Thursday, April 30, 2009

A Review of "The Secrets of the Great Pyramid"

How did the ancient Egyptians build the Great Pyramid? This is one of the great mysteries of ancient Egypt. Several theories have been proposed, some of them have even been somewhat rational. But they all have suffered from one or more flaws.

One of the old theories is that the Egyptians built a ramp that snaked around the exterior of the pyramid. Workers would haul multi-ton stones up these ramps so that they could be fit into place. But this theory suffers from two problems: how do you line up the sides of the pyramid when it is buried under a huge ramp and where did the material used to build the ramp go after the pyramid go? Surely the Egyptians did not cart hundreds of tons of materials away in a massive clean up project once the pyramid was completed.

The authors of this book have turned this theory inside out, literally! They believe that the Egyptians did build a ramp and that it is still there. They built it inside the pyramid, not outside it!

This book explains the theory in detail and provides a lot of evidence to support it. One of the most interesting parts of the book is a description of the computer simulations that were created to see if the theory actually works. The simulations were able to explain cracks in the ceiling of the king’s chamber that Egyptologists have not been able to explain. The simulations also provide a time plan for when each part of the pyramid were completed and several of the illustrations show the pyramid at various stages of completion.

This book is concise, well written and explains the theory clearly. It is a very enjoyable read. Is the theory right? I cannot judge that since I am not an engineer. One of the authors is an engineer and that does lend credibility to the ideas presented in this book.

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