Unlocking the Great Pyramid - Part 1
Dr. Bob Brier
Egyptologist, Long Island University
Dr. Bob Brier has spent more than twenty years studying ancient Egypt and is an international authority on mummies.
It always surprises my students when I tell them we don't know how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. Dancing in their heads are Hollywood's images of lots of guys hauling blocks up a huge ramp. The truth is, that simply won't work. In order for the workers to pull the blocks, the ramp would have to have a gentle slope, but the pyramid is 480 feet high and that would mean that Hollywood's ramp stretches for more than a mile. The ramp would be greater in volume than the pyramid! Also, archaeologists have never found the remains of such a ramp, and something that big doesn't just disappear in the dry desert. So how the Great Pyramid was built is still one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of our time.
French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin may have the solution to that puzzle. He is convinced that the 2 ½-ton blocks were brought to the top via a mile-long ramp corkscrewing upwards inside the pyramid -- like a ramp in a parking garage -- and the ramp is still inside the pyramid waiting to be discovered.
According to Jean-Pierre's theory, the internal ramp corkscrews up the pyramid in twenty-two straight flights. At the end of each flight the workers hauling the blocks had to make a left turn into the next flight of the ramp, but that created a problem. You need space to turn the massive blocks and the tunnel-like ramp would have been constricting. Jean-Pierre's idea is that at the end of each flight, the corners of the Pyramid were left open to let in light and air and provide space for the turn, but this is just theory. Is there any evidence for this? My job was to see if there was.
About 375 feet up the NE corner of the pyramid is a notch large enough to be seen from the ground. It is just where Jean-Pierre theory's says there should be one, but we needed a closer look to see if it was an intentional construction. When the pyramid was completed with a casing of fine white limestone, the notch would have been filled in, but in the Middle Ages the Arabs used the pyramid as a quarry for stone to build their mosques. This is probably when the notch was revealed. The only way to know if it was evidence for the internal ramp theory was to climb up and examine it.
Climbing the Pyramid is strictly forbidden for tourists and only in very special circumstances can researchers get permission. We had permission, but it was not carte blanche. There was only one day when we could do it and it would have to be after the Giza Plateau was free of tourists so they wouldn't see us and want to climb it themselves. Our time to climb was 6:00 PM on a day when the temperature on the little thermometer clipped to my bag registered 111 degrees. The National Geographic Channel was filming us for a documentary about Jean-Pierre's radical new theory of how the pyramid was built and they wanted to film the climb, so they had a cameraman who was an experienced climber join me. I have climbed the pyramid many times, but never the NE corner. Here the blocks are larger than at other corners and the poor stone quality makes footholds a bit tricky. Because of the difficulty, it was decided it would just be me and Nicolas, our cameraman.
Unlocking the Great Pyramid Premieres on Sunday November 16 at 9p e/p as part of Expedition Week.
Want more? Head to Expedition Week's official site.
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7 Comments
No one has ever investigated that notch before?
This theory is based on an average building block of 2.5 tons being hauled up the pyramid.
The 56 roofing beams of the King's chamber and the spaces above it average 54 tons.
This theory has a problem.
jim,
Don't say "This theory has a problem"...
The problem of the beams of the King's Chamber is resolved by a second process...A counterweight system runing in Grand Gallery. Watch NatGeo Channel on Sunday November 16th at 9:00pm ET...Everything is fully desmonstrated...And with clues...
tvrs,
For 6 years, I asked to go up to this notch because I'm pretty sure this is a clue for the internal ramp theory. Bob Brier, an egyptologist, got the authorization to climb up (not me, so I stood at the base of the pyramid). Bob found a large room which has been visited in old times but never mentioned in any document...
Guminda
I would be thrilled if an internal passage is found leading up the pyramid. Even if the passage were a stairway it would be an extraordinary discovery.
I have never heard of the counterweight theory. However it seems to me that when you have to adapt a theory to accomodate the very large and heavy roofing beams then things get complicated.
Herodotus keeps it simple"When the base was complete, the blocks for the first tier above it were lifted from ground level by contrivances made of short timbers; on this first tier there was another, which raised the blocks a stage higher' 'The finishing-off of the pyramid was begun at the top and continued downward"
To read the mind of the architect is impossible or is it? My own interest is in the measure used in the construction of all the pyramids at Giza. And this allows us to follow the thoughts of the architect in at least a small way.
In any case I wish Jean-Pierre all the best and I will be watching and I'm sure enjoying the program.
Jim
Did anyone notice that at the end when Mr. Brier was @ the notch ,there were 2 bowl shaped indentations,1 above where he was measuring (where the camera guy was looking down from,and one on the floor that he was disapointed wasn't smooth) They looked exactly the same!Could those be where a tri pod type structure could have been?Like they used to move stones in the recreation at Stone hedge?(2 logs together attached at top,apart on the bottom,in the hole?to move back and forth,and PULL..not stationary like in John Pierre's drawing,for leverage perhaps?Maybe there is a second hole on the ledge,and a stablizer piece across the top!Setting in that hole ABOVE!?!) Did Dr Brier even see them?Or are they all over the pyramid,and I just never read about them before?I tried to find the Dr's email,but I guess too many King Tuts have written him! Giggle...Good Luck Doc...I hope you get this!...Lisa
This was a good show but people are spinning their wheels whenever they conclude that this wonder of the world could have possibly been built using conventional methods and human labor.
Just as one example he thinks they had ropes back then that could pull granite blocks weighing 70 tons ?
There may have been a ramp that went around the perimeter of the pyramid but maybe that was just for people to walk on.
Christopher Dunn has come up with an amazing discovery which is the Great Pyramid itself was at one time a working machine. He explains his discovery in his book 'The Giza Power Plant':
The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt by Christopher Dunn (Paperback - Aug 1, 1998)
I have since read two books by people who, because of the initiations they went through in very ancient Egypt, were able to remember past life experiences from many thousands of years ago:
Initiation by Elisabeth Haich (Paperback - Jul 28, 2000)
Initiation in the Great Pyramid (Astara's Library of Mystical Classics) by Earlyne Chaney (Paperback - Nov 1987)
This tv show says the Great Pyramid is about 4,500 years old but it is most likely about 3 times older.
Concerning how they moved the stones, Atlantean devices were used to reduce the gravitational pull on the stones so they became almost weightless. By doing this many stones could be loaded on barges but the barges didn't sink.
Interestingly on this show when that historian asked the Egyptians how the pyramids were built he was told that 'they used machines'. That is true. Atlantean machines.
According to Elizabeth Haich it was Moses' ability to control gravity which enabled him to part the Red Sea and drown the pharoah's army. He made the soldiers very heavy so they couldn't move and the water then rushed back into that area and covered them.
Moses was raised as an Egyptian and he was initiated into those ancient mysteries.
While I feel it is commendable that people continously try to come up with conventional theories about how the Great Pyramid was built, every idea they come up with is stupidier than the last.
It should be obvious that the Great Pyramid stands as a silent witness of a very advanced intelligence that was in the world at some point in the very distant past.
It is only peoples' arrogance today that makes them unable to accept this.
Jeff Marzano
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