[Damocles]

Originally Posted by jjrakman

I honestly think your'e underestimating the magnitude and precision of the thing. It's really far from being just a pile of rocks.

The first thing that should give one pause, is when you also consider the other pyramids in Egypt. If you accept the orthodox model that human progress always moves slowly forward, then the Great Pyramid stands in defiance of this. The pyramids built in the 5th and 6th Dynasties are so poorly built that they have collapsed. While the Great Pyramid supposedly built in the 4th Dynasty, stood for millenia. Why would they forget their tried and true construction techniques when every aspect of their lives was written down and recorded carefully? Could it suggest that the later pyramids were actually attempts to mimick the Great Pyramid? Futhermore, what other construction can you name that has lasted for Millenia relatively intact? It's like making a Porshe, forgetting how to do that, then going back to making Model T's.

Second, if you take the orthodox view that these were meant as tombs, where are the bodies? Not one shred of evidence, either bodies or or any signs of burial were ever found in the pyramids. In fact, The Pyramid of Sekhemket there was found a sarcphagus that was intact, not disturbed by grave robbers that when opened was found to be empty.

Third, unlike just about every other Egyptian structure, there are no inscriptions on this thing whatsoever, aside from Colonol Howard Vyse's graffitti.

Fouth, this thing is aligned with the cardinal points with a deviation from true of less than 0.015 percent. There's a difference of less than 8 inches between its shortes and longest sides. An error of a fraction of 1 percent on an average side of 9063 inches. Each corner is within less than 1 degree of a perfect 90 degree angle. It stands in the exact center of the Earth's landmass. Why such precision in a primitive pile of rocks?

Fifth, you mention the average 2.6 ton weitght of the stones. Keep in mind this is an average. Courses 1-18 diminish in their highs from about 55 inches to about 23 inches ranging 2-5 tons. Then at Course 19 they suddenly increase again to stones rangin 10 -15 tons. Which defies logic when you consider that most builders would call for decreasing size and weight of stones the higher you go. The king's Chamber containes stones weighing up to 70 tons. Why make the construction more difficult the higher you go than it has to be, especially considering your manuevering the stones with ropes and levers?

Sixth, this thing consists of about 2.3 million blocks of stone. According to the othodox view it took an estimate of something like 100,000 men 20 years to build it. If the workers had a 10 hour day, and worked 365 days per year, they would need to place 31 stones in position every half hour. And this is everything was done without a hitch. This doesn't even take into account the inevitable accidents of falling stones and crushed workers which would set back construction considerably. Ropes and levers?

Seventh, around the base of the Pyramid, one of the fallen polished casing stones was studied and found to have a tolerance of less than one hundredth of an inch.

We won't even get into the 200 ton blocks of the Valley Temple.

And then of course you have the redating of ths Sphinx which is simply irrifutable.

I don't know, seems like a pretty imrpessive pile of rocks to me.

The problem with Egyptologists, is that Egyptologists are Egyptologists. Egyptologists are not engineers. Egyptologists are not geologists. Egyptologists are not architects. So Egyptologists are not really qualified to comment on the construction or age of these structures.

Reality is going to be whatever it wants to be. Reality doesn't care about careers, sending kids to college, paying mortgages, or people's standing in the community.


But, the completion date could be congruant with the time of Kafre. That's definitely possible. But I don't really see how stone knives and bear skins could have accomplished such a thing int he time alloted.

1. Why would the Egyptians abandon pyramid building? We, ourselves, no longer have the technological base to build IOWA class battleships. Why? We still have the knowledge base written down though we have lost the skillsets. The need wasn't there. Why build IOWAs when we can build ARLEIGH BURKEs and OHIOs? When I say we can build pyramids today, I ASSURE you I KNOW what I am talking about. The actual construction techniques are SIMPLE. It is the logistics that take a bit of doing. The reason the Egyptians gave up on the process is that their religion changed, their technology changed(improved) and they became POOR. Only rich societies try big flashy one shot pyramids and Apollo moon programs. Poor ones go back to the drawing board, improve their technology, and build High Frontier space programs and Giza incrementally.

2. As for Millenial construction that has lasted as long? Given that the Egyptians were the first off the chocks with their pyramids? Lets visit Cuzco in three thousand years? Or better yet, the Panama canal in about five thousand.

What an Egyptian pyramid actually is, is a very small manmade mountain subject to the effects of erosion. Those piles could take hundreds of thousands of years to erode, or 5x10^15 joules to dissappear in one second. Its a matter of applied energy.

3. Whether the pyramid is a tomb or not?

http://www.egyptsites.co.uk/lower/sa...mids/teti.html If you read the text you will see that the grave robbers left an arm of that poor sod behind.

4. If I want inscriptions on the thing, I'll hire chisellers(lawyers). But seriously, the lack of inscription is not just restricted to this pile. A lot of pyramids lack the burial chamber and the ante temple complex with the inscriptions. Khufu's pile is not unique in this. Besides that has nothing to do with the point I raised which is that humans built this thing.

5. So you wonder why the Egyptians used the north star and the geometry of square and angle to lay out their pile? Simple. Unless you have a surveyed benchmarked square on the surface of the Earth, you cannot prepare flat level ground for any structure

How do you establish this? How do you run azimuth and bearing to align and slope your pile of bricks wnen all you have is a graduated idiot stick, a runner with twine, another runner with a wood mallet and stakes, a copper right angle with a plumb bob and the human eye?

You use stars and an edge transit. Its all you have. What amazes me is not that the Egyptians used this method,. but that they were so clumsy in the doing. The Mayan temple builders used the same technique and laid theirs more accurately out.

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