Pyramidology
Encyclopedia
Pyramidology is a term used, sometimes disparagingly, to refer to various pseudoscientific
speculations regarding pyramid
s, most often the Giza Necropolis and the Great Pyramid of Giza
in Egypt
. Some "pyramidologists" also concern themselves with the monumental structures of pre-Columbian
America (such as Teotihuacan
, the Mesoamerica
n Maya civilization
, and the Inca of the South America
n Andes
), and the temples of Southeast Asia
.
Pyramidology is regarded as pseudoscience by scientists today, who regard such hypotheses as sensationalist, inaccurate and/or wholly deficient in empirical
analysis and application of the scientific method
.
Some pyramidologists claim that the Great Pyramid of Giza
has encoded within it predictions for the exodus
of Moses
from Egypt, the crucifixion of Jesus, the start of World War I
, the founding of modern-day Israel
in 1948, and future events including the beginning of Armageddon
; discovered by using what they call "pyramid inch
es" to calculate the passage of time (one British inch = one solar year).
The study of Pyramidology reached its peak by the early 1980s. Interest was rekindled when in 1992 and 1993 Rudolf Gantenbrink sent a miniature remote controlled robot rover, known as upuaut
, up one of the air shafts in the Queen's Chamber. He discovered the shaft closed off by a stone block with decaying copper hooks attached to the outside. In 1994 Robert Bauval
published the book The Orion Mystery attempting to prove that the Pyramids on the Giza plateau were built to mimic the stars in the belt of the constellation Orion
, a claim that came to be known as the Orion Correlation Theory
. Both Gantenbrink and Bauval have spurred on greater interest in pyramidology.
professor of Astronomy, at Oxford, in his Pyramidographia (1646) first theorised that the Great Pyramid at Giza was constructed by a geometric cubit which he called the "Memphis cubit". Further research papers on Greaves' hypothetical cubit were published by the antiquarian Thomas Birch
in 1737. Isaac Newton
used Greaves' measurements of the Great Pyramid and published them in a paper entitled “A Dissertation upon the Sacred Cubit” from which he linked the "Memphis cubit" to the hypothetical sacred cubit of the Hebrews.
in his work The great pyramid; why was it built: & who built it? (1859) regarded the
inch used to build the Great Pyramid (see pyramid inch
) to be 1/25 of the "sacred cubit" whose existence had earlier been postulated by Isaac Newton. Taylor was also the first to claim the pyramid was divinely inspired, contained a revelation and was built not by the Egyptians, but instead the Hebrews pointing to Biblical passages (Is. 19: 19-20; Job 38: 5-7) to support his theories. For this reason Taylor is often credited as being the "founder of pyramidology". Martin Gardner
noted:
, F.R.S.E., F.R.A.S. who made numerous numerological calculations on the pyramid from 1864 and published them in a 664 page book Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid followed by Life, and Work in the Great Pyramid (1867). These two works fused pyramidology with British Israelism
and Smyth first linked the hypothetical pyramid inch
to the British metric system.
Smyth's theories were later expanded upon by early 20th century British Israelites such as Colonel Garnier (Great Pyramid: Its Builder & Its Prophecy, 1905) who began to theorise that chambers within the Great Pyramid contain prophetic dates which concern the future of the British, Celtic or Anglo-Saxon peoples. However this idea first originated with Robert Menzies, an earlier correspondant of Smyth's. David Davidson
with Dr. H. Aldersmith wrote The Great Pyramid, Its Divine Message (1924) and further introduced the idea that Britain's chronology (including future events) may be unlocked from inside the Great Pyramid. This theme is also found in Basil Stewart's trilogy on the same subject: Witness of the Great Pyramid (1927), The Great Pyramid, Its Construction, Symbolism and Chronology (1931) and History and Significance of the Great Pyramid... (1935). More recently a 4 volume set entitled Pyramidology was published by British Israelite Adam Rutherford (released between 1957–1972). British Israelite author E. Raymond Capt also wrote Great Pyramid Decoded in 1971 followed by Study in Pyramidology in 1986.
was a Lutheran minister who was a proponent of pyramidology. He wrote A Miracle in Stone: or, The Great Pyramid of Egypt in 1877. His work was popular with contemporary evangelical Christians.
, founder of the Bible Student movement
. Russell however denounced the British-Israelite variant of pyramidology in an article called The Anglo-Israelitish Question . Adopting Joseph Seiss
's designation that the Great Pyramid of Giza was "the Bible in stone" Russell taught that it played a special part in God's plan during the "last days" basing his interpretation on Isaiah 19:19-20 which says - "In that day shall there be an altar (pile of stones) to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar (Hebrew "matstebah" or monument) at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign, and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt." Two brothers, archaeologists John and Morton Edgar, as personal associates and supporters of Russell, wrote extensive treatises on the history, nature, and prophetic symbolism of the Great Pyramid in relation to the then known archaeological history, along with their interpretations of prophetic and Biblical chronology. They are best known for their two-volume work Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, published in 1910 and 1913.
Within two decades of Russell's 1916 death, most Bible Students had abandoned pyramidology.
Pyramid energy was popularized in the early 1970's, particularly by New Age
authors such as Patrick Flanagan
(Pyramid Power: The Millennium Science, 1973), Max Toth and Greg Nielsen (Pyramid Power, 1974) and Warren Smith (Secret Forces of the Pyramids, 1975). These works focused on the alleged energies of pyramids in general not solely the egyptian pyramids, Toth and Nielson for example reported experiments where "seeds stored in pyramid replicas germinated sooner and grew higher".
in his An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920) summed up on the earliest of pseudoarcheological claims on the ancient egyptian pyramids as follows:
"...in the 1880s, Ignatius Donnelly had suggested that the Great Pyramid had been built by the descendants of the Atlanteans. That idea was picked up in the 1920s by Manly Palmer Hall who went on to suggest that they were the focus of the ancient Egyptian wisdom schools. Edgar Cayce built upon Hall’s speculations.
Ignatius Donnelly
and later proponents of the hyperdiffusionist
view of history claimed that all pyramid structures across the world had a common origin. Donelly claimed this common origin was in Atlantis
. While Grafton Elliot Smith
claimed Egypt, writing: "Small groups of people, moving mainly by sea, settled at certain places and there made rude imitations of the Egyptian monuments of the Pyramid Age."
, Robert Charroux
, W. Raymond Drake
and Zecharia Sitchin
. According to Eric Von Daniken, the Great Pyramid has advanced numerological properties which could not have been known to the ancient egyptians and so must have been passed down by extraterrestrials: "...the height of the pyramid of Cheops, multiplied by a thousand million — 98000000 miles — corresponds approximately to the distance between the Earth and the sun".
Robert Bauval
and Graham Hancock
(1996) have both suggested that the ‘ground plan’ of the three main egyptian pyramids was physically established in c. 10,500 BC, but that the pyramids were built around 2,500 BC. This theory was based on their
initial claims regarding the alignment of the Giza pyramids with Orion ("…the three pyramids were an terrestrial map of the three stars of Orion's belt"— Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods
, 1995, p. 375) are later joined with speculation about the age of the Great Sphinx
(Hancock and Bauval, Keeper of Genesis, published 1996, and in 1997 in the U.S. as The Message of the Sphinx).
Linked to the pseudoarchaeological ancient astronaut theory and Orion Correlation Theory
are related claims that the Great Pyramid was constructed by the use of an advanced lost technology. Proponents of this theory often link this hypothetical advanced technology to extraterrestrials but also Atlanteans
, Lemurians
or a legendary lost race. Notable proponents include: Christopher Dunn
and David Hatcher Childress
. Graham Hancock also in his Fingerprints of the Gods
assigned the ‘ground plan’ of the three main egyptian pyramids in his theory to an advanced progenitor civilization which possessed advanced technology.
has published distinct pyramidology theories. Unlike other alternative pyramid theorists, Alford interprets the entire Great Pyramid in the context of ancient Egyptian religion. Alford takes as his starting point the golden rule that the pharaoh
had to be buried in the earth, i.e. at ground level or below, and this leads him to conclude that Khufu
was interred in an ingeniously concealed cave whose entrance is today sealed up in the so-called Well Shaft adjacent to a known cave called the Grotto. He has lobbied the Egyptian authorities to explore this area of the pyramid with ground penetrating radar, and although nothing has happened yet it is quite possible that one day this theory will be put to the test.
The cult of creation theory also provides the basis for Alford’s next big idea: that the sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber - commonly supposed to be Khufu’s final resting place - actually enshrined iron meteorite
s. He maintains, by reference to the Pyramid Texts
, that this iron was blasted into the sky at the time of creation, according to the Egyptians’ geocentric
way of thinking. The King’s Chamber, with its upward inclined dual ‘airshafts’, was built to capture the magic of this mythical moment.
Alford’s most speculative idea is that the King’s Chamber generated low frequency sound via its ‘airshafts’, the purpose being to re-enact the sound of the earth splitting open at the time of creation.
and Charles Piazzi Smyth
. Flinders therefore claimed that the hypothetical pyramid inch
of the pyramidologists had no basis in truth and published his results in "The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" (1883), writing: "there is no authentic example, that will bear examination, of the use or existence of any such measure as a ‘Pyramid inch,’ or of a cubit of 25.025 British inches." Proponents of the pyramid inch, especially British Israelites responded to Petrie's discoveries and claimed to have found flaws in them. Petrie refused to respond to these criticisms, claiming he had disproved the pyramid inch and compared continuing proponents to "flat earth
believers":
The term pyramidiot is said to have been coined by Leonard Cottrell, whose 1956 book The Mountains of Pharaoh included a chapter entitled "The Great Pyramidiot" about Piazzi Smyth's theories.
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
speculations regarding pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
s, most often the Giza Necropolis and the Great Pyramid of Giza
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Some "pyramidologists" also concern themselves with the monumental structures of pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
America (such as Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan – also written Teotihuacán, with a Spanish orthographic accent on the last syllable – is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, just 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas...
, the Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n Maya civilization
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
, and the Inca of the South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
), and the temples of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
.
Pyramidology is regarded as pseudoscience by scientists today, who regard such hypotheses as sensationalist, inaccurate and/or wholly deficient in empirical
Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...
analysis and application of the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
.
Some pyramidologists claim that the Great Pyramid of Giza
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact...
has encoded within it predictions for the exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
from Egypt, the crucifixion of Jesus, the start of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the founding of modern-day Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1948, and future events including the beginning of Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
; discovered by using what they call "pyramid inch
Pyramid inch
The pyramid inch is a unit of measure claimed by pyramidologists to have been used in ancient times. Supposedly it was one twenty-fifth of a "sacred cubit", 1.00106 imperial inches, or 2.5426924 centimetres.-History:...
es" to calculate the passage of time (one British inch = one solar year).
The study of Pyramidology reached its peak by the early 1980s. Interest was rekindled when in 1992 and 1993 Rudolf Gantenbrink sent a miniature remote controlled robot rover, known as upuaut
The Upuaut Project
The Upuaut Project was a scientific exploration of the so-called "air shafts" of the Great Pyramid of Cheops and was managed by Rudolf Gantenbrink during three campaigns...
, up one of the air shafts in the Queen's Chamber. He discovered the shaft closed off by a stone block with decaying copper hooks attached to the outside. In 1994 Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.-Early life:...
published the book The Orion Mystery attempting to prove that the Pyramids on the Giza plateau were built to mimic the stars in the belt of the constellation Orion
Orion (constellation)
Orion, often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous, and most recognizable constellations in the night sky...
, a claim that came to be known as the Orion Correlation Theory
Orion Correlation Theory
The Orion Correlation Theory is a hypothesis in pyramidology. Its central claim is that there is a correlation between the location of the 3 largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex and the three middle stars of the constellation Orion, and that this correlation was intended as such by the...
. Both Gantenbrink and Bauval have spurred on greater interest in pyramidology.
Types of pyramidology
The main types of pyramidological accounts involve one or more aspects which include:- MetrologicalMetrologyMetrology is the science of measurement. Metrology includes all theoretical and practical aspects of measurement. The word comes from Greek μέτρον , "measure" + "λόγος" , amongst others meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, study, calculation, reason"...
: Theories regarding the construction of the Great Pyramid of GizaGreat Pyramid of GizaThe Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact...
by hypothetical geometric measurements. - NumerologicalNumerologyNumerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...
: Theories that the measurements of the Great Pyramid and its passages are esotericallyEsotericismEsotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
significant, and their geometricGeometryGeometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
measurements contain some encoded message. This form of pyramidology is popular within Christian Pyramidology (e.g. British IsraelismBritish IsraelismBritish Israelism is the belief that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The concept often includes the belief that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David...
and Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
). - "Pyramid powerPyramid powerPyramid power refers to alleged supernatural or paranormal properties of the ancient Egyptian pyramids and objects of similar shape. With this power, model pyramids are said to preserve foods, sharpen or maintain the sharpneses of razor blades, improve health , function "as a...
": Claims originating in the late 1960s that pyramids as geometrical shapes possess supernaturalSupernaturalThe supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
powers. - PseudoarchaeologicalPseudoarchaeologyPseudoarchaeology — also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, or cult archaeology — refers to interpretations of the past from outside of the academic archaeological community, which typically also reject the accepted scientific and analytical methods of the...
: varying theories that deny the pyramids were built to serve exclusively as tombs for the Pharaohs; alternative explanations regarding the construction of the pyramids (for example the use of long-lost knowledge; anti-gravityAnti-gravityAnti-gravity is the idea of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism or aerodynamic lift...
technology, etc...); and hypotheses that they were built by someone other than the historical Ancient EgyptAncient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
ians (e.g. early HebrewsHebrewsHebrews is an ethnonym used in the Hebrew Bible...
, AtlanteansAtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
, or even extra-terrestrialExtraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
s).
Metrological
Metrological Pyramidology is tracable to the 17th century. John GreavesJohn Greaves
John Greaves was an English mathematician, astronomer and antiquary.-Life:He was born in Colemore, near Alresford, Hampshire. He was the eldest son of John Greaves, rector of Colemore, and Sarah Greaves...
professor of Astronomy, at Oxford, in his Pyramidographia (1646) first theorised that the Great Pyramid at Giza was constructed by a geometric cubit which he called the "Memphis cubit". Further research papers on Greaves' hypothetical cubit were published by the antiquarian Thomas Birch
Thomas Birch
Thomas Birch was an English historian.-Life:He was the son of Joseph Birch, a coffee-mill maker, and was born at Clerkenwell....
in 1737. Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
used Greaves' measurements of the Great Pyramid and published them in a paper entitled “A Dissertation upon the Sacred Cubit” from which he linked the "Memphis cubit" to the hypothetical sacred cubit of the Hebrews.
John Taylor
John TaylorJohn Taylor (1781-1864)
John Taylor was a publisher, essayist, and writer born in East Retford, Nottinghamshire, the son of James Taylor and Sarah Drury. Although in pyramidical circles, he may be remembered for his contributions to Pyramidology and his use of that subject in the fight against adopting the metric system...
in his work The great pyramid; why was it built: & who built it? (1859) regarded the
inch used to build the Great Pyramid (see pyramid inch
Pyramid inch
The pyramid inch is a unit of measure claimed by pyramidologists to have been used in ancient times. Supposedly it was one twenty-fifth of a "sacred cubit", 1.00106 imperial inches, or 2.5426924 centimetres.-History:...
) to be 1/25 of the "sacred cubit" whose existence had earlier been postulated by Isaac Newton. Taylor was also the first to claim the pyramid was divinely inspired, contained a revelation and was built not by the Egyptians, but instead the Hebrews pointing to Biblical passages (Is. 19: 19-20; Job 38: 5-7) to support his theories. For this reason Taylor is often credited as being the "founder of pyramidology". Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
noted:
British Israelism
Taylor in turn influenced the Astronomer Royal of Scotland Charles Piazzi SmythCharles Piazzi Smyth
Charles Piazzi Smyth , was Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846 to 1888, well-known for many innovations in astronomy and his pyramidological and metrological studies of the Great Pyramid of Giza....
, F.R.S.E., F.R.A.S. who made numerous numerological calculations on the pyramid from 1864 and published them in a 664 page book Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid followed by Life, and Work in the Great Pyramid (1867). These two works fused pyramidology with British Israelism
British Israelism
British Israelism is the belief that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The concept often includes the belief that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David...
and Smyth first linked the hypothetical pyramid inch
Pyramid inch
The pyramid inch is a unit of measure claimed by pyramidologists to have been used in ancient times. Supposedly it was one twenty-fifth of a "sacred cubit", 1.00106 imperial inches, or 2.5426924 centimetres.-History:...
to the British metric system.
David Davidson
David Davidson may refer to:*David Davidson , Swedish economist*David Davidson , Scottish pyramidologist*David Davidson , Scottish politician...
with Dr. H. Aldersmith wrote The Great Pyramid, Its Divine Message (1924) and further introduced the idea that Britain's chronology (including future events) may be unlocked from inside the Great Pyramid. This theme is also found in Basil Stewart's trilogy on the same subject: Witness of the Great Pyramid (1927), The Great Pyramid, Its Construction, Symbolism and Chronology (1931) and History and Significance of the Great Pyramid... (1935). More recently a 4 volume set entitled Pyramidology was published by British Israelite Adam Rutherford (released between 1957–1972). British Israelite author E. Raymond Capt also wrote Great Pyramid Decoded in 1971 followed by Study in Pyramidology in 1986.
Joseph A. Seiss
Joseph SeissJoseph Seiss
Joseph Augustus Seiss was an American theologian and Lutheran minister known for his religion writings on pyramidology and dispensationalism.-Life:...
was a Lutheran minister who was a proponent of pyramidology. He wrote A Miracle in Stone: or, The Great Pyramid of Egypt in 1877. His work was popular with contemporary evangelical Christians.
Charles Taze Russell
In 1891 pyramidology reached a global audience when it was integrated into the works of Charles Taze RussellCharles Taze Russell
Charles Taze Russell , or Pastor Russell, was a prominent early 20th century Christian restorationist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and founder of what is now known as the Bible Student movement, from which Jehovah's Witnesses and numerous independent Bible Student groups emerged...
, founder of the Bible Student movement
Bible Student movement
The Bible Student movement is the name adopted by a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement that emerged from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell, also known as Pastor Russell...
. Russell however denounced the British-Israelite variant of pyramidology in an article called The Anglo-Israelitish Question . Adopting Joseph Seiss
Joseph Seiss
Joseph Augustus Seiss was an American theologian and Lutheran minister known for his religion writings on pyramidology and dispensationalism.-Life:...
's designation that the Great Pyramid of Giza was "the Bible in stone" Russell taught that it played a special part in God's plan during the "last days" basing his interpretation on Isaiah 19:19-20 which says - "In that day shall there be an altar (pile of stones) to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar (Hebrew "matstebah" or monument) at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign, and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt." Two brothers, archaeologists John and Morton Edgar, as personal associates and supporters of Russell, wrote extensive treatises on the history, nature, and prophetic symbolism of the Great Pyramid in relation to the then known archaeological history, along with their interpretations of prophetic and Biblical chronology. They are best known for their two-volume work Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, published in 1910 and 1913.
Within two decades of Russell's 1916 death, most Bible Students had abandoned pyramidology.
Pyramid Power
Another set of speculations concerning pyramids have centered upon the possible existence of an unknown energy concentrated in pyramidical structures.Pyramid energy was popularized in the early 1970's, particularly by New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
authors such as Patrick Flanagan
Patrick Flanagan
Gillis Patrick Flanagan is an American inventor.-Childhood:As a teenager Flanagan invented a device he called a Neurophone which he claimed transmitted sound via the nervous system to the brain. This earned him a profile in Life magazine, which called him a "unique, mature and inquisitive scientist"...
(Pyramid Power: The Millennium Science, 1973), Max Toth and Greg Nielsen (Pyramid Power, 1974) and Warren Smith (Secret Forces of the Pyramids, 1975). These works focused on the alleged energies of pyramids in general not solely the egyptian pyramids, Toth and Nielson for example reported experiments where "seeds stored in pyramid replicas germinated sooner and grew higher".
Pseudoarchaeology
Lewis SpenceLewis Spence
James Lewis Thomas Chalmbers Spence was a Scottish journalist, whose efforts as a compiler of Scottish folklore have proved more durable than his efforts as a poet and occult scholar....
in his An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920) summed up on the earliest of pseudoarcheological claims on the ancient egyptian pyramids as follows:
"...in the 1880s, Ignatius Donnelly had suggested that the Great Pyramid had been built by the descendants of the Atlanteans. That idea was picked up in the 1920s by Manly Palmer Hall who went on to suggest that they were the focus of the ancient Egyptian wisdom schools. Edgar Cayce built upon Hall’s speculations.
Ignatius Donnelly
Ignatius Donnelly
Ignatius Loyola Donnelly was a U.S. Congressman, populist writer and amateur scientist, known primarily now for his theories concerning Atlantis, Catastrophism , and Shakespearean authorship, all of which modern historians consider to be pseudoscience and pseudohistory...
and later proponents of the hyperdiffusionist
Grafton Elliot Smith
Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, FRS FRCP was an Australian anatomist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory.-Professional career:Smith was born in Grafton, New South Wales...
view of history claimed that all pyramid structures across the world had a common origin. Donelly claimed this common origin was in Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
. While Grafton Elliot Smith
Grafton Elliot Smith
Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, FRS FRCP was an Australian anatomist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory.-Professional career:Smith was born in Grafton, New South Wales...
claimed Egypt, writing: "Small groups of people, moving mainly by sea, settled at certain places and there made rude imitations of the Egyptian monuments of the Pyramid Age."
Ancient Astronauts
Several proponents of ancient astronauts claim that the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed by extraterrestrial beings, or influenced by them (e.g. through their advanced technology). Proponents include: Erich von DänikenErich von Däniken
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...
, Robert Charroux
Robert Charroux
Robert Charroux was the best-known pen-name of Robert Grugeau .-Early career:Robert Charroux worked for the French post office until becoming a full-time writer of fiction in the early 1940s...
, W. Raymond Drake
W. Raymond Drake
W. Raymond Drake , a British disciple of Charles Fort, published nine books on the ancient astronaut theme, the first four years earlier than Erich Von Däniken's bestseller Chariots of the Gods. Many writers on flying saucers in the mid-1950s, such as Desmond Leslie, George Hunt Williamson, Daniel...
and Zecharia Sitchin
Zecharia Sitchin
Zecharia Sitchin was an Azerbaijani-born American author of books promoting an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts. Sitchin attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Anunnaki, which he states was a race of extra-terrestrials from a planet beyond Neptune...
. According to Eric Von Daniken, the Great Pyramid has advanced numerological properties which could not have been known to the ancient egyptians and so must have been passed down by extraterrestrials: "...the height of the pyramid of Cheops, multiplied by a thousand million — 98000000 miles — corresponds approximately to the distance between the Earth and the sun".
Orion Correlation Theory
Robert Bauval
Robert Bauval is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.-Early life:...
and Graham Hancock
Graham Hancock
Graham Hancock is a British writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past...
(1996) have both suggested that the ‘ground plan’ of the three main egyptian pyramids was physically established in c. 10,500 BC, but that the pyramids were built around 2,500 BC. This theory was based on their
initial claims regarding the alignment of the Giza pyramids with Orion ("…the three pyramids were an terrestrial map of the three stars of Orion's belt"— Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization is a book first published in 1995 by Graham Hancock, in which he echoes nineteenth century writer Ignatius Donnelly, author of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World , in contending that some previously enigmatic ancient but...
, 1995, p. 375) are later joined with speculation about the age of the Great Sphinx
Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza , commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt....
(Hancock and Bauval, Keeper of Genesis, published 1996, and in 1997 in the U.S. as The Message of the Sphinx).
Advanced Technology
Linked to the pseudoarchaeological ancient astronaut theory and Orion Correlation Theory
Orion Correlation Theory
The Orion Correlation Theory is a hypothesis in pyramidology. Its central claim is that there is a correlation between the location of the 3 largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex and the three middle stars of the constellation Orion, and that this correlation was intended as such by the...
are related claims that the Great Pyramid was constructed by the use of an advanced lost technology. Proponents of this theory often link this hypothetical advanced technology to extraterrestrials but also Atlanteans
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
, Lemurians
Lemuria
Lemuria may refer to:*Lemuria , in Roman religion, a feast during which the unwholesome and malevolent spectres of the restless dead were propitiated...
or a legendary lost race. Notable proponents include: Christopher Dunn
Christopher Dunn (author)
Christopher P. Dunn, born 1946 in Manchester, England, is an English revisionist history author known for the book The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt, which claims that precision machining is evident in ancient Egyptian structures, particularly in the Giza pyramid...
and David Hatcher Childress
David Hatcher Childress
David Hatcher Childress is an American author and publisher of books on topics on alternative history and historical revisionism. His works cover such subjects as pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, Atlantis, Lemuria, Ancient Astronauts, UFOs, Nikola Tesla, the Knights Templar, lost cities and...
. Graham Hancock also in his Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization is a book first published in 1995 by Graham Hancock, in which he echoes nineteenth century writer Ignatius Donnelly, author of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World , in contending that some previously enigmatic ancient but...
assigned the ‘ground plan’ of the three main egyptian pyramids in his theory to an advanced progenitor civilization which possessed advanced technology.
Alan F. Alford
Author Alan F. AlfordAlan F. Alford
Alan F. Alford, B. Com, FCA, MBA is a British writer and speaker on the subjects of ancient religion, mythology, and Egyptology.His first book Gods of the New Millennium drew on the ancient astronaut theory of Zecharia Sitchin and became a number 11 non-fiction bestseller in the UK...
has published distinct pyramidology theories. Unlike other alternative pyramid theorists, Alford interprets the entire Great Pyramid in the context of ancient Egyptian religion. Alford takes as his starting point the golden rule that the pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
had to be buried in the earth, i.e. at ground level or below, and this leads him to conclude that Khufu
Khufu
Khufu , also known as Cheops or, in Manetho, Suphis , was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 BC. Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of...
was interred in an ingeniously concealed cave whose entrance is today sealed up in the so-called Well Shaft adjacent to a known cave called the Grotto. He has lobbied the Egyptian authorities to explore this area of the pyramid with ground penetrating radar, and although nothing has happened yet it is quite possible that one day this theory will be put to the test.
The cult of creation theory also provides the basis for Alford’s next big idea: that the sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber - commonly supposed to be Khufu’s final resting place - actually enshrined iron meteorite
Iron meteorite
Iron meteorites are meteorites that consist overwhelmingly of nickel-iron alloys. The metal taken from these meteorites is known as meteoric iron and was one of the earliest sources of usable iron available to humans.-Occurrence:...
s. He maintains, by reference to the Pyramid Texts
Pyramid Texts
The Pyramid Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts from the time of the Old Kingdom. The pyramid texts are possibly the oldest known religious texts in the world. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved on the walls and sarcophagi of the pyramids at Saqqara during...
, that this iron was blasted into the sky at the time of creation, according to the Egyptians’ geocentric
Geocentric model
In astronomy, the geocentric model , is the superseded theory that the Earth is the center of the universe, and that all other objects orbit around it. This geocentric model served as the predominant cosmological system in many ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece...
way of thinking. The King’s Chamber, with its upward inclined dual ‘airshafts’, was built to capture the magic of this mythical moment.
Alford’s most speculative idea is that the King’s Chamber generated low frequency sound via its ‘airshafts’, the purpose being to re-enact the sound of the earth splitting open at the time of creation.
Flinders Petrie
The renowned Egyptologist Flinders Petrie in 1880 went to Egypt to perform new measurements of the Great Pyramid and wrote that he found that the pyramid was several feet smaller than previously believed by John TaylorJohn Taylor (1781-1864)
John Taylor was a publisher, essayist, and writer born in East Retford, Nottinghamshire, the son of James Taylor and Sarah Drury. Although in pyramidical circles, he may be remembered for his contributions to Pyramidology and his use of that subject in the fight against adopting the metric system...
and Charles Piazzi Smyth
Charles Piazzi Smyth
Charles Piazzi Smyth , was Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846 to 1888, well-known for many innovations in astronomy and his pyramidological and metrological studies of the Great Pyramid of Giza....
. Flinders therefore claimed that the hypothetical pyramid inch
Pyramid inch
The pyramid inch is a unit of measure claimed by pyramidologists to have been used in ancient times. Supposedly it was one twenty-fifth of a "sacred cubit", 1.00106 imperial inches, or 2.5426924 centimetres.-History:...
of the pyramidologists had no basis in truth and published his results in "The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" (1883), writing: "there is no authentic example, that will bear examination, of the use or existence of any such measure as a ‘Pyramid inch,’ or of a cubit of 25.025 British inches." Proponents of the pyramid inch, especially British Israelites responded to Petrie's discoveries and claimed to have found flaws in them. Petrie refused to respond to these criticisms, claiming he had disproved the pyramid inch and compared continuing proponents to "flat earth
Flat Earth
The Flat Earth model is a belief that the Earth's shape is a plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period ...
believers":
Allan Alter and Dale Simmons
The Toronto Society for Psychical Research organized a research team consisting of Allan Alter (B.Sc.Phm) and Dale Simmons (Dip. Engr. Tech) to explore claims made in Pyramid Power literature that pyramids could preserve better organic matter. Extensive tests showed that pyramid containers "are no more effective than those of other shapes in preserving and dehydrating organic material."Mainstream Egyptology
In 1964 Barbara Mertz, reflecting the views of the scientific establishment, reported another term for pyramidologists:The term pyramidiot is said to have been coined by Leonard Cottrell, whose 1956 book The Mountains of Pharaoh included a chapter entitled "The Great Pyramidiot" about Piazzi Smyth's theories.
See also
- Graham HancockGraham HancockGraham Hancock is a British writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past...
- Jiten Bhatt
- Robert BauvalRobert BauvalRobert Bauval is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.-Early life:...
- Pyramid inchPyramid inchThe pyramid inch is a unit of measure claimed by pyramidologists to have been used in ancient times. Supposedly it was one twenty-fifth of a "sacred cubit", 1.00106 imperial inches, or 2.5426924 centimetres.-History:...
- SummumSummumSummum is a religion and philosophy that began in 1975 as a result of Claude "Corky" Nowell's claimed encounter with beings he described as "Summa Individuals"...
- PseudoarchaeologyPseudoarchaeologyPseudoarchaeology — also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, or cult archaeology — refers to interpretations of the past from outside of the academic archaeological community, which typically also reject the accepted scientific and analytical methods of the...