THE BUILDING OF THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS

THE BUILDING OF THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS

Prior to Champollion's discovery, many scholars worked upon the reasonable assumption that a civilisation capable of such works must have had a high order of knowledge. Some made sound observations that were subsequently forgotten or neglected in the face of the apparently boastful, repetitive, banal and incoherent nature of the translated hieroglyphs . The early translations stand in such striking contrast to the works themselves that it is hard to believe so few scholars should have stopped to question the paradox . But it is, of course, impossible to 'prove' a masterpiece. Those who under stand, understand . Emotional and psychological factors, more than science, combined to make modern Egyptology.

How did the Egyptians build an immense structure like this the pyramids? We do not know all the details even now . It is clear from what remains that they used huge limestone blocks, but there are still problems over how they managed to slide one block
across another , and of the way in which the walls and ceiling of the inner chamber are supported . . . Obviously they used a block and tackle to lift the blocks, but even so the precise method of getting objects so large and heavy up hundreds of feet without a tall crane to help them is uncertain , while their technique of supporting the internal blocks is completely unknown .

From the astronomical point of view, the single unarguable fact is the extreme care taken in the orientation . The most extraordinary result is found at the pyramid of Cheops, but the precision is scarcely less with Chephren and Mycerinus . . . Such close approximations repeated by many buildings cannot be accidental, and bear witness to certain astronomical knowledge From the mathematical point of view, the study of the pyramids , and especially the great pyramid reveals very remarkable geometrical properties as well as numerical rapports that deserve attention . But the whole problem that this poses is to establish the extent to which the builders were aware of these properties .

Of all the monuments of Egypt, the pyramids have always pro voked the keenest interest and wildest theories. Generations of Egyptologists have stolidly declared that the pyramids were built for the most trivial and misconceived motives, that their dimensions and proportions are accidents, and that their bulk is no more than an instance of pharaonic egomania . Yet the layman remains unconvinced, and anything smacking of mys tery continues to excite attention .
Ancient sources reported that the pyramids , and the Great Pyramid of Cheops in particular , were built to embody in their dimensions and proportions a wealth of astronomical , mathe matical, geographic and geodesic data. (Geodesy: the branch of applied mathematics which determines the figures and areas of the earth's surface.)

One of Napoleon's scholars, EdmeFrançois Jomard , was particularly intrigued by this theory. But while certain of his calculations seemed to bear out the idea, others did not jibe. Accurate measuring of the pyramid overall was then impossi ble due to the sand and debris around the base, and — as is gen erally the case in science — those data that supported prevailing orthodox theory were retained, while those that were embarrassing were ignored.
In England , however, Jomard's ideas were taken up by an amateur astronomer , mathematician and religious zealot, John Taylor , who found many astonishing coincidences between the measurements and proportions of the pyramids and the then but recently verified modern measurements of the earth . He could not attribute this to chance . As a fundamental ist, however, Taylor believed in the literal truth of the Bible, and could not bring himself to attribute such knowledge to the ancient Egyptians — a race much abused in the Old Testament (though Moses learned his wisdom at the court of the pharaoh by Biblical account ) . Given his fundamentalism , Taylor had no choice but to call in direct divine intervention , and the pseu doscience of 'pyramidology' was born .