Harvard University and Dassault Systems has created a virtual tour of the Giza pyramids. Pretty cool – check it out!
Too bad it’s not a video game where we can shoot aliens!
3-D Virtual Tour of the Giza Pyramids
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Category Archives: Pyramids
The History of Pyramid Research: Another Installment from the Em Hotep Blog
Readers should check out this (very) lengthy entry recently posted on the quite useful Em Hotep blog. Readers may recall that Em Hotep has actually produced a series on pyramid construction and architecture that is very readable and worth bookmarking (check out the “Featured Series” on the front page). This post brings us up-to-date with Gantenbrink’s Upuaut pyramid rover.
A New Old Journal Article on the Great Pyramid’s Celestial Alignment
I’ve posted couple times to alert readers to peer-reviewed journal articles by astronomers interested in researching the Great Pyramid’s alignment with the stars. (previous posts are located here and here). I came across another article on the subject written in 2003 in an open-access journal that focuses on the history of science. The article is very technical to my taste (lots of equations and weird symbols astronomers use). I post it specifically to inform (again) ancient astronaut theorists (and the people who produce the Fantasy Channel’s Ancient Aliens nonsense) that it is incorrect to say that mainstream scientists have not looked into this and found no explanation. As this article also shows, there is no “amazing precision” to the alignment either. It can all be done with naked eye astronomy.
Again, the Egyptians earn our respect for their genius, and aliens are not needed.
Update on “Hieroglyphs” Inside Pyramid Shaft
Sorry — no alien symbols.
Turns out they are hieratic numbers. I’ve never had a class in hieratic (nor wanted to). It’s (crudely) like cursive hieroglyphs (if you’ve ever seen shorthand of English you get the idea). The numbers total 121 – the number of cubits of the shaft. No mystery (though I’m sure some will be manufactured).
Here’s an idea of what hieratic does to standard hieroglyphs:
Animation Video of Recent Djedi Robot and the Pyramid Shafts
News of the recent discovery of marks in one of the shafts has been circulating like wildfire on the web (“Graffiti behind Gantenbrink’s Door“). Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal. Very likely mason’s marks. It will be a big deal if they somehow give architects like Jean-Pierre Houdin more evidence for an internal ramp. Unfortunately, no alien droppings found . . . but I guess those would have turned to dust by now. Dang. Here’s the video (kudos again to the KV64 blog).
Building the Pyramids – It’s Not a Mystery
Well, it’s that time of year again. The Ancient Egypt class that I teach at the local university is set to begin on Wednesday. I devote a full week to pyramids. The articles below are part of the readings. Two of these have appeared on this blog before, but the ones by Isler and Lally are new. I have students read these because I don’t want anyone leaving my classroom thinking aliens were needed for pyramid construction. Absolute paleobabble.
Fitchen, “Building Cheops’ Pyramid” – Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Mar., 1978), pp. 3-12
Isler, “On Pyramid Building” (Part 1) – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 22 (1985), pp. 129-142
Isler, “On Pyramid Building” (Part 2) – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 24 (1987), pp. 95-112
Lally, “Engineering a Pyramid” – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 26 (1989), pp. 207-218
Isler, “Egyptian Methods of Raising Weights” – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 13 (1976), pp. 31-42
Isler, “An Ancient Method of Finding and Extending Direction” – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 26 (1989), pp. 191-206
And when someone asks, “well, how come those guys on NOVA couldn’t build a small one – huh?” the answer is simple: “that’s because they were inept.” These articles are written by people who actually understand ancient engineering, not NOVA scientists who want to be on TV.
Secret Egypt?
An interesting report on an Egyptological exhibition “aiming to quash some of the more bizarre Hollywood theories.”
Has Houdin Discovered Two Hidden Chambers Inside the Great Pyramid?
That’s what’s being suggested here. I can’t wait for this to be confused with the Hall of Records that Edgar Cayce talked about (that was supposedly inside the Sphinx – but don’t tell them).
Houdin to Unveil Advances in His Pyramid Building Theory
So one would expect given this news over on the Talking Pyramids blog. Check it out!
Using Google Books to Combat PaleoBabble
I mentioned a while back that I was reading a book called Building in Egypt. It’s about construction and masonry techniques in ancient Egypt. I’m still hitting it (among other books) a few pages here and there. But the thought struck me today that I could share some of it with you all via Google Books. For those unfamiliar with Google Books, you can see a lot of the content of books on the site — even those under copyright. You can navigate to specific chapters, so it’s better than Amazon’s viewing (even though you may not always get all the pages). Let me suggest that you peruse Building in Egypt. You can see specific examples of ancient texts and artifacts that enlighten us as to how Egyptians did what they did, without the aid of aliens! For example, if you go to chapter three the author discusses a mathematical text that deals with Egyptians moving large stones by water barges on the Nile. No UFO transport required for the long trip. There’s another such book that goes into these sorts of issues as well entitled Architecture and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt. Have a look!