Homepage

Seventh Wonder of the Ancient World

 

Leadership in Egypt Leadership Program Day-by-Day Program Leadership Method Pyramid Texts Great Pyramid Pyramid Age Chamber Coffer

WERVEL WIND IN THE MIDDLE EAST  
Wervel Wind Journeys into the topic of . . .

HOW OLD IS THE GREAT PYRAMID? 

It depends on who you ask.  But the answer almost always supports a series of deeply held beliefs.  Take Zahi Hawass, for

example.  He is the current Egyptian Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.  Through his literature and appearances on documentaries, he repeats a constant refrain: the Great Pyramid was built by Egyptians and for Egyptians.  To Dr. Hawass, there is little doubt that the Great Pyramid was built during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu, 2589 B.C.E to 2566 B.C.E.  As support, Dr. Hawass points to, among other evidence, worker graffiti on some of the inside blocks that mention Khufu.  Since only the builders of the

pyramids had access to the inside of these pyramid blocks, Dr. Hawass and others confirm it must have been Khufu.  Another piece of evidence is the cartouche--or hieroglyphic signature--of Khufu found in a hidden chamber of the Great Pyramid.  The cartouche would clearly be strong evidence in itself, except that there is also strong evidence to support the theory that  the "cartouche" was faked by its discoverer, Howard Vyse, in 1837.  The worker’s graffiti likewise could have been faked.  But why fake evidence?  Isn't science blind to sentiment?  Apparently not when it comes to Ancient Egypt.  When you hear the emotion of Dr. Hawass regarding the identity of the Pyramid Builders, perhaps you get an idea of the emotion behind the theories:  Dr. Hawass emphatically states that these fantastic structures were BUILT BY EGYPTIANS!  Not aliens.  Not astronauts.  Not Atlanteans, and not Jewish slaves. Since Dr. Hawass is the director of all archeology in Egypt, mainstream media and academia tends to follow his perspective.

One of Dr. Hawass’ main supporters is Dr. Mark Lehner, an American who came to the Giza plateau in 1972 to confirm the connection between the lost civilization of Atlantis and Ancient Egypt as espoused by Edgar Cayce, an American channeler.  In an interview with NOVA for US television audiences, Dr. Lehner’s explains: “Everything that I have found convinces me more and more that indeed it is this society that built the Sphinx and the pyramids. Everytime I go back to Giza my respect increases for those people and that society, that they could do it.”  This sentiment fits very nicely with Dr. Hawass--who describes Dr. Lehner and himself as the only people who truly understand the archeology of Ancient Egypt.  In 2002, Dr. Lehner discovered the remains of what appears to have been a work camp housing some 20,000 workers, presumably at the time Khufu's reign.  Could this be the “missing link” of evidence needed to prove that Khufu was the Great Pyramid builder?  Drs. Hawass and Lehner seem to think so.  Even though Dr. Lehner admittedly had to “gloss over” a few facts like how these workers in Khufu’s time ever attained the skill of setting two 15-ton stones with such precision that even today “you can’t get a knife blade in between the joints.”  Nor did Drs. Hawass or Lehner explain why this site was a city of Great Pyramid builders and not builders/restorers of other nearby structures.  After all, written evidence connecting Pharaoh Khufu to the site lists him as having only repaired the Sphinx.  Does this discovered city necessarily have to be those of the Great Pyramid builders?  Now you might begin to see how the experts craft the facts in a way that best suites their theories.  But no theory really stands apart as irrefutable.

Keying on the skill needed to set even one of the stones of the Great Pyramid (there of estimates of 2.3 million stones, most weighing between 2 and 30 tons, but some as much as 70 tons), Alan Alford asks a question that no one has answered:  why is the Great Pyramid the only structure exhibiting certain revolutionary design and building techniques?  It would be as if the first sky scraper ever built was the Sears Tower and no skyscraper after that reached more than a fraction of its height and sophistication.  And what about the Inventory Stele, created by priests in the cult of Khufu in the 26^th Dynasty  (664 B.C.E. – 525 BCE)?  This stele notes that Khufu repaired the headdress of the Sphinx after lightening damage, but makes no claim that he built the Great Pyramid that dwarfs the Sphinx crouching in its shadow.  Surprising omission, to say the least.  Yet, other hieroglyphs at Giza do credit Khufu with building mastabas for certain of his high officials in year 5 of his reign.  Now, if Khufu was building the world’s greatest structure at the time, would he divert resources to also build structures for his officials?  “Ludicrous,” says Alford.  Based on carbon dating samples (ironically provided by Dr. Lehner), geological surveys, and the Great Pyramid’s alignment with nearby pyramids, Alford dates the Great Pyramid no later than 6000 B.C.E. and no earlier than 3000 B.C.E. 

In his book Voyages of the Pyramid Builders , Boston University  geology professor Robert Schoch noted that the radiocarbon studies of the Great Pyramid contained contradictions:  samples from the upper portions of the Great Pyramid were dated at 3809 B.C. (± 160 years), which is nearly 1400 years before Khufu's reign, while the samples of the lower portions were dated between 3090 and 2723 B.C (± 100-400 years).  Since the dates of the lower portions correspond much more closely to the time Khufu is believed to have reigned, it would have to follow that Khufu built this lower portion after another pharaoh built the top portion. Based on the dating evidence, the top portion of the Great Pyramid must have hovered above while Khufu built the bottom portion. Could the Great Pyramid have been built from the the top down?  Impossible, says Dr. Schoch.  He argues, like Alford, that Khufu inherited the great structure and might have performed repairs but surely was not the builder. 

Other dating theories abound, each with a plausible scientific basis.  For instance, Robert Bauval believes that the apex of the Great Pyramid aligns with Orion’s Belt as it stood in the sky in the year 10,450 B.C.E.  This alignment would have been the first such occurrence in relation to the star's relative location to Giza.  Strangely, Bauval holds that even though the Great Pyramid foundation was "aligned" in 10,450 B.C.E., it was not actually built until 2450 BCE, which, in Bauval’s own admission is an “enormously drawn-out period.”

Strangely enough, there are no hieroglyphics or writings in the Great Pyramid. But some scholars have deciphered the extensive hieroglyphs in the nearby pyramids of Saqqara, referred to as the Pyramid Texts.  One of the foremost Pyramid Text scholars, Clesson H. Harvey, has studied these inscriptions so extensively that he has devised a meditation practice apparently encoded in the ancient language of the Pyramid Texts.  Clesson is not bashful about connecting the knowledge described in the Pyramid Texts with Atlantis, nor is he bashful about dating these structures to a variant of 26,000, 52,000 or 78,000 years ago.  Why does he believe the Great Pyramid is 52,000 years old?  Because Utterance #302--written on one of the walls of the Unas Pyramid in nearby Saqqara--refers to the Polestar as that star to which the Big Dipper points.  But that precessional event only occurred during those invervals of 26-, 52-, or 78,000 years ago. Clesson further argues that over time the massive stones of the Great Pyramid sag or bend slightly from their original slope angle.  He calculated that the present slope angle of the Great Pyramid needed a minimum of 52,000 years to change from its original equilateral angle of 54.736 degrees--thus the Great Pyramid is 52,000 years old.  Clesson also has a host of other connections between the true age of certain pyramids and Atlantean technology, but that is for another Wervel Wind topic . . . .