The Mysteries of Giza
The Giza plateau is without a doubt one of the most mysterious places in the world. This is due to the fact that the megalithic complex that stands in this location is still today a source of doubts and new and innovative theories. I think it is legitimate to ask questions when you have in front of your eyes the largest megalithic complex on the face of the Earth which, not surprisingly, is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world still standing.
First of all, let's start our analysis with the most visible part of the pyramid: the dimensions
- NORTH SIDE 230 m and 25.05 cm
- SOUTH SIDE 230 and 45.35 m
- EAST SIDE 230 m and 39.05 cm
- WEST SIDE 230 m and 35.65 cm
And its angles measure:
- NORTH EAST: 90 degrees, 3 firsts and 2 seconds.
- SOUTH-EAST: 89 degrees, 56 minutes and 27 seconds.
- NORTH WEST: 89 degrees, 59 minutes and 58 seconds.
- SOUTH WEST: 90 degrees and 33 seconds.
As you can see from the above data, the accuracy is incredibly perfect. To get an idea of the size of the pyramid we are talking about, just think that its volume is thirty times greater than that of the Empire State Building in New York. Inside it can easily contain the immense Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome and other churches. His height is estimated at around 145 meters and 75 cm, but originally reached 150. From the measurements reported above, we can deduce that each measurement differs from the other with a margin of error of 0.1 percent. The pyramid consists of 6 and a half million tons of granite blocks weighing approximately 20 tons each; in some cases they exceed 100 tons.
There are many hypotheses on how a work of such dimensions was possible:
- The first is the RAMP THEORY, certainly the most widespread, according to which the construction of the elevated structure was possible using inclined ramps on which the granite blocks were slid, exploiting the slimy silt of the Nile. But as the pyramid grew in height, the slope increased and the ramp had to develop proportionally in length, because under the weight of gravity, at that slope, even the strongest human arms would not have been able to move boulders weighing over 100 tons ...and if, as they hypothesize, the slimy silt of the Nile was exploited on the ramp, at that slope the blocks would have picked up speed downwards due to the Force of Gravity. Furthermore, the ramp would have reached a length of over a mile, with a volume three times greater than that of the pyramid, since to support the weight of such blocks, its structure had to be completely solid. Such work would have required 10 times more effort and time than that used to build all three pyramids of Giza.
- A more likely variant of the first is the SPIRAL RAMP THEORY, today the most accredited, since it hypothesizes an elbow ramp that had to go around the pyramid as one proceeded towards the top. In this case, by lightening the slope, around 10%, the slaves could have made it. The only risk of the elbow ramp is represented by the excessive curvature on the way up, which could have caused the blocks to slide onto the slaves, crushing them.
- A third theory, recently proposed, assumes that the construction of the pyramids would be the work of highly qualified workers, i.e. Egyptians with advanced technological knowledge. This, however, is unlikely, for obvious reasons in my opinion: because endless masses of men would have had to move boulders with an average weight of 20 tons (the heaviest exceeded 100) up to 150 meters in height, under a temperature reaching 40°? Perhaps to raise the largest tomb of all centuries, destined to contain the corpse of a man?
Furthermore, the boulders came from the Aswan region, 1000 km away south of Giza ... how could they have transported over 6 million tons of granite blocks for a thousand km? Furthermore, the blocks were perfectly smooth: in an era in which the hardest metal was copper, how could this have happened?
Now let's try to shift our concentration to the King's room located in the Great Pyramid: this room is a perfect parallelepiped with a 2:1 ratio containing only a sarcophagus. No writings, no frescoes, no hieroglyphics, no Pharaoh's body or funerary objects. The presence of the mummy and the grave goods is fundamental for dating and attributing the burial. In the absolute absence of data it is natural to raise doubts. Furthermore, comparing the tombs of the V and VI dynasty of Sakkara, an enormous contrast appears evident to us: from the most desolate void of the three pyramids of the IV Dynasty we move on to the texts, hieroglyphics and frescoes of the pyramids (which moreover have nothing to do with see with those of the Giza plateau) of the V and VI dynasty. Not to mention the strange presence of wells, of air chambers whose function has not yet been ascertained, of secret chambers, etc. Why such large graves for a corpse? Why didn't such megalomaniacal Pharaohs even have the inside of their hall frescoed?
Without considering that…
- The body of a pharaoh has never been found in any pyramid
- Egyptian priests specifically told the ancient Greek historian Herodotus that Khufu was not buried in his pyramid.
- When the Sekhemkhet pyramid at Saqqara, a few kilometers south of Giza, was first opened in 1954, not only were numerous vessels and (unusually) some jewels discovered in the lower storage chambers, but the burial chamber, which It cannot fail to be recognized as unfinished, was found intact, complete with an alabaster sarcophagus still closed and untouched, with the remains of a touching garland of flowers. Amid growing emotion the sarcophagus was duly opened and absolutely nothing was found inside.
- Many of the chambers of the minor pyramids are too small for it to be possible that they once housed a body.
- The number of pyramids exceeds that of pharaohs. It is known that Khufu's own father, Sneferu (or Snofru), built two in Oashur and probably a third in Meidum. It is reasonable to think that he could not have been buried in all three. Or was he perhaps of a changeable nature as the designer of the Great Pyramid is alleged to have been? In this case it must at least be recognized that his changes of opinion were rather costly.
Queen Tetisheri of the 18th Dynasty not only has two tombs (another fickle character?), but also a pyramid.
For all these reasons, the engineer Robert Bauval, John Antony West and Graham Hancock formulated a new revolutionary theory, hypothesizing that the pyramids, and in particular the three Pyramids of Giza, were not Tombs. In fact, they discovered a very important correlation of many Egyptian pyramids with the Stars of the Solar System: the plan of the Pyramids and other sacred monuments was designed to have an exact correspondence with the star map of our Galaxy. The three Pyramids of Giza are placed exactly in the same way as the three Stars of Orion's Belt forming part of Ursa Minor in the Celestial vault.
The different sizes correlate with magnitude (i.e. the light of a star measured on a mass spectrometer). Al Nitak is the brightest and therefore corresponds to the Great Pyramid of Cheops. All this denotes in-depth and incredible knowledge of astronomical geography on the part of the ancient Egyptians. Bauval thinks that every monument and every pyramid has a corresponding celestial body. For example, he demonstrated that the Pyramids of Danshur correspond exactly to the Hyades (in the constellation of Taurus) and that the Sphinx is oriented towards Mars (it was once painted red). The Nile River also has a celestial counterpart: the Milky Way. Surely such planning served not only ritual purposes. The wisdom of those who planned the entire Egyptian State had the aim of leaving a universal message, understandable even after thousands of years, from a civilization that had reached an adequate level of science and spirituality.
Speaking of spirituality, a little curiosity:
We also find the Axiom of the World in the most important prayer of the Christian Religion, the "Our Father", exactly in the passage "On Earth as it is in Heaven". Even the word Amen said at the end of the prayer, which many think is Latin, is actually Egyptian and was used as a vocative in prayers to the god Ra (the god of the Sun) also known as Amun or Amen Ra, who was the equivalent of Zeus- Ammon of the Greeks.
Certainly facilitated by a clearer atmosphere than today's, the "astronomers" of that period dedicated themselves with great attention and rigorous doctrine to the study of the Constellations. This happened with divine precision, if we think that in those remote times, when man was in the Copper Age, there were no astronomical measuring instruments. The entire building is covered in reliefs depicting a series of astronomical figures guided by the twelve signs of the Zodiac. With greater precision however, the references to a cult of the Stars and to a particular interest in the heavens, we find with great amazement in the Giza plateau. We know with great precision that the Great Pyramid is located perfectly one third of the distance between the Equator and the North Pole. Furthermore, the three pyramids are perfectly aligned with the cardinal points, and we can find this with greater precision in the Great Pyramid, since its meridian axis is offset from the true North-South by only 3/60 of a degree. We are not talking about the directions of the compass, which are oriented based on the magnetic North Pole, but about the geographical poles of the planet: North and South; this appears disconcerting to say the least.
In summary, Bouval believes that the pyramids could not have been built by such a primitive population as the Egyptians but that they were built much, much earlier than history tells us in traditional reconstructions. The authors of such works could be the inhabitants of Atlantis, or in any case of a civilization that was already very advanced 12,000 years ago.
These beliefs are strengthened by ancient writings and inscriptions which read as follows:
- The Maya and the Aztecs, who in their calculations contemplated dates dating back up to 300 million years, maintained that before the present age, which they set as beginning at 13114 BC, the world had known four other eras. “Superstition of primitive peoples” say historians.
- The ancient Hindu writings known as Puranas state that humanity is currently at the beginning of the last of four eras, the first of which began about four million years ago. “Pure religious speculation” say historians.
- The Egyptian priest Maneto, archivist of Ptolemy Sotè and Ptolemy Philadelphus (323-247 BC) stated that Egyptian civilization already existed 36,525 years before the end of the 30th dynasty (332 BC) and in his History of Egypt he left real documents to prove it. The work disappeared around the 9th century AD, but in summary (including some direct quotations) it has come down to us, in particular in the writings of Sextus Julius Africanus (2nd-3rd century), Eusebius of Caesarea (4th century) and Giorgio Syncellus (9th century), although not all the data reported by them coincide.
- The much older Turin Papyrus (13th century BC) presents equally shocking data, while it seems that a good part of Maneto's data is contained in the very dimensions of the Great Pyramid and therefore fixed forever in the stone. «numerological fantasies of a priest» say historians.
- An authority such as Plato reports that the venerable Athenian sage, legislator and politician Solon (c. 638-558 BC) had been briefed by the Egyptian priests of his time on the destruction of a great civilization called Atlantis, destroyed by earthquakes and floods some nine thousand years earlier, not to mention the other innumerable catastrophes that had befallen the human race before that "religious superstition" say historians.
- The famous American medium and clairvoyant Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) claimed that the Egyptian Great Pyramid of Giza was originally built under the aegis of the colonists of Atlantis, between 10,490 and 110,390 BC. "Talk for the naive" say the historians, or more precisely the Egyptologists, who today hold the dual role of archaeologists and historians at the same time.
No one explains to us why these reports should be considered false. With the same criterion all ancient writings should be considered false and fake.
In the endless plain of Giza, however, there is also the mysterious and imposing sphinx. It is approximately seventy-three meters long and approximately 20 meters high. For centuries it has been the object of study by historians, Egyptologists and archaeologists; but not only that: geologists and astronomers are equally involved in deciphering the message she wants to send us. It must be really ancient. More than a six-story building tall and as long as a neighborhood of terraced buildings, it has smooth sides dug by erosion; the neck is supported with a concrete collar in order to keep the head erect. The legs, covered with a modern brick covering, appear ruined. Even the face, which is not well decipherable, is ruined and has been staring towards the East for centuries, as if it were guarding a secret... as if it were waiting for something. In this regard, at the end of the seventies John Antony West was busy studying the mysterious and obscure writings of the French mathematician RA Schwaller de Lubicz. In his text Sacred Science there were comments regarding the floods that hit the Egyptian land more than 12,000 years ago:
"A great civilization must have preceded the vast movements of water that submerged Egypt, which leads us to believe that the Sphinx already existed, carved into the rock of the western cliff of Giza: that Sphinx, whose lion-like body, except for the head, shows unmistakable signs of water erosion"
The problem lies in the fact that the Sphinx appears corroded up to the neck, and this implies a flood of at least 20 meters across the entire Nile Valley. It is difficult to believe this because if the theory were correct, the internal blocks of the limestone core of the so-called Mortuary Temple would have corroded themselves, and this means that the water would have also corroded the base of the pyramids for at least 25- 30 meters.
Since this cannot be found, what corroded the sphinx?
In 1989 John West met a highly esteemed geologist from Boston University: Robert Schoch.
Schoch, an expert paleontologist and stratigrapher, initially found it difficult to believe that the Sphinx was older than 4,500 years. However, he changed his mind in 1990 when he visited Giza. Although he was forbidden to enter the enclosure, Schoch observed with great meticulousness and rigorous professionalism the Sphinx from a few meters away. His response was incredible: the Sphinx was indeed eroded by water, but not from floods, but from copious "atmospheric precipitation". Schoch noticed that the erosions on the body and sides were formed by unmistakable vertical channels, like those caused by rainwater over the years. Zahi Hawass, director of the Giza excavations, rejected the rainwater erosion theory without a second thought:
"It was the wind that corroded it for years."
Why was Schoch forbidden to visit the Sphinx up close?
Why do only a few “chosen” Egyptologists have access permission?
With the help of the rector of Boston University, Schoch received, after numerous failed attempts and insistent proposals, the authorization to carry out a real geological study on the erosion of the Sphinx. Back in Boston, Schoch, after a few months of laboratory tests, had the definitive results of his studies. His response, with the full support of paleoclimatologists, is based on the fact that persistent rains like those that had eroded the Sphinx, stopped falling in Egypt thousands of years before 2,500 BC. The geological evidence provided a hypothesis, albeit a very cautious one, which dated the Sphinx to a period between 7000 and 5000 BC. C.
This hypothesis was dismissed as ridiculous by Egyptologists more faithful to the traditional history of studies; they objected that in that period Egypt was populated by Neolithic primitives, skilled hunters, but whose skills were limited exclusively to sharpening pieces of stone and logs of wood”. John West, enthusiastic about Schoch's laboratory results, was not intimidated by Egyptologists, and went further, convinced that the Sphinx must have been conceived in the last period of the Ice Age, in a time in which arcane and mysterious landscapes lived on the earth's crust: 15,000 BC.
What drove a population so distant in time to build those enormous "sanctuaries" no one can say with certainty.
Summing up all these theses, I can say that as a person who knows how to use simple logic, I can only agree with Robert Bauval in his arguments; I also believe that the pyramids were not simple tombs, but this does not mean that his conclusions convince me. Certainly the theories he proposes are innovative and fascinating compared to the simple and too obvious ones proposed by school books and have at least been useful in shaking to their foundations the theories accredited and consolidated by the tradition of studies, but not for this reason scientifically proven as absolutely founded and plausible. One thing is certain ... we could make hypothesis after hypothesis, discover new and fascinating theories, but ultimately the absolute truth is destined to remain in those centuries-old boulders of stone.