Re: Pyramid as Mensuration Standard
Whittet (Whittet@shore.net)
23 Jul 1995 01:24:27 GMT
In article <3up9le$er2@turtle.mrj.com>, jotten@mrj.com says...
>
>In article <3umqv3$88o@shore.shore.net>, Whittet@shore.net (Whittet) writes:
>> In article <3uljv2$1lu@helium.label.ca>, mike@label.tlug.org says...
>> >
>> >One thing about these hysterical theories regarding the Great Pyramid
>> >have always left me wondering, why just the Pyramid of Cheops? There are
>> >three pyramids at Giza and scores more within a short drive to the
>> >south. Why is this one pyramid so special? Because its the biggest?
>>
>> Because the Great Pyramid is the only one actually constructed as a standard
>> of mensuration. The same proportions are not found on other pyramids.
>>
>> Steve
>
>I may have missed something earlier, but what is it that shows or mentions
>that the Great Pyramid was constructed as a "standard of mensuration?"
>
>Outside the National Portrait Gallery in London, I remember seeing a brass
>plate in the steps that was supposedly a benchmark for the length of the
>English foot (Residents of London, feel free to point it out if I am in
>error of my recollection).
>The National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD has
>a display of "The Meter," "The Gram," etc. which are supposedly the benchmarks
>from which such measurements are made.
>
>But I haven't heard of any buildings that were built as "standards." Can
>anyone give me any examples. (Just because I haven't heard of any such
>buildings doesn't mean I am claiming they don't exist, I just haven't heard
>of any, so don't go saying that "Just because You haven't heard of any, doesn'
>t
>mean that none exist" :-) By the way, I am talking about standards of
>measurement here, not standard of proportion (although info on buildings built
>as standards of proportions would be interesting too).
>
>Anyway, I'm interested in knowing of any material that supports Steve's claim.
>Of course, I would imagine it would necessarily be from about the time the
>Great Pyramid was actually built. Otherwise it would be reading something
>into the motives of the builders, that they may have had no reason to consider
>at all.
>
>John
I think the first mention of the great pyramid as a standard of measure was by
Herodotus who was informed that its slant side or apothem was equal to a stadium.
A stadium is 600 Greek feet and 1/600 of the circumference of the earth at the equator.
A couple of other buildings mentioned as standards of measure are the temples of
Delphi and Dodona, both of which have geodetic navels or omphalos consisting of
an egg shaped stone covered with a net and flanked by pigeons which symbolises
the intersection of lines of atitude and longitude as in the observatory at
Greenwich.
The Parthenon is also supposed to have been laid out to incorporate specific units
of measure as was the Temple of Jerusalem.
There is nothing which says that proportions can't be incorporated as units of neasure,
as for example the cubit forms the side of a cube whose volume is a standard of measure
for grain called an artaba. The sarcophaus of the Great Pyramid holds exactly forty.
For more on this, the Appendix to Peter Tompkins book "Secrets of the great Pyramid"
contains an appendix by Livo Catulo Stecchini who covers the topic fairly well.
Steve
|