The ancient Egyptians believed that after they died, the soul or spirit would move on to another dimension. They buried the Pharaoh kings with all the treasures and objects needed to survive in the afterlife. They also embalmed the bodies of the Pharaohs when they were buried so that the bodies would be preserved because they believed that in the afterlife the Pharaohs would still be kings. Crucially, they built a gigantic funerary structure that was very impressive. This shows the reverence with which the dead were held to support their power in heaven. The most famous and enigmatic of these structures are the Egyptian pyramids, and the most mystical of these is the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza. However, many people question whether the structure is just a simple tomb or whether the design is one of the great secrets of civilization.
The pyramids were erected between 2800 BC and 2200 BC, the first being built by King Zoser at Saqqara near Memphis. Although the structure was only built with six levels, it was the first building designed specifically to house the king's property and remains.
In the following century, King Seneferu built three pyramids of his own. One at Maidum is called the 'Failed Pyramid' because it was abandoned in the middle of the project due to structural weaknesses. The one at Dahshur is known as the 'Crooked Pyramid' because of the problem of the sides curving when it was built. The last one, called the 'Northern Pyramid of Seneferu', was built near the 'Crooked Pyramid', and is known as the first true pyramid.
Does the pyramid layout really reflect the position of the stars 5,000 years ago?
The most impressive structure was completed around 2500 BC for King Cheops at a site in Giza, ten miles south of the city we now know as Cairo. Using around 4000 builders, and tens of thousands of other porters, the 'Great Pyramid' stood 481 feet tall. It is estimated that it took up to 30 years to excavate and collect two and a half million limestone blocks that weighed a total of six million tons. The base of the pyramid covers an area of more than 30 acres. It seems that great attention was paid to the Cheops structure, and although later pyramids were built for King Chephren and King Mycerinus beside it, the quality was the same.
Of course, there are many interesting aspects of the Pyramid's design. The sides are perfectly aligned from north to south and from east to west to the tenth of a degree. The base is an almost perfect square, with a margin of error of just seven inches, while the path around the structure is aligned just an inch. Unlike other pyramids, this house has a number of large chambers and corridors, with a 345-foot-long ascending ramp leading directly north. It is widely known that the pyramid stood as a large monument to house the body and treasures of King Cheops, although the structure was first opened by Caliph Abdullah al Mamun in 820 AD, nothing was found inside.
Al Mamun found the King's Chamber obstructed by three large granite boulders, which many people had previously overlooked. But when they reached the chamber, there was only an empty sarcophagus stone. With no real evidence of burial rites in the structure, many other fantastic theories have developed. Some people believe that it was built by God as a stone version of the Bible, or as a record containing references to all past, present, and future events. They believe that the passageways are historical timelines, and the intersections between them mark major events. The birth of Christ and the two World Wars are marked along this route.
Some experts say that it also indicates the Second Coming of Jesus in 1881 and the end of the world in 1953. Another mathematical study of the Great Pyramid claims that it shows knowledge of the value of pi called 'sacred inches'. A popular theory is that the pyramids were built by aliens. This theory says that these alien people did everything to create Humans as slaves who were utilized to erect the pyramids as landing sites for their next visit to Earth.
Another famous idea is called the Orion Theory created by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert. They believed that the pyramids at Giza were earthly representations of the three stars in the Orion Nebula. The shafts found in the Great Pyramid were supposed to correlate with important astronomical features seen during the building work.
The Orion Theory states that the Ancient Egyptians were direct descendants of alien visitors to the constellation of Orion. The purpose of their tomb designs was to help direct the spirits of the dead back towards the stars from whence they came.
Many of the 'ancient astronaut' theories suggest that the pyramids were built around 10,000 years ago, and not the 5,000 supported by historians. Other theories also suggest that the instigating race may not be aliens, but a now lost earth civilization.
One author, Edgar Cayce, was convinced that the pyramids were built around 10,000 BC by travelers from Atlantis. However, his assertion that the Atlanteans also recorded the Second Coming of Christ in 1998 in the design of the pyramids, is highly unconvincing. Some theories even suggest that our conception of the chronology of the pyramids is wrong.
Some believe that the quality of building the pyramids actually deteriorated, rather than improved, as the initial knowledge brought by the race that instigated them was lost over time.
Although the Great Pyramid has been explored and studied more than any other ancient structure in Egypt, new discoveries continue to be made. In 1954 a previously unknown sealed pit was discovered on the south side, containing a 140-foot-long cedar vessel, which may have been buried to help the king travel back in time.
In recent years, space equipment and remote control probes have been used to examine buildings in an unprecedented way. In November 2017, archaeologists also detected a new cavity the size of an airplane, which they detected using muons, which are highly charged particles produced when cosmic rays reach the Earth's atmosphere. But it is still uncertain whether it is part of the structure's chamber or just an old, unknown ruin.
NASA's refusal to publish the underground observations taken by the spacecraft, and the Egyptian government's unhelpful attitude towards deeper exploration, has only increased the conspiracy theories and myths surrounding the pyramids.
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