Pyramids
From SkepticWiki
[edit] Definition
A pyramid is any polyhedron with multiple triangular faces adjacent to a "base" face which may have any number of sides. The most common type of pyramid is the right regular square pyramid, whose base is a square and whose four sides are all congruent isosceles triangles.
When one is discussing the Pyramids, however, one is almost always referring to the enormous stone pyramids built on the Giza plateau by the ancient Egyptians for use as pharaonic tombs.
[edit] Discussion
The Giza pyramids, particularly the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), are quite impressive structures. It is remarkable that the ancient Egyptians were able to build these structures five millennia ago, before civilization had even entered the bronze age.
What should have merely stood as testaments to the engineering prowess of ancient Egypt, however, have had more wild mystical claims made about them than any other structures built by man. Among the wild claims made about the Giza pyramids are:
- Erich von Däniken claimed that the ancient Egyptians had help building the Pyramids from space aliens.
- Edgar Cayce claimed that enormous labyrinthine hidden passages containing super-advanced technology still lie undiscovered beneath the Pyramids.
- Graham Hancock claims that the Pyramids were built 10 millennia ago, not 5 millennia ago, because he believes their arrangement matches the stars in Orion's belt as they existed 10 millennia ago.
- The remarkable state of preservation of some of the entombed mummies have led to claims that the pyramids have some sort of miraculous preserving pyramid power.
- The compass alignments, relative dimensions, etc., of the Pyramids are claimed to require mathematics far beyond the capabilities of the ancient Egyptians, and many numerological secrets are supposedly built into those structures.
- The pharaonic curses placed upon the tombs are claimed to have taken the lives of several individuals, including Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb. (This claim often appears alongside other Pyramid notions, despite the fact that Tutankhamun's tomb is not a pyramid.)
- Some creationists identify the Great Pyramid as one of the so-called "Pillars of Enoch", supposedly built before Noah's Flood.
