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Re: Secrets of the Great Pyramid
Martin Cohen (mcohen@UCLA.EDU)
Sat, 28 Oct 1995 15:01:41 -0700
>-- [ From: Luis G. Ordonez * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
>
>
>Excerpt from Peter Tompkin's, Secrets of the Great Pyramid:
>
> "Whatever mystical, occult or science-fiction tales may be associated
>with the Great Pyramid, it is still an extraordinary piece of masonry,
>and its designers must have been extraordinary beings. Who they were
>and when they built their Pyramid remains a mystery. So the quest
>continues.
> But certain facts must be confronted, and the textbooks amended to
>conform with them. Eratosthenes was obviously not the first to measure
>the circumference of the earth. Hipparchus was not the inventor of
>trigonometry. Pythagoras did not originate his famous theorem. Mercator
>did not invent his projection though he did visit the Great Pyramid and
>leave his graffito to prove it.
> Whoever built the Great Pyramid knew the dimensions of this planet as
>they were not to be known again till the seventeenth century of our
>era. They could measure the day, the year and the Great Year of the
>Precession. They knew how to compute latitude and longitude very
>accurately by means of obelisks and the transit of stars. They knew the
>varying lengths of a degree of latitude and longitude at different
>locations on the planet and could make excellent maps, projecting them
>with a minimum of distortion. They worked out a sophisticated system of
>measures based on the earth's rotation on its axis which produced the
>admirably earth-commensurate foot and cubit which they incorporated in
>the Pyramid.
> In mathematics they were advanced enough to have discovered the
>Fibonacci series, and the function of pi and phi. What more they knew
>remains to be seen. But as more is discovered it may open the door to a
>whole new civilization of the past, and a much longer history of man
>than has heretofore been credited."
This isn't my area, so excuse my own conjecture here, but this is certainly
reading a lot into a pyramid. About the only things we can be really sure
of is that the Egyptians 1) knew how to build pyramids, which is
impressive, but not beyond human capacity given their technology and
materials. It no doubt involved considerable trial and error. 2) They
know the points of the compass. This is simply a matter of observing the
setting and rising of the sun. This in no way demeans the abilities of the
ancient Egyptians, but rather, attests to the wonders of human capacity.
Neither gods nor aliens need apply.
Martin
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