THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS believed that
after mortal death the soul or spirit
would continue life in another
dimension. They buried their Pharaoh kings,
whom they regarded as living Gods, with all
the treasures and objects needed to survive
in comfort in the afterlife. They also
embalmed their bodies to ensure that their
mortal remains would be mummified and
preserved for whatever fate awaited them.
Crucially, they built impressive burial
structures to demonstrate the dead person’s
importance and to aid their ascendancy to
the next dimension in the heavens. The most
famous and enigmatic of these buildings are
Egypt’s pyramids, and the most mystical of
all these is the Great Pyramid of Cheops at
Giza. However, many people question
whether the structure really is just a simple,
albeit awesome, tomb or whether the design
holds one of the great secrets of civilisation.
The pyramids were erected between 2800
BC and 2200 BC; the first was built by King
Zoser in Saqqara near Memphis. Although
the structure was created with six stepped
tiers, and is not a strict pyramid as such, it
was the first building designed exclusively to
house the property and remains of the king.
In the following centuries King Seneferu
built his own trio of pyramids. One at
Maidum was called the ‘False Pyramid’
because it was abandoned mid-project due to
a structural weakness. One at Dahshur was
known as the ‘Bent Pyramid’ because of
another design problem which meant the
gradient of its sides had to be reduced as it
was constructed. The final one, called the
‘Northern Pyramid of Seneferu’, was built
close to the ‘Bent Pyramid’, and is recognised
as the first true pyramid.
The most impressive structure, however,
was completed around 2500 BC for King
Cheops at a site in Giza, ten miles south of
the city we now know as Cairo. Using an
estimated 4000 builders, and tens of
thousands more manual labourers, the ‘Great
Pyramid’ stands 481 feet high. It is believed
it may have taken up to 30 years to quarry
and assemble the two and a half million
blocks of limestone, which weigh a total of
six million tonnes. The base of the pyramid
covers an area just over 30 acres. It appears
that great care was lavished on Cheops’
structure, and although later pyramids were
built for King Chephren and King Mycerinus
alongside, neither is of the same quality.
Certainly, there are many fascinating
aspects of the Great Pyramid’s design. Its
sides run perfectly north to south and east to
west to within a tenth of a degree. The base
is an almost exact square, with an error
margin of just seven inches, whilst the
pavement around the structure is level to
within an inch. Unlike other pyramids, this
one houses a great number of chambers and
corridors, with the lengthy 345 feet long
Ascending Passageway running directly
north. It had been widely assumed that the
pyramid stood as a great monument to hold
the body and treasures of King Cheops,although when the structure was first opened
by Caliph Abdullah al Mamun in AD 820
nothing was found inside. Al Mamun
discovered the King’s Chamber blocked by
three huge granite plugs, which he and his
men circumvented. But when they arrived in
the great room, there simply stood an empty
stone sarcophagus.
The mystery of what had happened to the
pyramid after its completion, if its assumed
use is correct, has continued to this day. In
the absence of real evidence of burial
ceremonies in the structure, many fantastic
other theories have grown. Some people
believe it was built by God either as a stone
version of the Bible, or as a record containing
references to all events past, present and
future. They believe that the various
passageways represent historical time-lines,
and intersections between them mark great
happenings. The birth of Christ and the two
World Wars are supposed to be signified
along these routes. Some experts who
advocate this theory said it also showed a
Second Coming in 1881 and the end of the
world in 1953. Other mathematical studies
of the Great Pyramid claims it demonstrates
knowledge of the true value of pi, and was
built using the ‘sacred inch’.
A popular theory originating in the latter
part of the last century is at the Great
Pyramid was constructed by alien visitors. It
has been proposed that these aliens did
everything from creating Mankind to
erecting the pyramid as a landing beacon for
their next visit to Earth. Another well-known
idea is called the Orion Theory and was
created by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert.
They believe the pyramids at Giza are an
earthly representation of the three stars in
the Orion Nebula. The shafts found in the
Great Pyramid are supposed to correlate with
important astronomical features visible at
the time of the building’s construction. The
Orion Theory states that the Ancient
Egyptians were direct descendants of alien
visitors, and retained some of their
knowledge. The purpose of these important
design features in their tombs was to help
point the spirits of the dead back towards the
stars from whence they came.
Many of these ‘ancient astronaut’ theories
suggest the pyramids were built around
10,000 years ago, rather than the 5,000
supported by historians. Other theories state
that the instigating race may not have been
aliens, but a now-lost civilisation. One writer,
Edgar Cayce, was convinced the pyramids
were built around 10,000 BC by travellers
from Atlantis. However, his assertion that the
Atlanteans also recorded the Second Coming
of Christ in 1998 in the design of the
pyramid, is somewhat flawed. Some theories
even suggest that our conception of the
chronology of the pyramids is wrong. Some
people believe the build quality of the
pyramids actually deteriorated, rather than
improving, as the initial knowledge brought
by the instigating race was lost over time.
Although the Great Pyramid has been
explored and studied more than any other
ancient structure in Egypt, new discoveries
are constantly being made. In 1954 a
previously unknown sealed pit was found on
the south side, containing a 140 ft long cedar
boat, which may have been buried to help
the king travel to the after-life. In recent
years, space equipment and remote
controlled probes have been used to examine
the building in ways never before possible.
However, NASA’s refusal to publish
underground readings taken by the space
shuttle, and the Egyptian government’s
unhelpful attitudes towards deeper
exploration, has only increased conspiracy
theories and myths of hidden secrets. For the
world’s interested public, the mystery of the
Great Pyramid at Giza is as unknown today
as when Caliph Abdullah al Mamun first
reopened it over a millennium ago.