is not known, but they would have employed the use of advanced construction equipment.’
First of all, these ancient peoples were nowhere near as stupid as the people who make such statements. While we may have accumulated knowledge over the centuries, our species’ brains haven’t changed at all in the past few thousand years and ancient people were just as intelligent as we are today.
Before the pyramids were built, the Egyptians had developed agriculture, writing, religion, astronomy, mathematics, metal-working and semi-precious stones, sophisticated artwork and monumental stone architecture, and had managed to unite the various people throughout the country under the rule of one king. This was a true civilization, not a motley band of savages. The pyramids of Giza were incredible achievements for the time: expert Mark Lehner calculates that 9 million tonnes of limestone were quarried between the reigns of Sneferu and Menkaure alone.
When you really learn enough about them, it’s not difficult at all to imagine that the Egyptians were capable of such architectural sophistication. They had a certain expertise in stone working that we lack today. By the time of the pyramids, a corps of craftsmen had been developing their quarrying and building skills since the Early Dynastic Period. We have evidence to support the Egyptians’ responsibility for all the construction stages of the pyramids.
A similar claim for the sudden appearance of the pyramids from nowhere, out of the supposed dark ages that proceeded civilization, is made in a Discovery channel programme about the alien theory (!) in which the voiceover states: ‘For two and a half million years our prehistoric ancestors had been living in caves, passing the time by bashing stones together, when suddenly everything changed and people began to build huge monuments all over the planet. But how? And why?’
They blatantly ignore the fact that we have clear evidence for the evolution of the form and building process of the pyramids. These perfections of architectural engineering did not just appear from nowhere and the Egyptians actually got it wrong in a number of early pyramids before they were able to create the Giza masterpieces.
The first pyramid ever built, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, started off as a completely different style of building. Originally, a traditional mastaba was built for the Third Dynasty king Djoser. The architect Imhotep then began to make innovative changes by enlarging the basic structure to be a square and then building a smaller mastaba-like square on top. But he didn’t stop there; inspired, Imhotep expanded the building once again and added a fourth, fifth, and sixth level to eventually form the Step Pyramid.
A remarkable structure with an extensive surrounding complex and subterranean palace, it was still not a true pyramid with smooth sides. After a few other stepped pyramid projects were abandoned by short-lived kings, the first attempt at a true pyramid finally developed out of the stepped pyramid of King Sneferu at Meidum.
The Meidum pyramid was originally intended to be a 7-step pyramid and was then expanded to 8-steps and completed in the 14th year of Sneferu’s reign. In his 28th or 29th year though, the
workers were sent back again to fill out the rest of it into a true pyramid. Stripped of its outer casing, the remains of the pyramid stand in three large steps. Before he did that though, the ambitious builder Sneferu began building another pyramid at the site of Dashur that was the first pyramid intended to be a true pyramid right from the start. Unaccustomed to building such a structure though, construction began at too steep an angle, a slope of 60°. When severe structural problems were noticed, the architects took emergency measures and altered it to 55°. Still having problems though, they changed it again to a more gradual gradient of 44°, resulting in a rather odd looking pyramid, which has appropriately been dubbed the Bent Pyramid.
Some alien advocates actually try to use this pyramid to support their theory by claiming that the Bent Pyramid was just a shoddy imitation built by humans to copy the aliens who build the Giza pyramids. However, the pyramid is very conclusively dated to years 15-30 of Sneferu’s reign. This first attempt at a true pyramid was so problematic though that Sneferu abandoned it too, and started another pyramid at Meidum. Learning from previous mistakes, the North pyramid continued to build on the developments of Sneferu’s previous efforts, resulting in the first truly successful and magnificent true pyramid.
Pyramids did not suddenly appear out of nowhere, beamed in by alien technology. Only after all of these less successful attempts, and all the experience gained by architects and workers, could the stage be set for the construction of the greatest of world wonders.
How did the ancient Egyptians build the Pyramids?
Pyramid building was a long and complex process that took many different stages and and an amazing amount of resources, but was well within ancient Egyptian capabilities.
The Great Pyramid is composed of roughly 2,300,000 blocks and was likely built in 23 years or less (the length of its builder King Khufu’s reign according to the Turin papyrus). Stadelmann has calculated that to do this, the builders had to lay c. 340 blocks a day. The general figure suggested for the annual workforce is in the range of 20-30,000. Although it needed a great deal of stone, the bulk of it would have been more easily moved as it would have gone into the base of the pyramid, and even though the Great Pyramid was the best constructed, the core itself was also rather sloppier than the exterior, including many irregular stones and debris fill.
I will break down my discussion of the building process into the various stages:
Planning
The Egyptians were careful and precise architectural planners. Even buildings much older than the pyramids were laid out using an exact measuring system based on a unit called a cubit (about 52.5 cm, which could be further divided into smaller units called palms). Representations of foundation ceremonies for temples show this measuring process, called the ‘stretching of the cord’, being done using ropes tied to wooden pegs pounded into the ground. Many round holes that may have been for measuring pegs have been found cut into the bedrock around the foundations of pyramids and their temples.
The angle of inclination (seqed in Egyptian) for the sloped faces of the pyramids was clearly calculated by the Egyptians using a simple and precise method. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus shows that seqed was defined as the relation between the horizontal setback of the wall and the vertical rise of 1 cubit. Pyramid alignment is further discussed below. There is also evidence that they produced miniature architect’s models, much like is done today, as part of the planning. Rainer Stadlemann found a small limestone architect’s model for the innovative substructure of Amenemhat III’s Hawara pyramid.
Quarrying
We know that local limestone was used for the pyramid cores and the mortuary and valley temples, while finer limestone and granite were brought along river from Tura and Aswan to use for the smooth outer casing.
The quarry used for Khufu’s pyramid is located on the plateau itself, 300m south of the Great Pyramid, a huge horseshoe shaped chunk out of the plateau, dug up to 30m below the original surface. Khafre’s quarry gives a good example of how the blocks were actually quarried. In the open limestone quarry just north of his pyramid, there are still the stumps of 3x3m blocks that were removed thousands of years ago with trenches in between them where the stonecutters would have worked.
Stone tools were used for quarrying. Blocks were cut by pounding channels into the limestone using hammer stones to separate them from bedrock and then detached using large wooden levers. Traces of these channels remain and there are still a number of unfinished quarry blocks that lie almost detached from the bedrock not far from the Sphinx, and in Menkaure’s quarry, where huge lever sockets are also visible.
In an interview with NOVA, Mark Lehner explains the strongly human and flawed side to these monuments: ‘A pyramid is basically, most basically, two separate constructions: it’s an outer shell of very fine polished limestone with great accuracy in its joints and the other construction is the inner core, which filled in this shell. The core was made with a substantial slop factor, as my friend who is a mechanic likes to say about certain automobiles. That is, they didn’t join the stones very accurately. You have great spaces between the stones. And so they’d jam down pebbles and cobbles and some broken stones, and slop big quantities of gypsum mortar in there.
We saw in many places, even on the giant pyramids of Giza, the first pyramid and the second pyramid and the third one, fragments of tools, bits of pottery that are clearly characteristic of the Old Kingdom. So you see the pyramids are very human monuments. And the evidence of the people who built them, their material culture is embedded right into the very fabric of the pyramids. And I think I could take just about any interested person and show them this kind of material embedded in the pyramids as well as tool marks in the stones and say, hey, folks, these weren’t lasers. These were chisels and hammers and you know, people who were really out there.’
Workers
There is actually a lot of evidence left of the ordinary people who performed the strenuous building work, who weren’t aliens, but most definitely Egyptian. While the total number of the workforce is speculative, we do know about the division of the work force and the size of these groups. The work force was organized by crews, each of roughly 2000 conscripted peasants, comprising two gangs of 1000. Each gang was divided into five groups of 200 men called zaa, also known by the Greek name ‘phyle’. Within each phyle were ten divisions of twenty men. The gangs seems to have been competitive and had names relating to the reigning king, for example ‘Friends of Khufu’ or ‘Drunkards of Menkaure’, and they actually graffitied their names on the buildings!
The stones from some of the Middle Kingdom pyramids have rough hieroglyphs inscribed on them as notes for either scribes or controllers. These notes consist of the date of transport, the workmen in charge of the block, and the stage of transport. Some state ‘brought from the quarry’ or ‘removal from the quarry’, delivered at the mereyt (harbour or embankment), ‘brought from the embankment’ and delivered to ‘storage enclosures’. Other notes records that they were ‘brought’ or ‘dragged’ to the pyramid, or ‘delivered to the ramp’. Herdsmen are also mentioned, who may have been responsible for driving oxen pulling the stone.
The stones also have team marks written on them to record the name of the team responsible for them. They may have been written and read by the basically illiterate workmen themselves, since some involve true hieroglyphs and others invented signs. Felix Arnold believes that the signs related to the worker’s hometowns, which weren’t in outer space.
There are also written documents that deal with the pyramid builders. Several of the Lahun papyri from the town associated with the pyramid builders of Senwosret II document the dragging of stone blocks by groups of workers.
Transport
The Nile River was the highway of Egypt and any finer stone that was quarried from further away was transported to the pyramid site by boats. Most of the stone was quarried nearby though, and wooden sledges were probably used to transport the blocks over land. A 4.2m long sledge was found by the pyramid of Senwosret III. At least some of these sledges would have been drawn by oxen. A number of tomb and temple wall paintings depict the transportation of stones by water and by sledges drawn by men or oxen.
Roads and tracks were made to pave the way for these sledges. Worn wooden beams were reused like ‘railway sleepers in tracks’ for dragging heavy stones on sledges overland. Such tracks have been found at Lisht near the Twelfth Dynasty pyramids of Amenemhat I and Senwosret I. Transport roads, which also survive at Lisht, measure up to 36 ft in width. They were made with a foundation consisting of a fill of limestone chips and mortar with wooden beams inserted, over which a layer of limestone chips and white gypsum was used to provide a smooth, solid surface. Water used as a lubricant for the ground to make it easier to pull the sledges.
Transporting immense quantities of stone was not an impossible task that would have required space ships, but well within the ancient Egyptians’ capabilities.
Laying the blocks
When the stone blocks were finally being moved into place, to preserve the precise alignment of the walls, corner blocks would be set first and then other blocks would be brought in on rollers but only lever moved into their precise final placement using levers. For example, one of the casing blocks of Khufu’s pyramid shows a lever hole in the base of the block that was then filled in with plaster. But lacking in ‘alien perfection’, sometimes since there were different teams working to lay blocks from each of the pyramid’s corners, they could end up with a gap in the middle, which would need to be filled with smaller blocks, as is the case with the pyramid of Meidum.
It is generally thought that ramps were used to move the blocks to the higher levels of the pyramids. Certainly some of the proto-pyramids, the step mastabas of the Third Dynasty show evidence of having had building ramps on all sides. For true pyramids, using such ramps blocks could have been towed to a height of 30-50 m, and at least 50% of blocks could have been lifted that way. The Meidum pyramid shows traces that indicate a steep ramp was applied to the outer casing. These ramps would not have been difficult to build or dismantle since they would have been made from an amalgam of limestone chip, tafla, and gypsum, rather than stone blocks.
All sorts of ramps have been proposed, from single or multiple straight ones to ones that would wrap around the structure or zigzag up the face or even internal ramps. Just because we don’t know for certain how the upper reaches of the pyramids were built, doesn’t automatically mean that they couldn’t have been built and are therefore alien constructions. There are a number of different ways it could have been done, but sadly we aren’t just able to ask the Egyptians which one is right. There probably isn’t even one simple answer, a number of different methods could have been used.
But…pyramids would have been really hard to build!
A lot of website comments display a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of pyramids. One states: ‘There is no way that primitive man built the pyramids. Even with modern equipment (i.e. cranes) we could not duplicate that feat, those are megaton (1million ton) rocks. You could surround the entire rock with men and it wouldn’t budge 1″. There’s no way with simple ropes & pulleys that they moved those stones… absolutely NO WAY.’
While, yes, the pyramids would have been incredibly difficult to build and required incredible expertise, they are not miracle structures. People seem to think that you’d practically need magic to build them! They’re amazing feats of engineering, but they’re certainly not inconceivable as human creations. The blocks were certainly not a million tonnes each! On average, they weighed about 2.5 tonnes. And the suggestion of lifting the entire weight of the blocks with cranes would probably actually be more difficult than the Egyptian approach, which was to drag the stones over wooden rollers or slippery mud lined surfaces. We even have the remains of the smoothed roads that they built to move them. Just think about it…while I can barely lift my suitcase when it’s stuffed to the brim and weighing almost 30 kg, it’s relatively easy to move when it’s on wheels! By surrounding the blocks with teams of men, it wouldn’t have been that difficult to move them, and the Egyptians often used cattle to help as well. The NOVA pyramid-building experiment found that 20 men could easily pull a two-tonne block along lubricated tracks. Building the pyramids would have been difficult, but people can be pretty clever when it comes to making work easier.
What about the pyramids’ extraordinarily accurate alignment?
Precision, according to one website, is only possible if you come from another planet: ‘The pyramids are so accurately aligned with the points of the compass that only aliens could have achieved this all those thousands of years ago.’ It wasn’t visitors from space, but rather the observation of it that allowed for the Egyptians’ great accuracy in orienting the sides of the
pyramids. Amazing precision could be achieved just by watching the stars. There was actually a whole institution within temples with priests devoted to star gazing. The theory suggested by I.E.S. Edwards is that using a horizontal circular wall, a person standing within could mark a star’s rising and setting points on the top of the wall, with North identifiable as the bisection of these. A more recent theory advocated by Kate Spence suggests that the architects of the Great Pyramid sighted on two stars (b-Ursae Minoris and z-Ursae Majoris), rotating around the North Pole, which would have been in alignment when Khufu’s pyramid was constructed. Supporting this theory is the fact that inaccuracies in the orientations of earlier and later pyramids can be closely correlated with the degree to which the alignment of these two stars deviates from true north.
The perfect right angles of the pyramid were likely achieved using either a set square, of which ancient specimens are preserved, or using a ‘Pythagorean’ triangle, which was known to the Egyptians before the Greeks. They also used specialized surveying tools called the merkhet (basically a plumb bob) and the bay, a sighting tool made from the central rib of a palm leaf. Examples of such precision tools have actually been excavated are square levels with plumb bobs, set squares, and vertical plumb rods, and there are depictions of them being used by the Egyptians. After each of the four corners of the building had been plotted, the Egyptians would align the straight sides by stretching a rope between each of the corners in a ceremony called ‘stretching the cord’. This method was in use for decades before the first pyramid was ever built, and was first depicted in the reign of the Second Dynasty king, Khasekhemwy.
But then why don’t we build pyramids?
Again, misinformation makes people assume that since we aren’t building pyramids ourselves, the Egyptians couldn’t possibly have. As one person states: ‘How about the fact that a group of modern scientists attempted to build a pyramid out next to the real one using modern technologies, and after something like 100 days, succeeded in building one about 1/40 of the size of the real one????’
Well, again a classic example of wilful ignorance. I’m sure there have been a number of experiments like these, but the major one that I’m aware of, the NOVA pyramid-building experiment took 40 days to build a pyramid measuring 20ft high. However, they attempted to use mainly ancient technologies, they only had a team of 44 workmen, a short time period, and a total lack of experience in pyramid building. And it was just an experiment, they weren’t trying to build a real pyramid! Egypt had a state-controlled system capable of acquiring and organizing the necessary people and resources. The Egyptians would have used thousands of workers and taken many years to build a proper pyramid, and just because we aren’t building them too doesn’t prove that it was humanely impossible.
The pyramids of Giza form the belt of Orion
A theory proposed by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert, notes that the pattern formed by the layout of the pyramids is virtually identical to the three belt stars of the constellation Orion. If one considers the details of the Orion correlation it seems likely that it is pure coincidence. Orion’s belt is a famous star formation partly because of the natural simplicity of its layout. The arrangement of the Giza pyramids in that pattern was probably simply because it offered the best sight lines. Basically the pyramids are laid out in a diagonal line, rather than blocking each other. Khafre built his pyramid after his father Khufu built the Great Pyramid and very cleverly situated his smaller pyramid on the higher part of the plateau so as to actually make his appear bigger than his father’s!
Bauval and Gilbert further pressed the Orion comparison by using computer software to pinpoint the date in ancient history when the alignment of the pyramids would have exactly mirrored the constellation Orion in the sky. They claim this conjunction occurred precisely in 10,450 BC and therefore this is the true date of the building of the pyramids by aliens, before the rise of Egyptian civilization. However, there is absolutely no evidence that the pyramids existed before the Egyptians did. There is overwhelming evidence that they are the cultural, religious, and political products of the early Egyptian state. The Giza pyramids were built during the 4th dynasty, which probably dates to around 2575-2450 BC.
Radiocarbon dating, which is unfortunately not always that accurate, was done on the Great Pyramid several times in the 1980s and 90s, (initially funded by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, another group that wanted the pyramids to date to 10,500 BC, believing them to be remnants of Atlantean society!). The radiocarbon dates for the Great Pyramid ranged from 2660 to 3809 BC, slightly older than the historical dates previously assumed. Also, the great cedar boat found buried beside the Great Pyramid was radiocarbon dated to about 2,600 BC. So the pyramids certainly do not date from 10,500 BC!
So yes, the Egyptians, not aliens, built the pyramids!
Pyramid building became a great cultural tradition of the Egyptian and about 30 key pyramids were built, not including all the accompanying satellite or queens’ pyramids, over a span of more than 800 years, remarkable monuments, for which the Egyptians deserve the credit.
The theory that aliens built the pyramids is built on fanciful notions, misinformation, and a wilful ignorance that completely disregards any scholarly research that contradicts the theory. Alien theorists have barely anything to support their idea other than the tactic of attacking the uncertainty of Egyptologists over the details of the building process. They prey on the people who find inspiration in the concepts of the pyramids and alien life and use them to fuel publicity for their sensationalist books and television programmes. Both ‘Is there Life elsewhere in the universe?’ and ‘How were the pyramids built?’ are questions worthy of being asked, but they belong to separate spheres of research and different periods of history, and should be kept that way. Zahi Hawass, the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt and the Director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation, says of the people who believe in alien theories, ‘People like to dream. If you meet someone who is not an archaeologist, they love to dream, but you have to know a little bit about reality.’ While reality might not involve conspiracy theories or UFOs, it can still be thrilling to learn about the real people behind their creation.
We shouldn’t rob ourselves of feeling pride in the pyramids as a human achievement. In building these monumentally inspiring constructions, our ancestors built the foundations of civilization. We shouldn’t betray their ingenuity with our ignorance, but celebrate it by continuing to build upon the intellectual developments and inventions that made the pyramids possible.
References:
Arnold, Dieter. 1991. Building in Egypt. Pharaonic Stone Masonry. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Aston, B., etc. 2000. ‘Stone’ in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, eds. Shaw and Nicholson. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Edwards, I.E.S. 1985. The Pyramids of Egypt. New York & London: Viking Penguin.
Lehner, M. 1985. ‘The Development of the Giza Necropolis: The Khufu Project’. MDAIK 41, 109-143.
Lehner, M. 1997. The Complete Pyramids. London, Thames and Hudson, Ltd.
Quirke, Stephen. 1990. The Administration of Egypt in the Late Middle Kingdom. New Malden: Sia Publishing.
Websites consulted:
http://www.outerworlds.com/likeness/aliens/aliens.html
http://netscientia.com/egypt.html
http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Who%20built%20the%20pyramids.htm
http://www.csicop.org/si/9909/fox.html
Dear Ed, I don’t see how you can dismiss religion. But yet bring up the topic of aliens visiting us. For all we know the aliens could be the depicted Gods and Goddesses throughout time. We can not be totally sure, but I also hope just as you that aliens someday do comeback openly. To share with us their great knowledge and teach us how to become somewhat sufficient as a race.
We are the aliens that we are talking about here. And yes, we built them.
Why does everything need to proved or dis-credited. No one has the correct answer. Maybe that’s the beauty of life. We make it our own. They made the pyramids their own. Why don’t we do the same? Priorities? I don’t have answers for something I wasn’t involved in. Why should I crap on anyone’s beliefs? Maybe it was something beyond us or maybe human life just kicked some ass! We may only believe what we’ve personally seen. Remember that. History is told by those who want us to believe their thoughts
While the misinformation about ancient egypt of the average individual is about on par with learning about native americans by going to the buffalo bill museum, dogmatic egyptologists are held back just as much by tradition and politics.
the giza pyramid is 2.3 millions stones, about.
The four bases have an error of 58 millimeters.
The stone on the top has an error of 1/4 an inch (divide 1/4 inch by 2,299,999 stones and you get your average measure of error)
based on a 20 year period of building, in which they were farming 9 months of the year, leaving 3 months a year to work – at ten hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year, they would have had to have placed a stone every two seconds.
2 to 40 ton stones placed every two seconds with that much accuracy. Oh yeah, and people tell you they did this with copper tools.
In short, losers who watch TV and have nothing better to than hope some waka-waka-shakra green man will save them-or-fucking eat them? gawwd……. ruin any kind of logical ADULT alternate speculation because they want to be part of something sooooo bad but can’t get off the couch. It sucks that dumb pothead chicks who can’t shut up about mother earth want to be abducted by ancient aliens, but at the same time no hieroglyphics ANYWHERE mention building pyramids. odd.
also people don’t like talking about the Osirian temple in abydos since an impartial geologist dated it much older than egyptologists want it to be.
Good post. To the question “why aren’t we making new pyramids”. The correct answer is we have built thousands of buildings and structures way better and complex than the Egyptian pyramids. But if you want to insist, take for example the Transamerica Pyramid building in Los Angeles. It has 48 stories of usable space. And this is just one example. People prefer to learn about legends because true engineering is not digestible by most people. I for one am very impressed with all dams. Those are terrific engineering structures way more complex than the Egyptian pyramids but people don’t seem to appreciate them. Ancient Egyptians used the solid pyramid shape because they didn’t want to fight gravity. They didn’t know how. A hollow building with habitable space is more complex than a pyramid. It has to defeat gravity, sustain winds and still be hollow enough to provide functionality.
What if it’s true like the expert here has claimed: ‘ If this hoisting technique was used at the Great Pyramid during construction, it would take twenty seven men one minute to hoist a five thousand pound block at a rate of one hundred vertical feet per minute.’ (quoted from “The Forgotten Technology”)
visit here: http://www.theforgottentechnology.com/newpage3
If it were compared to a skyscraper, the Great Pyramid would be 42 stories high. It contains enough stone to build a six foot high wall from New York to Los Angeles.
Researchers Alan and Sally Lansberg provide the following statistics regarding this incredible edifice:
“Somehow the builders knew that the world was round but flattened at the poles, which caused a degree of latitude to lengthen at the top and bottom of the planet; that it rotated in one day on an axis tilted 23.5° to the ecliptic, causing night and day, and that this tilt caused the seasons; that earth circled the sun once in a year of 365 and a fraction days.
The designers also must have known that earth’s celestial north pole described a slow circle around the pole of the ecliptic, making the constellations appear to ‘slip backward’ (the precession of the equinoxes), and bring a new constellation of the Zodiac behind the sun at the equinox approximately every twenty two hundred years in a grand circle of about twenty-six thousand years.
These facts, too, were part of the internal measurements of the pyramid”.
We are asked to believe that primitive man, dressed in animal skins and roaming wild, constructed the Great Pyramid with all that it entails, yet these same builders had not yet invented the simple wheel.
From an astronomical point of view, we have learned some extraordinary facts. There are four long narrow passage ways or shafts built into the Great Pyramid. Two on the north face and two on the south. The two on the north point to two distinct stars. One at Beta Ursa Minor and one at Alpha Draconis in the constellation of Draco.
The ‘star shafts’ on the south face point at Sirius and Zeta Orionis. In ancient Egyptian tradition, Sirius is associated with the goddess Isis.
And Zeta Orionis, which is the brightest star of three in Orions belt, is identified with Osiris, the high god of resurrection and rebirth in the remote epoch referred to as ‘Zep Tepi’ or ‘First Time’. (See figure 2 below)
I think there is far more to the pyramids to just believe humans built them. In the Bible and actually in most religions there is mention of giants or nephilims, mythological giants which were basically the offspring of humans and extra dimensional beings (mistakenly believe to be aliens). There is much proof that these nephilim existed, besides most unrelated religions speak of these mythological beings, most of the world’s monumental mysteries like the pyramids, uncannily share similar names with many of these mythological beings. Please see this https://sites.google.com/site/theywatchus/evidence-of-nephilim-giants
I dont agree with this: The perfect right angles of the pyramid were likely achieved using either a set square, of which ancient specimens are preserved, or using a ‘Pythagorean’ triangle, which was known to the Egyptians before the Greeks. They also used specialized surveying tools called the merkhet (basically a plumb bob) and the bay, a sighting tool made from the central rib of a palm leaf. Examples of such precision tools have actually been excavated are square levels with plumb bobs, set squares, and vertical plumb rods, and there are depictions of them being used by the Egyptians. After each of the four corners of the building had been plotted, the Egyptians would align the straight sides by stretching a rope between each of the corners in a ceremony called ‘stretching the cord’. This method was in use for decades before the first pyramid was ever built, and was first depicted in the reign of the Second Dynasty king, Khasekhemwy.
But then why don’t we build pyramids?
Again, misinformation makes people assume that since we aren’t building pyramids ourselves, the Egyptians couldn’t possibly have. As one person states: ‘How about the fact that a group of modern scientists attempted to build a pyramid out next to the real one using modern technologies, and after something like 100 days, succeeded in building one about 1/40 of the size of the real one????’
Well, again a classic example of wilful ignorance. I’m sure there have been a number of experiments like these, but the major one that I’m aware of, the NOVA pyramid-building experiment took 40 days to build a pyramid measuring 20ft high. However, they attempted to use mainly ancient technologies, they only had a team of 44 workmen, a short time period, and a total lack of experience in pyramid building. And it was just an experiment—they weren’t trying to build a real pyramid! Egypt had a state-controlled system capable of acquiring and organizing the necessary people and resources. The Egyptians would have used thousands of workers and taken many years to build a proper pyramid, and just because we aren’t building them too doesn’t prove that it was humanely impossible.
The pyramids of Giza form the belt of Orion
A theory proposed by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert, notes that the pattern formed by the layout of the pyramids is virtually identical to the three belt stars of the constellation Orion. If one considers the details of the Orion correlation it seems likely that it is pure coincidence. Orion’s belt is a famous star formation partly because of the natural simplicity of its layout. The arrangement of the Giza pyramids in that pattern was probably simply because it offered the best sight lines. Basically the pyramids are laid out in a diagonal line, rather than blocking each other. Khafre built his pyramid after his father Khufu built the Great Pyramid and very cleverly situated his smaller pyramid on the higher part of the plateau so as to actually make his appear bigger than his father’s!
Bauval and Gilbert further pressed the Orion comparison by using computer software to pinpoint the date in ancient history when the alignment of the pyramids would have exactly mirrored the constellation Orion in the sky. They claim this conjunction occurred precisely in 10,450 BC and therefore this is the true date of the building of the pyramids by aliens, before the rise of Egyptian civilization. However, there is absolutely no evidence that the pyramids existed before the Egyptians did. There is overwhelming evidence that they are the cultural, religious, and political products of the early Egyptian state. The Giza pyramids were built during the 4th dynasty, which probably dates to around 2575-2450 BC.
Radiocarbon dating, which is unfortunately not always that accurate, was done on the Great Pyramid several times in the 1980s and 90s, (initially funded by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, another group that wanted the pyramids to date to 10,500 BC, believing them to be remnants of Atlantean society!). The radiocarbon dates for the Great Pyramid ranged from 2660 to 3809 BC, slightly older than the historical dates previously assumed. Also, the great cedar boat found buried beside the Great Pyramid was radiocarbon dated to about 2,600 BC. So the pyramids certainly do not date from 10,500 BC!
So yes, the Egyptians, not aliens, built the pyramids!
Pyramid building became a great cultural tradition of the Egyptian and about 30 key pyramids were built, not including all the accompanying satellite or queens’ pyramids, over a span of more than 800 years—remarkable monuments, for which the Egyptians deserve the credit.
The theory that aliens built the pyramids is built on fanciful notions, misinformation, and a wilful ignorance that completely disregards any scholarly research that contradicts the theory. Alien theorists have barely anything to support their idea other than the tactic of attacking the uncertainty of Egyptologists over the details of the building process. They prey on the people who find inspiration in the concepts of the pyramids and alien life and use them to fuel publicity for their sensationalist books and television programmes. Both ‘Is there Life elsewhere in the universe?’ and ‘How were the pyramids built?’ are questions worthy of being asked, but they belong to separate spheres of research and different periods of history, and should be kept that way. Zahi Hawass, the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt and the Director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation, says of the people who believe in alien theories, ‘People like to dream. If you meet someone who is not an archaeologist, they love to dream…but you have to know a little bit about reality.’ While reality might not involve conspiracy theories or UFOs, it can still be thrilling to learn about the real people behind their creation.
We shouldn’t rob ourselves of feeling pride in the pyramids as a human achievement. In building these monumentally inspiring constructions, our ancestors built the foundations of civilization. We shouldn’t betray their ingenuity with our ignorance, but celebrate it by continuing to build upon the intellectual developments and inventions that made the pyramids possible.
everyone on this that believes that Egyptians built the pyramids are all in denial that there is something bigger and more superior then us, first of all there is no technology now that could do that, so theres no technology back then that could of. Not to mention the alien rocket drawings in the pyramids. Aliens are like us except there civilisation started many years before us, they are just ahead of us because they were made first if we were as old as thier species we would be up to them to, but obviously every planet would do everything differently with different recourses and different brains.
OK so lets say our species gets as old an advanced as them, what would we do if we visited an inhabited planet, would we disrupt what there doing and maybe cause universal war ? or would we observe there planet and their ways ? exactly we would. AND THERE ARE NO FACTS that humans built the pyramids just because they have plans or what not roads n shit like you say, haha, As if kings back then wouldnt claim that they built them to the rest of the world to look superior. i do not think aliens built them for kings like what that dumbass said above, they obviously did it for themselves fool or for another reason, they were made ages before people say they were built before governments and all that, no one person could control that amount of people to do such a significant and overwlehming structure. Unless ALiens were the king came to earth and dumb people or apes that had no knowledge of anything all hailed these creatures that are not simply better then us, but have just exsisted for longer than us.
that is just a theory, maybe the Aliens mated with apes and thats how we are now. come to think of it, if you mix an alien with an ape, it would look pretty much exactly like us.
You cannot say that out of the infinity of the universe that we are the superior ones. we are so young compared to other planets and we have tried and succeeded to reach other planets just like other inhabitants of other planets would have, but we would not disrupt the environment and life of another planet we would observe it.
the disruption of another planet could be catastrophic to the universe and dont you think aliens would know that ? just like we do ? or do you still think we are the smartest and superior species in the infinite of the universe ? haha if you do, you are a sad human being that cannot except the brilliance and that anything is possible in this world of life.
While given many good points, no real proof. The theories are just that. 600 years ago we “knew the world was flat” . So any theories offer until we know for sure we should consider possible.
Great argument! My question is, the Egyptians were very explicit and obsessed with documenting every little thing, from how to mummify their people, to how they lit the insides of the pyramids, why then, did they not document how they built there great pyramids?
P.S. I believe WE are the aliens. I don’t believe in any green men beaming people up… although, I do not think we are the only species in this vast universe and we may have been visited, but I believe that humans have evolved on different planets and they are the ones that give us less evolved humans, a little push?
Still, that doesn’t explain why the Egyptians didn’t actually document the building of the pyramids. Possibly they were told to leave that information out to keep people interested and questioning?
*their.
All things are possible with GOD.
Doesn’t that tell you anything?
Fantastic article! Was prompted to look into this after hearing an idiot on the radio argue that the pyramids couldn’t have been built by a “tribe of nomads”. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the “ancient astronaut” bullcrap is rooted in a similar sense of prejudice or even full blown racism.
The arguments in favor of the Egyptians building the pyramids, both by the author of this article and by commenters are generally well thought out and provide information to back up the arguments. On the other hand the arguments in favor of aliens building the pyramids are generally backed up by more questions. How is it possible that this…our that… I believe most people are open to different theories, but common sense leads us to believe ideas backed by thought.
Its interesting everyone assumes its either aliens or egyptians that built the pyramids. After a bit of research Into various areas ive got a different potential origin.
Humans are pretty damn smart. To think that its taken us 150,000 to advance to this point considering the significant advances in the last century alone, before information was freely available online, is perhaps a severe underestimation of what we’re capable of.
A lot of claims of pyramid discoveries around the world have been cropping up lately, some claming to date back to 20-30 thousand years (bosnia), others astonishingly 65 million years old apparently discovered in chrimea with a mummy buried inside. Its difficult to validate these claims online with limited reliable sources and a lot of over egging, but there does appear to be some reasonable evidence in the photographic, video and so called scientific analysis.
There have been a number of mass extincton events thoughout human history and earth history. Including the last ice age and one proposed more recently around 10, 000 years ago. Perhaps civilisations superior to ours have risen and fallen at the hands of an m.e.e.
Apparently theres an egyptian tablet claiming their civilisation was 36, 000 years old, assuming for one second the bosnia claim is legitimate, it could be possible that an ancient civilisation that built pyramids in bosnia, and perhaps advanced for tens of thousands of years before that time, rose from the immense tunnel network beneath the bosnian pyramids after the ice age and migrated to egypt to start a new civilisation. This society thrived for 30, 000 years before an extinction event that left the egyptians with nothing but their customs and relics to rebuild from. There civilisation thrived for another few thousand years to which we acknowledge as the entire length of their reign, that would put our civilisation at a relatively young age in the scheme of human existence. Assuming any evidence for this more recent m.e.e is also legitimate.
Very nice propaganda, good on you believing exactly what you have been led to believe. So egyptians built the pyramids, big woop. They obviously stole technology from older civilizations that were far more advanced than they were. And in all honestly did a mediocre job in comparison by the looks of things. I read half of this thing (skimmed the rest) and almost all of it appear to be a load of crap that may make sense to even the most intelligent people who have been brainwashed by mass media. And quite frankly either this guy is being payed to create such propaganda or he truly believes this shit. But then again this article was posted in 2007 so that isn’t too surprising. A lot of more controversial evidence has surfaced however that has yet to be suppressed by the all powerful elite. Or it was always around which would either mean this man did not do enough research (unlikely) or he simply refused to include it in his biased rant. Now I must clarify that I have yet to believe in aliens (though I do not deny it as a possibility because that would be ignorant) but there is definitely far more complicated and advanced that has lived on this planet. Something beyond what in which we could possibly comprehend with our tiny spectrum of knowledge and understanding. Heck, maybe God. Anyways, I would like to propose my theory (And I call it a theory because I am not ignorant to believe even myself) based on the research that I have conducted. Now it would appear to be a fact that the pyramids (among other large things poking out of the earth) have been created to harness the energy of the earth. This energy has been suggested to have incredible healing powers. The kind of stuff that will cure asthma and intense stuff like that. Now for the weird stuff. This energy seems to increase as you rise above the pyramids which is why I think they focus this energy. Oh, and I forgot to mention that these energy blasts come out in systematic areas of the earth that have a definite pin precise geometry. Which in itself should get you thinking. Oh and if you think that there are only pyramids in egypt than…well that is just really pathetic. The largest pyramids (so they say, china has one thats bigger than the great one) are in bosnia. And one of these date back over 25,000 years! Anyways my crazy theory is that something is using these pyramids (or used) as powerplants for some crazy stuff like interdimentional travel, or crazy shit like that. There have been plenty of “UFO” sightings above pyramids apparently. Recharging prerhaps?One guy I researched said something about the use of the other 20+ senses that I honestly didn’t know existed until a few months ago. The more spiritual and crazy superhero senses. Did you know there is a guy who was born blind that can see? Thats some dare devil shit. Thats the kind of information that was lost/suppressed. Do some more research, this thing is getting lengthy.
I am neither for or against the alien theory all I would like to know is why are there no records of the pyramids being built? They recorded almost everything in their daily lives for 2500 years carved or painted on walls yet I have never heard or seen anything closely resembling the building of the pyramids. They show a large statue being pulled by hundreds of men and water being pored in front to pack down the sand which I suppose would work but nothing on pyramids. Why? If there is anything I could be directed to I would greatly appreciate it.
Sometimes a Google search shows you exactly what you are looking for. Like this time. Marvellous article, you summarized the essential points and questions on this subject and explained them with simple rational arguments that explained a lot of stuff I would have had to gather from multiple sites or wikipedia articles. Plus I learned some very cool and interesting facts about the process of getting the first ones right, I think it’s especially fascinating how the adjustings can be seen in the structure of Sneferu’s ‘Bent’ Pyramid. Now that really is history to look at, in more ways than one.
Thank you for this.
……………….
I wanted to end here initially but after reading just some of the comments I had to write a comment. This is your fault people, you made me do it. It’s all on you.
Now let me address all of you, commenting folk of team Pro-Alien-Thesis (yes you heard me, if we be real than it is not even a theory, just a thesis).
Pretty funny how some commenting folk seem to just want THEIR proven theory put in the text, it seems without even having read the article. What really angered me were those who seemingly just wanted to insult the other just for the sake of it. Especially because the author never lashes out at the alien believer community and certainly never insults them in a hurtful way. He just suggests a general ignorance among them regarding human history, which in my opinion is true about most people anyway.
Also if you had read the article, you would have come to know that he even says he believes that extraterrestrial life could be possible. He just explains why he believes that such life was not responsible for the pyramids.
Now one last, no. 154: Luc. Know what I especially love? Guys like you who haven’t even read the text and then just blart out some faux information they got from a youtube video. “Oh yeah, and people tell you they did this with copper tools.” is just one of these fine examples.
Allow me to comment on your comment: “Who said ANYTHING EVER about copper tools. The article above I just read said something about ropes, levers, oxen, muddy surfaces. Also people, may you consider the fact that you can quarry and etch stones with…. wait for it…. *drumroll* [yes I’m an assole] …. wait a lil’ longer……. STONES! Dayumn, that was to simple wasn’t it?
And the people who were assigned to build pyramids weren’t working at the fields and field workers weren’t involved in pyramid building (except for some workers whose fields were flooded) and not to forget the amount of them who were outlandish slaves.
I shall now go back to my shrine in the basement and worship Shub Niggurath to pray to him that he may end all ignorance and with it the world.
Good fight, good night!
You lost me when you said Osiris was an ancient king. It is well known throughout the high initiated tribes who began to keep our culture and knowledge secret from white people around 6,000 years ago when they were created that Osiris and Heru (Horus) never existed. They were parables used to tell stories. Non black uninitiated people came and seen them on our walls and thought we worshipped them… We ain’t worship anybody True ancient egypt. That’s a non black concept
I think the writer of this article, has no clue of how the pyrimids are built or by whom, it for sure was not the Egyptians, if this were true we would have to believe that with brass and copper tools and with wooden wedges and very frail tools, the could quarry, move, and shape, then move into place blocks some weighing over 50 tons, with hundreds of thousands of workers, and most not paid, forget about needing farmers, and people to mine metals and make all the tools, forget about women to bith children and feed the workers, no the king of egypt made every last person work just the pyramids, cause seriously if they even had a few hundred thousand people back then, theuy sure the hell were not all dedicated to the pyrimids, nor could one king make them all that dedicated, nor could he even have that large of an influence, when people back then would have thier families to think about. It makes more sense to think that perhaps we are the Stone Age and they had more technology than we have today or aliens did build the pyrimids, either way that makes more sense. About the only people that believe the pyrimids were built by egyptians are the egyptologists, as any engineer that works in building large structures and dealing with granite and stone will tell you even with todays technology in cutting and shaping and the largets of cranes and heavy moving equipment we could not com close to doing the pyrimids, well I belive the egineer who deals with facts and absolutes before I believe and egyptologist who deals in maybies and I DON’T KNOWS OR we think perhaps, why don’t the egyptologists just also try and make us beleive in Santa Clause as well or the Tooth Fairy, lmao. Aliens and us having a more sophisticated level of tech then than we do not all of a sudden makes more sense and more reason. Egyptologists should not get paid for what they do, it should be a hobby education as it has no reason nor can it ever be proved and has no meaning when we look as what the world really needs. Put more effort into the real world issues and just let is believe or know the pyrimids were build by aliens, if it is not true we will figure it out like we figure out Santa Clause is also fake. Egyptologists get paid and given way too much to prove way too little, if we took all that wasted grant money, that basically goes to prove an out dated way of life which has little meaning to the world of today, since we gain little other than a little wow interest, we may havea better understanding of the world of today, for all I and anyone else really cares, aliens may well be responsible for the pyrimids and who really cares, they are there and thats all we can really prove for sure, enough said
” They were used as tombs for the ancient Egyptian kings, but they represented much more than just a grave. They were iconic symbols of the supreme power of the ruler; what better way of showing your subjects who’s boss, than conscripting them to build you a monolith that dominates the entire landscape? Above all, they were monuments to divine Egyptian kingship, the place where the king would be transformed into a god. ”
What is that THEORY different than all other BS claims from the mainstream con scientists WHY the pyramids were build ?! There is nothing further from the truth and the real and honest scientific study of the evidences how the pyramids were build will completely dismiss this con claim and lead to the real truth WHAT they been use for.
Moreover, using G-d as a symbol to cover up the power of those who still control the humanity and the truth about WHO WE ARE is even more pathetic.
Humans are so ignorant and stupid that make me believe that Darwin was right and we deserved to be call MONKEYS !
I don’t want to be rude Margaret (if that is your real name)
but no intelligent person with over 80 IQ can take your article seriously , even though 80 % of the people who comment in here prove me wrong. This is either due to a very long , persistent and intentional misleading and brainwashing from con and dishonest Egyptologist like yourself, or due to a low IQ that cannot coup, except the facts, the evidences and the logic of a few honest scientists who battled for the truth. Either way it is shameful really ! It’s also shameful that people like you teaching our children . Its very clear that “scientists” like you care for noting but money and career in the field of lies and deception, forgetting that we are living in the era of the internet , not in the Medieval Europe , where people were told that the Earth is flat and they blindly believe in this lie !
It’s very unlikely that my comment would be “approved” by you, so in case I’m right, here take a look of this documentary and witness how some honest colleagues of yours viewing and analyzed this extremely important topic about the human history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugWCRliG4Rg
Good luck in carrier your deception and dishonest
Sincerely:
Ivan Tankushev
Animation/Film Director and Producer
I believe that aliens did build the pyramids but I also believe that there are a lot of people who don’t. This is still a world where democracy does thrive so let those who wish to believe continue to do so , me included
Dear Margaret,
I feel sorry for you. You had such good intentions. You began by responding to objections in well thought out arguments. Then the batshit hit the fan.
There is one thing on which you are horribly ignorant: conspiracy theory ‘logic.’ There is no way to prove anything they say wrong. That is the brilliance of it. And unlike actual theories, which are built like a pyramid in that if your weaken the base, the whole structure can fall, conspiracy theories are like a ball pit. No matter how many you remove (unless it were nearly all), it would still be a ball pit.
These mainstream conspiracy theorists (look at how many books and ‘documentaries’ are made on the subject) just need to have an open mind. If they just critically look at the other side, they would come to yours.
As one commenter posted (I will be purposefully ignorant, as it seems to be what the theme that the thread has descended into), if you had a jury and presented all of the evidence, all twelve would say that only the ancient Egyptians could have done it. I said it first. So I win.
I applaud your attempt, and thank you for it.
P.S. I am sorry for my excessive use of proper English and grammar. I hope it did not cause too much confusion.
Not all off the structures were built or carved using the same technology, it’s almost as if the Egyptions rebuilt a much older city and tried to mimic, refinsh, and incorporate there buildings so that others would assume that they built all of it all from scratch, the beautiful carvings that are not semetricly perfect smaller pyramids were built by the Egiptions and the perfect stones and carvings were done by a previous race of humans that had developed mechining technology run by very high speed computers capable of cutting, shaping, patterns in 10 ton stone semectrily perfect to .001 quickly. When the Egyptions came they made sure to remove any evidence of old broken tools or computers that had decayed over the centerys the city was abandoned, and then rebuild the city with similar but not semetricly perfect work so the world of people see them as Gods and fear away from sacking there city.
Even if you you could do the symmetrically perfect cutting without a computer programmed milling machine, it would tack quick crafty workers about 4billion man hours. To build them in 20 years would require the populations of Richmond, Washington DC and Baltimore, and that would require a lot of multi story buildings to house them or the walk to work would be up to 100 miles, and most over 40, they didn’t know how to build tall buildings to house lots of people.
What amazes me is that in a time when NASA is trying to build a Warp drive to achieve space-time travel (note the “space-time”, not “time”, as the romantic amongst us choose to call it) and planning to send manned missions to Mars, some people still cling to their tattered beliefs of higher beings!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTgxGJfXRQ0
This video explains in detail how the pyramids must really have been built. I have looked through hundreds of videos and books and this is the most logical explanation ever.
And there are videos available on Youtube which show how 4-5 tonne stones were floated down the river on oak boats for Stonehenge construction and not dragged 170 miles over land.
Rampless Pyramid construction was realised in 2006 via university research. What quickly followed is the explanation of Ezekiel’s Wheels within Wheels which are the ancient wooden composite pulleys which step-walked more than three million 2500 kg blocks of sandstone utilising previously laid down stepped layers thereby using the Pyramid’s four sides progressively toward final completion. The documented timeframe of twenty years (Herodotus) is feasible. The wooden pulleys exist and are known as ‘Petrie Rockers’. The Great Pyramid is the earliest known application of ‘rack and pinion mechanics’ being used for lifting purposes in construction. Google haitheory.
An impressive paper. I agree with most of it as you will see if you visit my website. I’m convinced that the old egyptians, being excellent constructors and organizers, will have used an easier way to transport the stones than gliding and lifting tier by tier. I describe in the above mentioned website a method that requires around 80% less work.
For example: a ramp system with a slope of 10%, going up to 131 m for more than 98% of the building mass, requiring only 2200 m3 extra sand, pebbles and lime mortar and above all leaving no traces after its removal after use. A zigzag lift to place the capstone safely with about 20 men (well practised at ground level).
I respect the your beliefs, but they are not convincing. They are greater theories and more logical. Sure we humans are great and could be better, but something like the pyramids it’s not something i think we humans could’ve done, their is something greater in the buildings and we can’t deny that. Their has tu be a superior race out there that maybe could’ve helped the egyptiand and who know if the Egyptians them self came from a different planet or galaxy and lived here for ages after we started coming.
” So the pyramids certainly do not date from 10,500 BC!” – according to who?
Here is my respond to you:
” When the most ancient Egyptians first saw the mysterious Sphinx and the great Pyramid of Gizeh, only their tops projected above the wind-blown sand of the desert. They knew no more about the purpose of these structures, their builders, or when they were built, than we do” (Acharya S)
By the way do you think that the Bosnian Pyramid of Sun is the biggest HOAX in the history ? Well, it is according to “the best” Jewish ( from Boston) and Egyptian scientists ?
I would like to ask you something : Do you ever been to Giza? ( just kidding) .. I know that the Pyramids were covered with 115,000 10-ton casing sheets of polished limestone fitted so perfectly that a razor’s edge couldn’t get between casings, less than 1/50th of an inch. The Egyptians wrote how it reflected the sun like a mirror on all sides. Today there are still a few polished casings leftover at the base of one side, right !? Now imagine if you can those monsters with the casting.
There is a modern processing technique known as trepanning. This process is used to excavate a hollow in a block of hard stone by first drilling, and then breaking out, the remaining “core†Petrie had studied both the hollows and the cores, and been astonished to find spiral grooves on the core which indicated a drill feed rate of 0.100 inch per revolution of the drill. This initially seemed to be impossible. In 1983, Chris Dunn had ascertained that industrial diamond drills could cut granite with a drill rotation speed of 900 revolutions per minute and a feed rate of 0.0002 inch per revolution. What these technicalities actually mean is that the ancient Egyptians were cutting their granite with a feed rate 500 times greater than 1983 technology!
I just double checked for you: today fastest drilling is 10,000 RPM ,which is still about 45 times slower than the ” Egyptian technology” used to craft the stones of the pyramids .
Other then that – great article !
It amazes me that the author had the audacity to call someone else stupid for a thought. Did he/she read this before he/she posted it. The entire article, or what I read of it, was full of holes. And to even say that the brains of people back then were just as sophisticated as people today is all I need to prove my point. What a waist.
Thank you Margaret for an informed and interesting discussion.
I notice you have not commented for quite a while, and am not surprised considering some of the personal insults hurled around by people posting, who substitute arrogance for intelligence.
While I do lean toward involvement from an external civilisation in the building of the pyramids, your argument supplies solid balance to the skills of the Egyptian people being solely responsible for a wonder of construction.
It is refreshing when an expert in the field admits to “being unsure” or “not knowing” a particular fact. It shows honesty above self importance.
Pondering on the mysteries of past civilisations is part of solving the questions of human existance.
I hope you read this – because you deserve our gratitude and respect. You have mine.
The.
Pyramid was the tabernacle built for the arch of the covenant.
The arch was a charged capacitor that sat in what we call the kings chamber. To touch the arch would be to die for gods spirit was inside. Two helpers died when the arch was sliding off the donkey.
The pyramid is an electrical generator. Nicola Tesla understood this.
The age drawn on walls show people holding glowing light bulbs.
Who ever possesed the arch would be powerful. Egypt was so.
An body of water is under the pyramid and so dose a shaft meet the water.
Alien shmalien. Human beings are amazing.
You once mentioned that in one website it is written that ‘The pyramids are so accurately aligned with the points of the compass that only aliens could have achieved this all those thousands of years ago. The angle of the slope of the sides is so precise only aliens could achieve this. The blocks are so heavy and the pyramid so tall only aliens could achieve this. In the period 2500 BC man did not have the tools or knowledge necessary to build the pyramids, so only aliens could have done it. How the aliens built the pyramids is not known, but they would have employed the use of advanced construction equipment.’. So, was that – http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Who%20built%20the%20pyramids.htm.
You once mentioned that in one website it is written that ‘The pyramids are so accurately aligned with the points of the compass that only aliens could have achieved this all those thousands of years ago. The angle of the slope of the sides is so precise only aliens could achieve this. The blocks are so heavy and the pyramid so tall only aliens could achieve this. In the period 2500 BC man did not have the tools or knowledge necessary to build the pyramids, so only aliens could have done it. How the aliens built the pyramids is not known, but they would have employed the use of advanced construction equipment.’ So, was that – http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Who%20built%20the%20pyramids.htm.
There are 4 basic tasks to complete a structure like the Great Pyramid. Quarry, transport, shape, place. Quarrying, transporting and placing the stones was possible, although there is zero evidence to support the theory that the Egyptians of 4500 years ago actually did this. However, the big problem is the shaping of both flat and curved surfaces on the granite, basalt and quarzite stones to tolerances of 2 ten thousndths of an inch or better, which was entirely impossible for the Dynastic Egyptians with their bronze chisels and stone hammers. It is claimed that the Great Pyramid must have been built in 20 years, although again there is no evidence of this. No matter how you work it out, this would have meant that each of the 2.3 million stone blocks were quarried, shaped (which they could not do), transported and placed every 2 and a half minutes for 20 years. Also, each of the blocks of stone is unique and entirely different from every other stone in the pyramid, requiring that the stone would have to be shaped, fitted, re-shaped and re-fitted at the site, since the people at the quarry had no idea what shape and size the next stone should be. There are many other indicators telling us the Dynastic Egyptians did not build the Great Pyramid.
Oh my! This is such a great post.
People should read this and be properly educated rather than sharing nonsense stuffs on social media.
This just brought back some feelings during my childhood days when our teacher would discuss of the ancient civilization.
I was so amazed back then and I was like “The people in the past were so skillful that they were able to do stuffs like this without relying on the technology we have now.”
And then social media just brainwashed everyone and be like “Oh the people in the past aren’t skillful enough you know. Progress in the past were brought by aliens.”
Just pfft.
PYRAMIDS WERE BUILT BY ALIENS! The mortar used in pyramids cannot be reproduced by humans… Recent analysis has shown that drills with jewel bits were used to hollow out the pyramid.. And there’s chemical residue in shafts which could produce electromagnetic radiation and there are electrical signals In some chambers…. Recently a civil engineer construction his house.. It was the exact replica of giza pyramid and with same ratio of dimensions… Nothing happened while construction but after it was Complete… Ground water spring started flowing and the worker who drank that water was cured of diseases… Take that!
I wonder how the stone cutters could detach the stone blocks, I mean the underneath side of the blocks, without breaking them.
What a bunch of manipulative crap hiding the truth. Youre either serious or lazily researched your facts.
We are not the superior beings and we are not alone.
i wish i could be around when we get the technology to travel to other worlds and help a civilization grow like someone did for us with the pyramids…yeah…
this sounds like a whole lot of gibberish. the aliens built them, period. then they went to Mars for awhile and left that as our next mystery to enjoy.
2,3000,000 Blocks in 23 years does = 1 Block every 5.256 minutes. And that is working through the night 24 hours a day. Something has to be wrong with those figures Margaret. This is simple Maths based on given information. I always believed that they had many workers and a lot of time on their hands and highly qualified academics and architects to build the Pyramids. Could still be so but a lot more time would have been needed
Ok so I didn’t read it all and I am neither one that claim it is either this or that. That’s to me just being ignorant.
But it’s obvious the “facts” are completely ridiculous.
You write “Stadelmann has calculated that to do this, the builders had to lay c. 340 blocks a day.”
Well I would believe anyone could do these simple calculations but I might be wrong.
23 years is about 8395 days to make things easy.
2,300,000 / 8395 = 274 stones per day.
One day have 1,440 minutes, guess everyone agrees to that.
1,440 / 274 equals one stone just a bit over every 5 minutes if working day and night from first day until finished.
However cutting out huge stones would probably take more than 5 minutes?
Bringing them to the work site would probably also take a bit more than 5 minutes.
Just bringing any of the stones into its final place would probably take more than 5 minutes.
But some how it’s common sense to believe they cut the stone, brought it to the site, put it in place all under 5 minutes (on average) and also had time to make a great finish of the outside.
Anyone believe that must either think it took them just a few seconds to carve out a several thousand kilo piece and then just another few seconds to bring it so the site and a few further seconds to put it into place OR think it took much longer to cut them out and much longer to bring to the site but they could cut thousand stones at the same time thanks to the big work force and when the stones well started to arrive to the site in incredible speed they managed to put each stone in its exact place in under a second.
Well. It’s obvious something is not correct with these facts.
Margaret’s opinion is just that. An opinion. Ancient Egyptians, notorious for documenting absolutely everything, and I mean really, everything – left no information on how the pyramids were built and on the contrary, Pharaoh Akhenaten left record on the city he built, that the pyramids were there before his people claimed the territory. Academia is notorious for promoting the interests of generational honors of historians who passed the baton within their own families. A quick research into scientists of the late 1700’s and 1800’s such as astronomers will show this. The funny thing is that the explanation that these pyramids were built as tombs, is that not one single pharaoh, ever, was discovered buried anywhere in them! It’s possible that they would have wanted to be laid to rest in them, but they were clearly not for that purpose otherwise … where are the inscriptions? The granite covering that once encased these structures were black, red, and white. Now where have you seen those colors before? There is plenty of evidence if one cares to search that make people like Margaret look misinformed. If people with inquisitive passion like Anthony West, Chris Dunn, Dr. Carmen Boulter, and others of such caliber have come to the power plant conclusion, Margaret Maitland’s dull opinion based on established curriculums that haven’t changed in the last 250 years despite new technology, discoveries and evidence, is well, boring to say the least.
The aliens built the pyramids because They would have to be constantly monitored for geometric accuracy as it progressed upwards because being even a few inches off on the lower level could cause the top to be off by a huge amount and having a spiral ramp with make it impossible to survey the geometric accuracy of the pyramid as it progressed. Also that in the period 2500 BC man did not have the tools or knowledge necessary to build the pyramids, so only the aliens could of done it.
Great article! So concise!
I am 15 and at school there is an overwhelming number of people who believe in the Alien theory. It is pretty frustrating. It seems as if people like to ignore completely the evidence proving that humans did build them. Pseudoscience is a lot more attractive to many people because of it’s simplicity.