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Who Built It and When?
There have been many theories regarding who built the Great Pyramid
of Giza. Let us look at what evidence we have to identify the
builder or builders of the Great Pyramid.
Most academic Egyptologist’s accept that the Great Pyramid was built
during the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu during the 4th dynasty, around
2550 BC. What evidence do they have to support this theory?
The only real evidence has been the discovery of red ochre markings
in some of the relieving chambers above the King’s Chamber. These
markings have been in question ever since the famous explorer,
Colonel Howard Vyse in the 19th century, first discovered them. He
visited and explored the Great Pyramid in 1836 and was the first to
discover the additional four relieving chambers above Davison’s
chamber. In the upper two chambers, Vyse discovered inscriptions in
a red pigment painted on the walls of both these chambers. He
identified them as quarry marks so the stones used in building the
Great Pyramid would reach their proper destination, and the workers
would know where they had to be placed in the pyramid. (Some similar
marks were also found on the first 6 courses on the pyramid and may
also be quarry marks.) There were also cartouches (names of
Pharaohs) and one of them had the actual name of Khufu. If true,
these cartouches could date the pyramid to the time of Khufu, as the
academic Egyptologists believe. It is interesting to note that no
other quarry marks were found elsewhere in the pyramid and these
appear to be the only inscriptions ever found in the Great Pyramid.
But on close examination of the Khufu cartouche discovered by Vyse,
it appears that these hieroglyphics were a type not used until
hundreds of years later in Egypt. It also appears that there is a
misspelling in Khufu’s name. An interesting coincidence is that the
same misspelling appeared in a hieroglyphic textbook at that time
which Colonel Vyse would have access to. So we have an inscription
that is at least 200 years ahead of its time and has a misspelling
that was found in hieroglyphic textbooks contemporaneous with Vyse.
This evidence leads many to conclude that Vyse forged those marks in
order to make a name for himself or possibly some other motive which
we do not know. This is a very controversial area, and the
discussion goes on. It would be interesting to see if dating could
be done on the pigment comprising those marks. So, the debate goes
on.
Is there anything we can do scientifically to try to date the
building of the Great Pyramid? One of the first individuals to
question the dating of structures on the Giza complex was Symbolist
and Egyptologist R.
A. Schwaller de Lubicz. Both an Egyptologist and a philosopher, he
had observed that the Sphinx had not been eroded by sand, as most
academic Egyptologists believe, but by water, i.e. rainfall.
John Anthony West and geologist Dr. Robert Schock have recently
followed up on this and have challenged the traditional
Egyptologists dating of the Sphinx. They also have observed that the
weathering on the body of the Sphinx and the Sphinx enclosure had
not been eroded by wind blown sand, but by water. Other geologists
that Dr. Schock had consulted agreed with him.
So when were the last major rainfalls in Egypt that could account
for this rainfall erosion of the Sphinx? Paleoclimatoligical studies
show that heavy rains in Egypt had stopped by 10,000 B.C. Egypt had
then become a desert and has been a desert ever since. So, if the
erosion on the Sphinx was caused by rainfall, it would date the
sphinx to this time and thus make it at least 7000 years older than
accepted. This erosion pattern was also seen on the Sphinx wall
enclosure and other nearby structures. Thus, this may be one way to
date the Giza complex. See Article
B and
D
This has been a very hotly debated area among researchers. More
geological studies need to be done, and additional dating methods
used to try to determine the date of the Giza complex.
In 1986 a study was conducted on the Great Pyramid in which 64
mortar samples were removed carbon14 dated. Two samples were tested
at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas and thirteen samples
were tested in Zurich. The C14 dates indicate a range of 3809
B.C. to 2869 B.C. This figure is about 500 years older than the
academic Egyptology accepts as the building date of the Great
Pyramid. Experts have questioned the validity of this test for
several reasons. C14 is not always reliable and certain
archeological samples do not lend themselves to C14 dating. Also, it
is possible that mortar could be from later repairs in the pyramid.
So, the C14 dating is questionable and needs to be pursued with
further studies.
So if the ancient Egyptians did not build the Great Pyramid since
the geological evidence indicates that the Great Pyramid is
thousands of years older than traditionally thought, who were its
ancient builders?
There has been much speculation about this. Some
authors have speculated that people from the legendary Atlantis
built them with the incredible technology assumed to be at their
disposal. Others have speculated aliens may have visited the earth
long ago and constructed the Great Pyramid with alien technology.
Other possibilities suggested are biblical figures such as Seth,
Enoch, Shem, Noah, or Melchizedek. Without concrete data, all we can
do is speculate.
Based on the dating and the lack of evidence linking Khufu to the
Great Pyramid, many conclude that the dynastic Egyptians did not
build them. For the academic viewpoint, see Article I. It also is
apparent that they did not possess the technology to construct this
magnificent structure. Unfortunately we would have to conclude at
this time that we have no clear idea who built the Great Pyramid.
Speculations will come and go, but until we have proof, the question
of who and when remains a mystery.
How Was It Built
Even though there have been numerous theories proposed on how the
Great Pyramid was built, no one can definitively say this is how it
was built. We must keep in mind that the ancient Egyptians did not
have knowledge of the wheel and pulley. They did make use of levers,
rollers, and ropes and many of the academic theories assume they
used these mechanical devices in building the Great Pyramid.
One major theory on how the Great Pyramid was built proposes the use
of encircling ramps around the pyramid. The ramps would continually
wrap around the pyramid as it was built and stones were hauled up
this ramp using sledges and rollers. Other theories propose one very
long ramp that stretched out into the desert. As the pyramid grew in
height, this ramp was also raised higher and lengthened as needed.
Blocks were hauled up this ramp also using sledges with ropes.
If we consider the size and weight of the blocks (average is about 2
½ tons), the number of blocks, and the size of the completed pyramid
itself, it is apparent that neither of these theories can explain
the building of the pyramid. This method using ramps has been tested
today and it is very difficult to even build a very small pyramid
using these proposed mechanical devices that were supposedly
available to the Egyptians.
If you wanted to assume that the Great Pyramid was built during the
reign of Khufu using the methods above; and it was built during his
reign which was a little over 20 years; and you assumed he used all
his workers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; you can calculate that
they would have to dress and lay every block at the rate of one
every 90 seconds.
This is an impossible feat for the type of tools the Egyptians had
at their disposal at that time. Also how did they construct the
interior passageways and magnificent chambers with their incredible
precision and orientation, using only primitive hand tools such as
copper chisels, adzes and wooden mallets?
Not only does it seem impossible that they could have built the
Great Pyramid with these primitive tools, but current research
indicates that the Great Pyramid is much much older than academic
researchers have thought. So, how it was built still remains a
mystery.
Could Levitation Have Been used in Building the Great Pyramid?
Did the builders of the Great Pyramid, whoever they were, have
advanced scientific knowledge unknown to us? Is this how the Great
Pyramid was built? Levitation has for many years been suggested as a
way that would raise the heavy limestone and granite blocks used to
build the pyramid. Is there any evidence that this was used either
from historical records or scientific experiments?
Let us first look at some historical records. Masoudi, an Arab
historian of the 10th century wrote that the Egyptians used magic
spells to move large blocks. His account is the following:
“In carrying on the work, leaves of papyrus, or paper, inscribed
with certain characters, were placed under the stones prepared in
the quarries; and upon being struck, the blocks were moved at each
time the distance of a bowshot (which would be a little over 200
feet), and so by degrees arrived at the pyramids.”
Did Masoudi make up this story, or is there some truth in it? Is it
possible that he was reporting on an early legend that the blocks
were moved mysteriously and the story of the inscribed papyrus was
added to embellish the story? Or were the blocks placed on some
unknown apparatus (mistaken by the historian to be a piece of
papyrus) that would levitate them? If you strip away all the
additions and embellishments to a legend, sometimes you are left
with a strand of truth.
There are many other legends of construction of temples, buildings,
etc. that used mysterious or magical means to lift blocks. These
stories abound in Mayan and Greek legends and even in the
Bible. In
the opposite sense, marching around the walls, the blowing of
trumpets, and shouting brought down the walls of Jericho. Maybe we
could call this Anti-Levitation.
In modern times, there have also been many reports by travelers to
the east (India, Tibet, China, etc.) that holy men or ascetics have
the ability to levitate objects. Again, could this have been
produced by slight of hand, imagination, or suggestion?
It appears
that there are too many of these stories by reliable witnesses to
dismiss the possibility that these holy men developed some sort of
ability to levitate objects. More recently, followers of Maharish
Mahesh Yogi (founder of Transcendental Meditation) have claimed
through a specific program of training and discipline to be able to
levitate.
Throughout history levitation has been associated with mysterious
objects, some type of sonic vibrations, and sometimes electrical
effects. It has been demonstrated in the laboratory that the effects
of sound vibrations can produce slight levitation. Bell Labs in the
1980’s produced partial levitation by sound.
There are some interesting stories about an individual who lived in
the 19th century. John Keely, who lived in Pennsylvania, claimed to
have been able to levitate metal balls and other objects. One
interesting note is that he also claimed to be able to disintegrate
granite. Granite contains quartz, which is a crystal, and by causing
the quartz to resonate at an extreme rate, it would cause the
granite to break up or disintegrate. This rings a bell with some of
the research and speculation that the granite in the King’s Chamber
could produce piezoelectric effects.
To continue, it
is reported that he would produce the effect by making his objects
with a combination of copper, gold, platinum, and silver. To produce
the levitation, he would blow on his trumpet a sustained note.
Another story involves Edward Leedskalnin, who at his home in
Florida built a castle entirely from large blocks of coral weighing
between 20 to 30 tons each. The total castle was composed of blocks
totaling some 1,100 tons and took him 28 years to complete. He
claims to have done it all by himself. He never has revealed his
secret and took it to the grave. Chris Dunn has investigated this
and it is known as the “Coral Castle Mystery”.
Chris suggests that Leedskalnin had discovered some means of locally reversing the
effects of gravity. He speculates that he generated a radio signal
that caused the coral to vibrate at its resonant frequency, and then
used an electromagnetic field to flip the magnetic poles of the
atoms so they were in opposition to the earth’s magnetic field.
More recently, Tom Danley, an acoustics engineer, has developed an
acoustic levitation device, that can levitate small objects. The
1991 Patent of the device reads:
“An acoustic levitator includes a pair of opposed sound sources
which have interfering sound waves producing acoustic energy wells
in which an object may be levitated. The phase of one sound source
may be changed relative to the other in order to move the object
along an axis between the sound sources.”
Tom Danley also became interested in the Great Pyramid. Here is an
extract from his interview in FATE magazine in 1998.
“In the Great Cheops Pyramid in the King’s Chamber an F-sharp chord
is resident, sometimes below the range of human hearing. Former NASA
consultant Tom Danley feels the sound may be caused by wind blowing
cross the ends of the air shafts and causing a pop-bottle effect.
These vibrations, some ranging as low a 9-hertz down to 0.5 hertz,
are enhanced by the dimensions of the Pyramid, as well as the King’s
Chamber and the sarcophagus case inside. According to Danley, even
the type of stone was selected to enhance these vibrations.”
In a 1997 video, JJ Hurtak said,
“this chord (F-sharp) is the
harmonic of planet Earth to which native Americans still tune their
instruments, and is in perfect harmony with the human body.”
In the Great Pyramid these sounds are infrasonic vibrations, meaning
they are below the level of human hearing.
Chris Dunn proposes that the source of these infrasonic vibrations
come from the earth itself, magnified by the acoustic properties of
the Great Pyramid.
Boris Said on the Art Bell Show said the following: that the granite
blocks forming the floor of the King’s Chamber were sitting on
corrugated support blocks, which would cause minimal distortion to
their ability to resonate.
Paul Horn, using a Korg tuner, found that when he struck the coffer
it registered the note A with a frequency of 440 cps. Dunn also
discovered that when he struck the coffer it registered with a
frequency of 438 cps and that the entire chamber was designed to
amplify and resonate that frequency and octaves thereof. Dunn’s
matrix tuner was inferior to Horn’s Korg tuner, yet his 438
approximated Horn’s 440. Other researchers have confirmed this as
well.
Another researcher, John Reid, an acoustic engineer stated that
while he was lying in the coffer and vocalizing various tones he was
staggered by the intensity of the reflected energy. He said “the
effect of lying in the sarcophagus while toning its prime resonant
frequency is almost like taking a bath. Waves of sonic energy wash
over your body almost like water”.
It does not appear that all this was accidental or incorporated for
a ritual. It must have had a more specific purpose. Dunn feels that
these acoustic properties were deliberately built into the Great
Pyramid in order to create a resonant chamber.
Does this mean that the Ancient Egyptians knew how to do sonic
levitation? At this time, all we can say is that from basic
principles of sonic levitation, the structural design of the pyramid
(especially the King’s Chamber), and recent research in levitation -
the possibility is there. Much more research needs to be done, but
this is an area that needs to be pursued.
Why Was It Built?
Tomb
Christopher Dunn in my opinion has made the strongest argument
against the tomb theory when he was on the Art Bell Show with me
several years ago. He stated that not one pyramid in Egypt contained
an original burial. Over 80 pyramids have been discovered and
explored and a not a single original burial was ever found. Granite
boxes found in pyramids do not prove there were actually people
buried there. Chris has said this identifies only geometry and
craftsmanship and does not prove an actual burial. Many people do
still cling to the tomb theory but there is little evidence to
support it.
The Great Pyramid, with its incredible construction and accuracy of
the inner chambers and passageways must have served some purpose.
This structure is so unique and the engineering that went into it an
incredible feat. All this information together does not seem to
support that the Great Pyramid was only built as a tomb for a
Pharaoh.
Water Pump
One group that is researching the
Great Pyramid from the perspective
that it was constructed to be a gigantic pump is “The Pharaoh’s Pump
Foundation” run by Steven Myers. It is an Oregon based nonprofit
organization dedicated to understanding the technology used by the
original builders of the Great Pyramid. Their research is based on
the book called Pharaoh’s Pump, by Edward Kunkel and it is their
contention that the Great Pyramid was designed and built as planned
to be a monumental water pump.
Orion Theory
Robert Bauval, a Belgian engineer made a very interesting
observation in 1983. During a camping trip in Saudi Arabia, while
watching the stars, he noticed that the Milky Way looked like a
river. He also noticed that the three stars in the belt of Orion
(constellation of winter), resembled the orientation and relative
size of the three Giza pyramids. In fact, the stars are not
perfectly aligned just as the Giza pyramids are not directly
aligned. They seemed to resemble each other very closely. He thought
the Milky Way resembled the Nile, so he drew a correspondence
between these stars and the Giza plateau pyramids.
He also pointed
out that one of the airshafts in the King’s Chamber pointed to the
constellation Orion, which the Egyptians associated with
Osiris. The
airshaft in the Queen’s chamber pointed to Sirius, the star of
Isis.
Thus he concluded the Great Pyramid was constructed for ritual
purposes. Its job was to send the Pharaoh to Orion where he would be
transformed into Osiris and live-forever.
The Great Pyramid as a Weapon
Was the Great Pyramid a weapon, a weapon of mass destruction of
extraordinary sophistication and power?
That, essentially, is the hypothesis advanced by
Joseph Farrell in
his book, The Giza Death Star. He attempted to look for indications
in the ancient texts that the Egyptians were aware of such physics
to allow them to use the Great Pyramid as a weapon.
In many instances, he discovered that the ancient texts give a
strong impression that the ancients were aware of “zero point
energy” or “quantum foam” that recurs in modern mathematical models.
He also concluded that the basis of the ancient physics was harmonic
in nature, and that they must have known about the fundamental
constants of quantum mechanics that would allow them to weaponize
the Great Pyramid. Although there is much speculation here, his
theory is one of the more interesting ones regarding the purpose of
the Great Pyramid.
Landmarks for visitors from Outer Space
This has to be the most unique theory regarding the purpose of the
Great Pyramid.
Zecharia Sitchin believes that the Giza pyramids were
built as beacons for visiting spacecraft.
Symbolism
The British author and researcher,
Alan F. Alford argues that the
Pyramid was in its subterranean part a tomb for a king, but in its
upper parts a sealed repository or time capsule. In his view, the
King’s Chamber sarcophagus contained meteoritic iron (the seed of
the creator-god) whilst the chamber itself generated low frequency
sound that was broadcast to the Giza plateau via its “airshafts”.
The basis for his theory was that the Pyramid symbolized and
commemorated the creation of the Universe.
Power Plant
See
“The Mighty Crystal"
(The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient
Egypt) by Christopher Dunn
One of the most popular theories today is that of our association’s
research director, Christopher Dunn. Mr. Dunn is an engineer and
master craftsman. He has measured and analyzed limestone and granite
blocks of the Giza plateau and other Egyptian monuments. He argues
that he can only explain the great precision of the blocks with some
type of advanced machining. The known primitive tools and devices
that Egyptologists claim the ancient Egyptians would use cannot
produce this type of precision and exactness in the way that these
limestone and granite blocks were cut and polished. In fact, Dunn
finds evidence for ultrasonic drilling in some of the blocks. If the
blocks were worked on using power drilling, than some electrical
source must have been available to power the tools. His
comprehensive theory explains that the Great Pyramid was a resonator
and coupled vibrations to produce electricity. Thus the Great
Pyramid was built to be an electric power generating plant.
Part 3 of this book contains research articles and book excerpts
regarding the purpose of the Great Pyramid. Each major pyramid
researcher explains their theories in their own words. Please refer
to this section for additional theories.
REFERENCES
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Giza, The Truth, Ian Lawton and Chris Ogilvie-Herald, 1999
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Secrets of the Great Pyramid, Peter Thompkins, 1972
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The Giza Power Plant, Christopher Dunn, 1998
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The Orion Mystery, Robert bauval and Adrian Gilbert, 1994
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The Secret History of Ancient Egypt, Herbie Brennan, 2000
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The Giza Death Star, Joseph Farrell 2002
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The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egypt, John Anthony West, 1995
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The Eyes of the Sphinx, Erich von Daniken, 1996
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From Atlantis to the Sphinx, Colin Wilson, 1999
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